A Bowl of Good Things

It all began in the summer of 1922, when the Hollywood Bowl’s first concert under the stars was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Tonight, 7 1/2 decades later, the show goes on as the Bowl opens its 1996 summer concert season.

From Al Jolson to Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald to Barbra Streisand, the best of the pop artists have performed there. The world of the classics has sent giants such as Igor Stravinsky, Jascha Heifetz, Leonard Bernstein and Luciano Pavarotti; Lily Pons, the French opera star, drew a record 26,410 paid admissions. Famous pairs like Margot Fonteyn and Rudolph Nureyev, Simon and Garfunkel and Bud Abbott and Lou Costello also found their way to the venue, as did groups like the Bolshoi Ballet, the Beatles and the Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan.

For many Southern Californians, a trip to the picturesque site in Bolton Canyon for the annual fireworks spectacular has become a Fourth of July tradition.

The amphitheater’s architectural history, too, has been associated with luminous names: Myron Hunt, Lloyd Wright and Frank Gehry have left their marks on the Bowl and the region’s cultural life.

Throughout the years ticket prices have remained affordable. Every Tuesday and Thursday evening during the summer series there are tickets that sell for $1.

Here’s to 75 memorable years at a Southern California landmark. Bravo!