Music Center: A Dream Come True Celebrated

On a balmy late-summer night, 25 years of Music Center history culminated with two hours of performances from its resident companies and the presentation of the first Dorothy B. Chandler Performing Arts Awards.

But for a moment on Sunday, the whole city felt like it had come to a stop--at least it did for some of the Music Center’s most loyal supporters, including dozens of its founders, from Kirk and Anne Douglas to Edward and Hannah Carter, Lew and Edie Wasserman to Earle and Marion Jorgensen.

Trekking along a red carpet stretching from the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion to a party at the Walt Disney Concert Hall site on First and Hope streets, the black-tie 25th anniversary crowd stopped in its tracks and stared silently into the sky as fireworks shot through the city’s imposing skyline.

“To see all these people, who have probably seen everything and been everywhere, absolutely transfixed, probably summed it up,” said Dodger announcer Vin Scully. “It’s a magnificent anniversary party.” Sunday’s event, more than a year in planning, was the highlight of a weekend of 25th anniversary celebrations.

Twenty-five years ago, of course, there was no Music Center. For that matter, there wasn’t even a skyline. “All you saw was a block of old houses boarded up waiting for the wrecker’s crane,” reminisced Bob Hope, who spoke at the Music Center’s site dedication Sept. 27, 1964 (“I opened the thing,” he said), and performed this time for a show that was taped for broadcast in January.

The program itself, featuring sequences from “Phantom of the Opera” (but without the Phantom, Michael Crawford, who was ill) and “Tosca,” was an exercise in progress. Music Center patrons aren’t exactly accustomed to taking in performances with TV cues to applaud like they really mean it or to excuse scenes out of sequence, being told the order will be corrected at a later date. But even that didn’t detract from the evening. “I thought it was so L.A.,” enthused Gerald Arpino, artistic director of the Joffrey Ballet LA/NY.

Zubin Mehta, former conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, drew a mass chuckle when, after a glitch, he informed the audience: “Ladies and gentlemen, you don’t want to hear a Bach cantata again. This is just a logistical mix-up.”

Dinner Patrons

Afterward, 1,000 patrons paying $1,000 apiece (do your own arithmetic) celebrated over dinner, underwritten by Wolfgang K. Flottl, on the Disney Hall site, today a tented parking lot; tomorrow, in the parlance of the evening, another cultural temple. “We’ll be sitting here five years from now watching God knows what,” predicted state Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp, there with his wife, Andrea.

“I keep wondering where they’ll have the 50th anniversary party,” mused Hannah Carter, “because this parking lot won’t be here.”

If there was a buzz in the air, it had to do with a sense of hometown pride. “This is a celebration of a city culturally maturing,” said Orion Pictures’ Mike Medavoy. “And it’s international in scope, not just national.”

“It just shows me that L.A. has reached the major leagues,” said Fred Nicholas, chairman of both the Museum of Contemporary Art and of Committee for the Disney Concert Hall, which he said will open three years from now. “L.A. will then be the No. 1 arts center of the world, I believe.”

“The fact is,” emphasized Van de Kamp, “L.A. is intent on becoming the cultural capital of the U.S.”

The Music Center’s 88-year-old founder, Dorothy Buffum Chandler, who was unable to attend the festivities, was represented by her daughter Camilla Frost and her husband, F. Daniel Frost. He served as co-chairman of the 25th anniversary committee along with Lodwrick M. Cook and Nancy Olson Livingston.

“We saw my mother yesterday to tell her everything that’s going on, and she thought it sounded very exciting,” related Camilla. “She was particularly excited Zubin made such an effort to be here tonight.” Her mother, she noted, was head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic when the maestro Mehta was appointed music director.

Said Music Center president Esther Wachtell: “They keep telling me in my press office I’m not supposed to say this, but tonight marks 25 years of celebrating that we made Buff’s dream come true. She said it was a lot of work--a lot of hard work--getting us here today,” added Wachtell, who talked with Mrs. Chandler earlier in the day. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?”

For many, the evening evoked memories of Mrs. Chandler’s dogged determination in raising the money to build the Music Center. “She was one of the most wonderful fund-raisers I’ve ever known, and the toughest,” recalled Prentis Cobb Hale, one of the founders. “I’m from San Francisco and San Francisco is imbued with music. I asked, why should I support the Music Center? But I did.”

Over at table No. 31, everyone raised glasses in a private toast. “My thoughts totally focus on Mrs. Chandler,” said Dodgers owner Peter O’Malley, whose table mates included sculptor Robert Graham, Gerald and Robin Parksy and Joan and John Hotchkis.

The swagged tent was appropriately theatrical, glowing with tiny lights, silver palm trees and masses of white orchids. “It’s a little on the glitz side, but it had to be for something like this,” allowed Terry Stanfill, who took charge of the decor. Dinner began with fettucine with Sevruga caviar, chicken breasts stuffed with veal and spinach, and peach ice cream with fresh peaches served with chocolate sauce.

Among those attending were Sen. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.), Mayor Tom Bradley, L.A. county supervisors Ed Edelman, Pete Schabarum and Mike Antonovich, Councilman Gilbert Lindsay, state assemblymen Mike Roos and Lucille Roybal-Allard, Music Center Board of Governors Chairman J.J. Pinola and his wife Dorie, David Murdock, Harriet and Armand Deutsch, Tom and Patti Skouros, Harold Prince, Keith and Bill Keischnick, Joanne and Roger Kozberg, Deborah and Tom Tellefsen, Marco and Joan Weiss, Wendy Goldberg, Marvin and Barbara Davis, Doug Cramer and Ames Cushing, Betsy Bloomingdale, Walter and Pat Mirisch, Wallis Annenberg, Leonore and Bernard Greenberg and Sheldon and Sandra Ausman.

As the evening drew to an end, founder John Hotchkis glanced around the tent and proclaimed, “They used to think of L.A. as a cultural desert, but not any more. Thanks to good old Buff.”

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