Of Mice and Music

The two cultural contributions Orange County is best known for worldwide were initially laughed off as fiascoes from the addled brains of crackpots.

Business experts called it “Walt’s Folly” when Walt Disney said he would spend $17 million to build the amusement park to end all amusement parks amid the orange groves of Anaheim.

And when Fullerton musical instrument maker Leo Fender first showed his unusual-looking electric guitars to dealers, the common response was, “Where’s the boat you’re going to row with that thing?”

History, of course, proved Disney and Fender anything but failures, but other cultural innovators in Orange County historically have struggled to win respect--and often still do.

At the same time, a strong communal desire for a richer cultural life is nearly as old as the county itself. Orange County was just 5 years old when a group of Santa Ana women began lobbying to establish a Carnegie Library in the county, a goal they realized within 10 years.

But it took Orange Countians almost a century after their forebears had declared political independence from Los Angeles to formally claim cultural independence with the opening of the $73-million Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Cultural progress here frequently has reflected the ambition--as well as the impatience and insecurity--of a younger sibling hellbent on asserting an identity of its own.

It also has echoed the quintessentially American frustration of a group of people living away from the center of power who felt their interests were not being adequately served.

After conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic for several years in makeshift halls in Orange County during the ‘60s, Zubin Mehta chided the audience at the end of one concert, saying “For God’s sake, build yourselves a decent music center. I’m not coming back until you do.”

Mehta did return and led the L.A. Phil at the 1986 opening of the Performing Arts Center his challenge helped inspire.

Reflecting the frequent gap between cultural ambition and reality--and striding the line between local pride and hubris--the center opened not because thriving local arts groups had outgrown existing facilities. It was built because Orange County arts lovers simply didn’t want to remain beholden to Los Angeles to experience major orchestras, ballet companies, opera productions or Broadway musicals.

Underdog local arts groups initially were viewed more as necessary evils than integral partners in the center’s development. Priority was given to importing “world-class” attractions that would give the center instant cultural cachet.

Conversely, attractions for which the world has flocked to Orange County--beyond geography and climate--have been those that were eminently local.

While major metropolitan cities lure tourists with museums boasting famous works by Rembrandt, Monet, Van Gogh and Da Vinci, Laguna Beach pulls in hordes each summer with actors who dress up and pretend to be those artworks.

Shopping too has become a distinctly Orange County art form, nowhere more evident than at Costa Mesa’s South Coast Plaza, the West’s top-grossing mall and a major tourist destination alongside Knott’s Berry Farm and, of course, Disneyland.

What Walt Disney introduced in Anaheim 43 years ago went well beyond perfecting the theme-park concept that Walter Knott had pioneered up the road in Buena Park.

More than just assembling a cohesive group of thematically unified entertainment areas, Disney’s overarching achievement was to control every aspect of guests’ experience within the walls of his Magic Kingdom. Walls were built so that visitors, once inside, would remain blissfully unaware of the world outside, except for the occasional airplane high overhead.

There wasn’t a flower petal, a scenic vista or a thrill that wasn’t designed and executed by Disney’s team. On that front, Disneyland also provided a model of meticulously controlled living for architects of the gated, master-planned communities that came to define Irvine in particular and Orange County in general.

Orange County has long been a bastion of traditional-values politics, but it may well have been Walt Disney who crystallized those values with his park and, even more, a TV show that beamed a sanitized, romanticized version of American history and values into the nation’s living rooms week in and week out.

As pioneers of the theme park concept, the two Walters exerted an influence that’s manifested itself with the sprouting of similar parks around the world.

It’s also seen in theme restaurants, prevalent here in such long-running Knott’s neighbors as Medieval Times and Wild Bill’s to spectacular, only-in-Orange County flops like Anaheim’s Tinseltown, where officials hoped patrons would flock in to pay $45 for dinner while being treated--by restaurant employees playing fans--like Hollywood celebrities at an awards ceremony.

The county’s lasting cultural innovations have tended to come from creative iconoclasts rather than powerful civic groups. Serendipity has also helped culture here.

It’s no surprise that surf-rock music’s key progenitor emerged in the county where both surfboards and electric guitars were first mass produced.

Dick Dale was an avid surfer and equally zealous musician who dreamed of finding a musical way to recreate the adrenaline rush and sense of controlled power he experienced while riding the waves at Newport Beach.

Had Dale not lived a short drive from the factory of Leo Fender, who was only too willing to come to the aid of a musician with a technical problem, his dream might have remained only that.

But with Fender’s guitar-making expertise at his disposal, Dale got the instruments and amplifiers he needed to unleash the sonic blast he had in mind. That sound influenced not just the Beach Boys but rockers like Jimi Hendrix, who credited Dale’s astounding technique as an important influence on his own convention-shattering style.

