ENCORE! CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF THE MUSIC CENTER : YESTERDAY : THE EVOLVING YEARS : A Music Center chronology: from the travails of early aspirations to the triumph of tenacity. How Los Angeles built a cultural showplace

The story of the Music Center began long before its dedication on Dec. 6, 1964. By 1945, arts-conscious Los Angelenos decided that the time was ripe to build a sports arena convention hall and a smaller pair of auditoriums for musical performances. An organization called Greater Los Angeles Plans Inc. raised money to buy two parcels of land for the halls, one at the hub of the Santa Monica and Harbor freeways and the other on 6th Street bordering Lafayette Park. Construction funding would come through a bond issue to be voted on by the public in April, 1951.

GLAPI argued passionately about the need for a new music hall, since the existing 1,800-seat Embassy Auditorium was deemed unsuitable for music, and the Greek Theatre and Hollywood Bowl could only accommodate concerts in the summer. As the election approached, big-name endorsements poured in, ranging from hotel tycoon Hernando Court-wright and Father Charles Casassa, president of Loyola University, to Dinah Shore, Roy Rogers and Bob Hope. But Propositions A and B failed to receive the required votes to approve the halls. GLAPI pressed on, next envisioning an opera house, an auditorium and a sports arena together in a single giant edifice. Again, a bond issue proposing funding failed to win public support. In 1954, a group called Forward Los Angeles came up with another auditorium and exhibition hall plan. It, too, failed to win public approval.

Enter Dorothy Buffum Chandler. The wife of Norman Chandler, then-publisher of the Los Angeles Times, she had won her stripes as a fund-raiser in 1951 by helping to save the bankrupt Hollywood Bowl. Now Mrs. Chandler and her friends turned themselves toward a new challenge: financing a hall for the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Their first fund-raising event in 1955 was the “Eldorado Party,” named for the Cadillac raffled off. Composer John Green (“Body and Soul”), Jack Benny, Danny Kaye and Dinah Shore contributed their talents at the Ambassador Hotel soiree, and Christian Dior put on a fashion show. The $400,000 take was seed money for the $20 million in private financing eventually raised for the Music Center.

On June 19, 1956, the future of a music center in Los Angeles was assured when the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a $50 million civic auditorium and music hall complex. The proposed site was bounded by Olympic Boulevard, Flower, 8th and Hill streets.

J uly 27

The project is temporarily shelved because of a recession and rising interest rates.

1958

Dorothy Chandler is named president of the Southern California Symphony and Hollywood Bowl Assn. She promises the members that she will campaign for two things: a permanent musical director and a permanent home for the orchestra. By the end of the year, she has $600,000 in donations in the Music Center fund.

1959

March 19

In a meeting with the county supervisors, Mrs. Chandler pledges that the Civic Auditorium and Music Center Assn. will raise $4 million by private subscription to build a new home for the Philharmonic, toward a total cost then estimated at $10 million. She also proposes a new site for the concert hall: a parcel of land bounded by Grand Avenue, Hope, 1st and Temple streets.

July

A 70-member Music Center Building Fund Committee is formed, with Mrs. Chandler as chairwoman. She sets up fund-raising headquarters at The Pub, a former pool house behind the Chandler mansion.

S eptember 4

A crowd of 20,000 packs the Hollywood Bowl for a fund-raising “Cornerstone Concert” featuring pianist Van Cliburn and the L. A. Philharmonic, conducted by Edouard Van Remoortel. “Each of us who is interested in Los Angeles, in California, in the United States, wishes to contribute (to the Music Center)” Cliburn says to the audience, then plays Schumann’s “Dedication” to drive the point home.

1960

January

After two performances of Handel’s “Messiah,” the Mormon Choir of Southern California donates a check for $25,000 to the Music Center Building Fund Committee.

July

Plans for the Music Center are presented to the Board of Supervisors by L.A. architect Welton Becket, already well-known for design of the Pan Pacific Auditorium. Sketches for his new project depict a single stately pavilion surrounded by fluted white columns. Mrs. Chandler has a bigger vision--to develop the top of Bunker Hill into a center for the performing arts with separate halls. Becket complies with additional renderings of a small 750-seat theater and another with a 2,100-seat capacity.

November

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approves financing plans to build the $15 million Music Center. The county will provide $9 million, with the remaining $6 million to be raised from private funds. Alluding to San Francisco’s War Memorial Auditorium, Mrs. Chandler suggests that Southern California’s new cultural center be known as “A Living Memorial to Peace.”

