COUNTERPUNCH LETTER : Founders Earned the Room They Built

Having worked as master of properties on some of David Hockney’s productions at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, I have a great deal of respect for his outstanding talent. With regard to his recent Music Center attack, he needs to get his facts straight (“Music Center: Heal Thyself,” Feb. 7).

I would like to remind him that the taxpayers voted down the building of the complex on three occasions and that it finally became a reality because Dorothy Chandler went to the private sector--businesses and individuals--who contributed the funds to give the people of Los Angeles a center they can be proud of.

Those who gave then and continue to give today are the Founders. The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson at the Doolittle, Los Angeles Opera and Los Angeles Master Chorale are companies that depend on the Founders. For all the Founders have done and continue to do, it is fitting that they should have a room into which they can take their friends and guests. And it is their dues that support the operation of the Founders’ Room, not the taxpayers’.

Thank you to Dorothy Chandler and the generous Founders for having given Los Angeles this elegant and beautiful complex that I am fortunate to have been a part of since September, 1964.

CARMINE MARINELLI

North Hollywood