L.A. Dance Impresario James A. Doolittle Dies at 83

James Arnold Doolittle, a Los Angeles dance impresario who brought names like Joffrey and Baryshnikov to local dance stages and ensured that a high-profile production of the “Nutcracker” ballet was presented here every Christmas, has died. He was 83.

The soft-spoken producer of opera, theater and dance--not to mention a major career as head of the Greek Theatre--was found dead Saturday morning at his West Hollywood home.

The cause of death was a heart attack, according to Serena Tripi, director of productions for Southern California Theatre Assn., Doolittle’s presenting company.

“Jimmy Doolittle was a cultural pioneer for Southern California,” said Michael Blachly, director of UCLA’s Center for the Performing Arts.

“His vision, his commitment and his dedication to making Los Angeles a rich cultural treasure for California and our country was unparalleled,” he said. “Jimmy took risks on presenting the performing arts before Los Angeles had a true cultural profile. For this we are indebted to him and can thank him for setting a foundation of culture in Southern California.”

Premier Los Angeles-based choreographer Bella Lewitzky said Saturday that she “always felt Jimmy Doolittle was a Los Angeles institution and was always going to be here. It’s very shocking because somehow one doesn’t reconcile the fact that he’s dead with this person, this institution. . . .

“I knew him in a legendary way, not in a personal way. But he was always a supporter, always an absolutely remarkable part of the California scene.”

Doolittle was known in recent years for bringing the finest dance companies to Los Angeles, including such luminaries as the Joffrey Ballet, Mikhail Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project and the San Francisco Ballet.

Just two weeks ago, he entered into a long-term agreement with the Los Angeles Music Center Operating Co. to present an annual dance season at the downtown Music Center.

The season, scheduled to start in June, was to have been at both Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and, for the first time, the Ahmanson Theatre, which in its 1994 renovation was modified to accommodate dance performances. The fate of the season remained undetermined Saturday.

February was supposed to have been a busy month for Doolittle. For starters, he’d planned a trip to London to work out a Royal National Theatre engagement in Palm Desert, and had entered discussions with three other arts presenters to mount the American premiere of a controversial and wildly popular British restaging of “Swan Lake.”

Because he worked mostly behind the scenes, among L.A. audiences Doolittle is perhaps best known these days for the Hollywood theater named after him.

Yet that theater’s naming illustrates how Doolittle was a quintessential comeback artist. Twelve years ago, after spending four decades producing opera, ballet, theater and pop music on local stages--along the way turning the Greek Theatre, the Biltmore and the Huntington Hartford into thriving playhouses after all three had suffered under previous management--Doolittle learned that he had cancer and only a 50% chance of survival.

Facing his own mortality, he sold the Hartford to the Music Center and UCLA in 1985, reserving the right to present there. The theater was renamed as a tribute to him, and he survived to tell the story with glee.

Since 1992, he has been the major dance tenant of the Music Center, presenting annual productions of “The Nutcracker” by the famed Kirov Ballet, American Ballet Theatre and the Joffrey, as well as a mix of productions that ranged from the Joffrey’s popular “Billboards” to the Radio City Rockettes.

Born in Salt Lake City on July 8, 1914, the arts presenter in a 1995 interview called himself a USC jock who took a class in drama because he’d heard it was easy and got hooked. Although he dropped out of USC and later ran a golf shop in Beverly Hills, he reinvented himself as an arts promoter when a customer asked his help in raising money for a musical about Tchaikovsky called “Song Without Words.”

“I’d never read a script before,” the ever-enthusiastic Doolittle said to a reporter about the 1945 show, “but I was fascinated by the whole thing. So everybody who came in, from the janitor on up, I tried to sell an interest in the show. Seventy-five thousand dollars is what they needed--it would take more than half a million today--and when I eventually got a good portion of it, in bits, they asked me to produce it.”

Doolittle’s relationship with the Music Center goes back to 1965, when he presented the first ballet performance in the facility.

He financed his productions through the reported $2 million in resources of the nonprofit Southern California Theatre Assn., which he and friends founded shortly after he switched from presenting opera in other people’s venues and leased the Greek Theatre from the city of Los Angeles in 1952. That leasing arrangement lasted for 23 years.

Mixing pop acts like Harry Belafonte, Judy Garland, Jack Benny and later Neil Diamond with fine arts, his was a success story often envied by others.

He loved to talk about the great artists he’d presented--and the risks he took in bringing them to Los Angeles--but he never dodged the detailed financial questions that cause most other presenters to duck and run. Indeed, he seemed eager for the public to learn just how expensive dance presentation had become--perhaps because that data helped explain why he balanced high-risk and sure-fire attractions every season. He also frequently spoke about a plan to issue ticket vouchers so that a wider and younger audience could attend Doolittle attractions.

Doolittle is survived by his sister, Kathryn Merralls of Rancho Palos Verdes, and a niece, Nancy Wright of Santa Clara. His wife, Nony, died in the 1970s, family members said. Funeral services are pending.

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