1961

Mrs. Chandler’s Building Fund Committee extends its pledged goal to $11 million of a then-estimated $25 million total.

Bombay-born Zubin Mehta, 26, replaces Georg Solti as the L.A. Philharmonic’s conductor and musical director.

1962

March 13

Excavation begins at the Music Center site. The Pavilion is first on the construction schedule, followed by the Forum and the Center Theatre.

May

By steadily pressing wealthy Californians to support the Music Center, Mrs. Chandler and her committee raise $9 million, $7.5 million of that from pledges of $25,000 or more.

Less-moneyed folks, too, are encouraged to donate by responding to tear-out coupon pleas for contributions printed in The Times.

October 27

Dedication of the construction site, with President John F. Kennedy as key speaker, is canceled because of the Cuban missile crisis. Kennedy sends his regrets: “I would like to say that even in difficult times it is important that Americans continue to pay attention to all facets of our national life. You and those who are working with you have performed a notable service to the people of South- ern California in launching this great cultural project.”

November 11

Mrs. Chandler announces a gift of $1 million for the Forum Theater from financier S. Mark Taper.

1963

January 14

A trio of nuns from Immaculate Heart College presents a fund-raising concert for the Music Center.

Hollywood glitterati pay $250 a ticket and contribute donations during intermission at a benefit premiere of the film “Cleopatra” at the Hollywood Pantages. By the end of the evening, more than $1 million is raised.

August 18

A press release from Welton Becket & Associates estimates the Music Center cost at approximately $23 million. The Memorial Pavilion has a planned seating capacity of 3,200, the Forum will seat 650 and the Center Theatre, 1,700. By December, 1964, the estimated cost is $32.5 million, and seating capacity is expanded to 3,250, 750 and 2,100 respectively.

1964

September 27

The San Fernando Valley Youth Band and Santa Monica High School Viking Band play the “Star-Spangled Banner” as 3,500 people look on from the Music Center Plaza Mall for the dedication of the Pavilion. County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn says: “We rejoice today because of Mrs. Chandler’s vision. . . . We dedicate this as a Living Memorial to Peace and that everyone may have a happy, abundant and useful life.” Bob Hope quips: “This is an ideal location--you can have fine music, eat egg foo yung and catch fly balls from Dodger Stadium all at the same time.”

Mrs. Chandler can’t resist one last pitch for funds and suggests that if each Southern Californian contributes just a dollar, the Music Center’s debt will soon be erased ($16.5 million of the targeted $18 million had been raised by that point). Hundreds of spectators come forward to press dollars into her hands. That leads to the “Buck Bag” drive. Walt Disney designs and manufactures special shopping bags that thousands of volunteers tote to collect more than $2.2 million in donations. By December, $18.7 million in private funds had been raised for a total administrative cost of only $152,000. Eventually, almost $20 million is raised in private donations. The $14.5 million balance of the Music Center’s cost is covered by a lease agreement with the County of Los Angeles.

November 23

The Music Center box office sells its first tickets.

December 6

At last, the granite and glass Pavilion opens to the public for its inaugural concert. Audience members admire walls of honey-toned onyx from Mexico and Italian Byzantine tiles as they stroll through the foyer. In the auditorium, the 3,197 seats are a coral shade, and the walls are covered by butternut wood paneling. Parking is made simple with a garage that accommodates 2,000 cars. The Pavilion and Curtain Call restaurants are ready to handle hungry theatergoers.

Numerous celebrities are on hand. Mrs. Chandler wears a shimmering floor-length Yves St. Laurent gown, and her husband is decked out in white tie and tails for the resplendent occasion. Tickets for this premiere are priced from $5 to $50.

Zubin Mehta conducts the Philharmonic. The program includes violinist Jascha Heifetz and performances of Richard Strauss’ “Fanfare” and Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D Major.

Times arts critic Cecil Smith writes: “There have been at least a million words written on The Pavilion of the Music Center, but they seem somehow inadequate when one actually experiences the emotional impact of the vast new auditorium--it is beyond words . . . to one who loves this city and its burgeoning culture, there is such an eruption of pride within the breast, button-bursting pride.”

December 10

Frank Sinatra fills in for an ailing Nat (King) Cole in the Music Center’s first popular music and jazz concert.

1965

January 29

The Los Angeles Master Chorale makes its debut. Roger Wagner conducts some 80 voices in Bach’s Mass in B Minor.

May 19

Construction begins on the two remaining halls of the complex.

