A Calla for Help: Sunrise Service Is Short on Lilies

For 68 years, the Easter Sunrise Service at the Hollywood Bowl has survived money problems, rainstorms and anti-war demonstrations, not to mention invasion fears at the outset of World War II.

Now it’s facing a lily shortfall.

“We’re appealing to the public for donations,” said producer Norma Foster. “We need at least 2,000 and we only have about 500.”

But no Easter lilies, thank you.

“A lot of people think the Easter lily is the Biblical lily, but the calla lily is the one mentioned in the Bible,” Foster said Friday. “Calla lilies look like trumpets. Easter lilies are the six-pointed ones.”

Why the shortage?

“I think it was because we had all this hot weather and they bloomed early and now they’re all burnt,” Foster said. “I know I had 14 in my own garden, and they’re all brown.”

“We used to get 10,000 calla lilies and more,” said Bill Lyons, president of the Sunrise Service’s nonprofit corporation. “But fewer people have gardens these days.”

A calla lily emergency also arose several years ago when the crop was wiped out by heavy rains. The flowers are crucial because they are woven into the two crosses that stand on the stage as well into the words, “He Is Risen.”

“Even a donation of one or two will be appreciated,” Foster said. “We don’t have enough money to buy from florists, and we’re running short on time.”

Admission and parking for the Easter service, which runs from 5:15 a.m. to 7 a.m., is free. Foster said anyone who contributes flowers will be given two reserved seats.

One other minor complication this year is the start of daylight-saving time (2 a.m. Easter morning).

“We just hope people remember to set their clocks forward an hour, so they won’t show up an hour late,” Lyons said.

Calla lilies may be in temporary short supply, but other contingencies have been dealt with.

A resident skunk, a threat even at an outdoor show, was captured recently.

And, this being Southern California, the Sunrise Service committee had no trouble finding palm fronds for stage decorations.

“The city gives us the fronds that they trim,” stage carpenter Bud Kyler said.

“Brought us about eight truckloads,” added electrician Bob Sockolich.

The fronds get the Hollywood touch: a bit of green retouching. “We spray them with a fireproofing chemical that has green coloring,” Kyler said.

The fronds were in place Friday morning as workers set an organ in place on the stage and tour groups snapped photos. Meanwhile, a street person up in the third section of the seats waved his arms as though conducting an orchestra.

“Happens to everyone who comes through here,” Kyler said. “They see the stage, and they get the urge to be a conductor.”

A man walked up with eight calla lilies in his arms.

“I heard about your problem,” said George Rutledge of Westchester, handing them to prop man Bill Wilson. “They’re the worst we’ve had in years, but I guess they’ll do.”

Rutledge was asked if he would attend the 5:15 a.m. service.

“No,” he laughed. “I’m a good neighbor, not a good Christian.”