Despite numerous other rock ‘n’ roll success stories out of Orange County, from Dale and the Righteous Brothers in the 1960s to Jackson Browne in the ‘70s to No Doubt and the Offspring in this decade, the music has always steered a rocky course here.

The irony today is that many of the alternative-rock and punk bands from Orange County that have collectively sold more than 25 million albums in recent years still cannot play on their home turf for want of a facility willing to book them.

But then, the county’s officialdom traditionally has shown little affinity for pop culture and even less for the counterculture: most famously, ‘60s LSD guru and counterculture hero Timothy Leary was arrested in Laguna Beach, along with his wife and son.

Not surprisingly, when members of the Youth International Party--Yippies--invaded Disneyland in 1970 as a political protest, park officials responded by banning long-haired males from the Magic Kingdom for years afterward. It also required a celebrated lawsuit before the Happiest Place on Earth would allow gays to dance together inside the park.

On the other hand, the tight rein on youth culture has long acted as a catalyst for much of the music made in Orange County--especially the punk-based bands that have made this region as significant a influence on the ‘90s rock landscape as Seattle grunge or Athens, Ga., alternative rock.

One thing Orange County rockers have in common with actors, visual artists, dancers and opera singers is that as a rule, as soon as they have any degree of success, they leave.

Cultural brain drain has been common since pioneering Orange County resident and actress Helena Modjeska’s time.

The Polish emigre, one of the great Shakespearean actresses of the 19th century, had no local forum after moving to Anaheim in 1876 and had to venture elsewhere--San Francisco, New York, London--to practice her art.

That’s been true of others who have been raised or got their starts here, including such actors as Diane Keaton, Michelle Pfeiffer and Harrison Ford, comedian Steve Martin, opera signer Deborah Voigt and performance artist Tim Miller.

Few have remained in Orange County while their careers were thriving. More often, celebrities have retired to Orange County (John Wayne, Buddy Ebsen, Joey Bishop) while others have used the county as a part-time retreat (from Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and Ozzie & Harriet decades ago to Bette Midler and Dennis Rodman today).

The county’s literary heritage stretches back to the 1840 publication of Richard Henry Dana’s autobiographical adventure “Two Years Before the Mast.” John Steinbeck wrote his 1935 novel “Tortilla Flat” while he was living in Laguna Beach. But only in the last decade or so has the county become a haven for writers. Mostly they’ve been mystery authors such as Dean Koontz, Elizabeth George, T. Jefferson Parker and others.

Additionally, some of the pop and rock musicians who have had national impact recently have begun bucking the greener-grass syndrome as their careers take off. Members of such hit ‘90s bands as the Offspring, Korn and Lit have held fast in Orange County.

The county’s next century shapes up to be even richer with a growing crop of storefront theater troupes, thriving arts programs at UC Irvine, Chapman University, Cal State Fullerton and community colleges, a suddenly burgeoning pop-music scene and new opportunities for performing arts groups with a major expansion of the Performing Arts Center.

The increasing numbers of transplants from around the country, the influx of Southeast Asians since the 1975 fall of Saigon and the ever-growing Latino population are the raw materials for a new millennium of dynamic cultural growth.

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Timeline

1840--Richard Henry Dana’s “Two Years Before the Mast” is published, recounting his adventures sailing to what is now known as Dana Point.

1890--The first Orange County Fair is held in Santa Ana, a modest event highlighted by a horse race and a few exhibits.

1920--Laguna Playhouse is created on Oct. 22. The company’s first theater, built for $5,000, opens in 1924. It’s now the oldest continuously operating theater company on the West Coast.

1930--”All Quiet on the Western Front,” an anti-war World War I epic film, is shot in the hills above Corona del Mar and goes on to win Academy Awards from best picture and best director.

1932--First Festival of Arts is held Aug. 13 in Laguna Beach. The following year it offers the first “living pictures” display that would become the Pageant of the Masters. Jack Benny plays his violin at the pageant in 1935. The first presentation of Da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” now the traditional pageant-closer, is staged in 1936.

1936--The Bowers Museum opens Feb. 15, at 20th and Main streets in Santa Ana, site of the Charles and Ada Bowers homestead. It is shut down for renovation in 1988 and reopens in 1992.

1950--Fullerton resident Leo Fender introduces the Broadcaster, the first mass-produced, solid-body electric guitar. The Broadcaster was the forerunner of Fender’s Telecaster and Stratocaster models, instruments that defined the look and sound of rock ‘n’ roll.

1954--Walt Disney’s “Disneyland” television anthology series premieres Oct. 27, on ABC. Even before the theme park opens the following summer, segments about Disneyland give the nation a window on Orange County for the first time and give Disney an invaluable promotional boost for his new venture.