July

Tour guides, called Symphonians, begin their tour of duty. Attired in Nehru-like uniforms designed to pay tribute to Mehta’s native India, the guides can reel off facts such as “There are 78 magnificent crystal light fixtures in the Pavilion, 22 chandeliers and 56 wall sconces” and that Philharmonic youth concert tickets cost 25 to 50 cents a seat.

August

A symphonic carillon, featuring a complete range of electronic bells, vibrachord, harp and cast bronze bells providing 425 different tones is presented to the Music Center by Mr. and Mrs. Ross Cortese.

More than 7,000 people jam Music Center Plaza to buy tickets for the musical “Hello, Dolly!”

December 29

The Ahmanson Foundation gifts the Music Center Performing Arts Council with $1 million.

The Board of Supervisors votes to officially name the three Music Center buildings the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Mark Taper Forum.

1966

March 19

Gordon Davidson is named artistic director of the Mark Taper Forum.

1967

January 25

Music Center’s box office experiences its first robbery; the tall thief in a “black leather car coat” makes off with $970 in cash and checks.

April 9

The round, 737-seat Mark Taper Forum, crowned by a 378-foot precast concrete mural on its exterior, is dedicated. The cast of the night’s West Coast premier of John Whiting’s “The Devils” includes Frank Langella and Anthony Zerbe. Former actor and California Gov. Ronald Reagan gives a speech hailing the hall as “this beautiful temple of our profession and our art.” But he walks out in a huff at the intermission, apparently offended by sex scenes and off-color language in the play about a libertine Catholic priest in the 17th Century.

April 12

Gregory Peck and Greer Garson are on hand to salute the 2,071-seat Ahmanson Theatre’s opening performance of “Man of La Mancha” by the Civic Light Opera.

September 12

Eugene O’Neill’s “More Stately Mansions” launches the Ahmanson’s first dramatic season. The American premiere engagement, starring Ingrid Bergman, Arthur Hill and Colleen Dewhurst, is directed by Jose Quintero.

“New Theater for Now: Mondays at the Forum” is instituted by Gordon Davidson, with director Edward Parone at the helm. The program, established with the aid of a Rockefeller Foundation grant, presents a series of new plays. Davidson calls it “a laboratory through which new material, new forms and new concepts can be developed.”

1968

Mrs. Chandler activates the Amazing Blue Ribbon 400 group to continue fund raising for the Music Center where the earlier Blue Ribbon organization left off. She challenges the women each to either “give or get” $1,000 annually.

April 23

The Washington National Symphony presents the Ahmanson’s first concert. Times music critic Martin Bernheimer is not impressed with the hall’s acoustics. He deems the sound “weak in the bass, tinny in the treble, and live. Very live.”

May 5

The Center Theatre Group’s opening season in the Ahmanson is declared the most successful inaugural season any civic theater has had, with a six-month gross of $2,079,000.

April 14

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences moves to the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion for its 41st annual awards presentation.

1969

January 14

“Dr. Faustus” by the Royal Shakespeare Company opens at the Ahmanson. Times theater critic Dan Sullivan writes: “If ‘Rosemary’s Baby’ didn’t have you believing in the Devil, this ‘Faustus’ will.”

May 4

“Peace on Earth,” Jacques Lipchitz’s 30-foot, 10-ton bronze sculpture, is dedicated. “I like the idea of doing a major work for your great Music Center because it was conceived as a place where men reject the barbarity of the world, where they can speak of harmony, community and spirit,” the artist says.

June 1

Ernest Fleischmann is appointed executive director of the L.A. Philharmonic and artistic director of the Hollywood Bowl.

December

London’s D’Oyly Carte Opera Company presents a selection of Gilbert and Sullivan, including “Patience” and “Pirates of Penzance.”

1970

December 1

“Remote Asylum,” a new play by Mart Crowley, has its world premiere. The director is Edward Parone and the cast includes Anne Francis and William Shatner.

1971 - 1989

Major productions, major developments came rapidly during these years: Joffrey Ballet went bi-coastal in 1983, the Music Center Opera Company started in 1986, the gift of Disney Hall was announced in 1987.

“Zoot Suit,” “Nicholas Nickleby,” “West Side Waltz,” “Children of a Lesser God” were some of the many Music Center productions.

Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Andre Previn variously led the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

The plaza experienced change. The Robert Graham statue, “Dance Door,” was dedicated, and a fountain effect now encircles the Lipchitz sculpture.

Years of change, years of progress.