1959--Russian emigre cellist Nicholas Levienne forms the Laguna Beach Chamber Music Society. Its first performances were held in the ballet studio of his wife, Lila Zali, who in 1962 founded what would become Ballet Pacifica.

1961--Surf-rock pioneer Dick Dale of Newport Beach gets his biggest national hit with the instrumental “Let’s Go Trippin.’ ” In 1994, Dale rides a new wave of popularity when his signature tune “Miserlou” is featured in Quentin Tarantino’s hit movie “Pulp Fiction.”

1962--The Festival of Opera Assn. begins offering opera sung in English at Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach. Opera Pacific, the county’s only resident producing opera company, which was incorporated in 1983, traces its origins to this association.

1962--The Fine Arts Patrons of Newport Beach present an art show on Oct. 14 titled “8 Figurative Painters From Los Angeles” in space on the top floor of the Balboa Pavilion. It is the first exhibition for the organization that will later be known as the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

1964--Righteous Brothers’ “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling’ reaches No. 1 in Billboard, the first national No. 1 hit out of Orange County.

1964--Actor Martin Benson and theater teacher David Emmes start a new dramatic troupe called South Coast Repertory in Newport Beach, eventually moving to its present home in Costa Mesa across from South Coast Plaza.

1970--About 300 members of Youth International Party--Yippies--invade Disneyland on Aug. 6 and hoist a Viet Cong flag over Tom Sawyer’s island. Twenty-three are arrested. For years after, long-haired males are not permitted in the park.

1979--Keith Clark forms the Pacific Symphony at Cal State Fullerton. It will become the major professional orchestra in the county.

1986--The Orange County Performing Arts Center opens, built with private donations totaling $73 million.

1988--South Coast Repertory receives a Tony Award as one of the top regional theaters in the country.

1990--Carl St.Clair becomes music director of the Pacific Symphony.

1990--Irvine Barclay Theatre opens.

1994--The Offspring’s “Smash” album puts Orange County punk rock on the national map and goes on to sell more than 5 million copies.

1996--Officials at the Laguna Art Museum and Newport Harbor Art Museum announce on May 16 the merger of the two institutions to be called the Orange County Museum of Art. The union unravels in 1997 as the Laguna museum regains its independence.

1996--Anaheim rock band No Doubt’s “Tragic Kingdom” on Dec. 11 becomes the first by an Orange County act to top Billboard’s albums chart.

1998--Orange County Performing Arts Center officials announce a major expansion to include a new concert hall as home for the Pacific Symphony.

1999--Margaret Edson’s “Wit,” which received its world premiere in 1995 at South Coast Repertory, wins the Pulitzer Prize for drama.

Times librarian Lois Hooker assisted with this research.

PEOPLE AND INNOVATIONS

San Francisco artist Norman St. Claire visits Laguna Beach in 1903 to paint landscapes of the breathtaking seaside vistas. His canvases inspire many of his artist friends to follow him there, giving birth to Laguna’s status as an artists’ village.

Director D.W. Griffith brings a film company to San Juan Capistrano in 1910 to shoot an 18th century romance, the first of more than 500 silent films to be shot during the next two decades in Orange County locales. Santa Ana resident Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle becomes the county’s first bona fide movie star. After the silent era ends, Orange County remains a popular location for movie production because of its proximity to Hollywood and its varied natural and architectural sites.

To entertain patrons waiting to eat at his wife Cordelia’s Chicken Dinner Restaurant in Buena Park, Walter Knott in 1940 opens an Old West Ghost Town beside the restaurant, the first building block in what would become the Knott’s Berry Farm theme park.

World War II Dutch freedom fighter Frieda Belinfante conducts an ensemble of Hollywood studio musicians on Aug. 22, 1954, at Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach. The group evolves into the Orange County Philharmonic orchestra and around it grows the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, which in 1961 shifts to presenting touring classical orchestras and soloists.

In 1956, after hearing Orange County rock band the Rhythm Brothers play a song called “El Loco Cha Cha” at the Harmony Park Ballroom in Anaheim, songwriter Richard Berry was inspired to compose a song that would become one of the most frequently performed of all rock classics: “Louie Louie.”

John Wayne’s move to Newport Beach in 1965 gives a face to Orange County’s image of independence and political conservatism.

Interior designer Elaine Redfield, part of a group of Orange County arts lovers who began in the early 1970s trying to create a first-rate classical music facility in the county, writes to developer Henry Segerstrom in 1979 and asks, “Wouldn’t you just love to have a music center” on Segerstrom land near South Coast Plaza. His reply: “You came to the right place at the right time.” The Segerstrom family’s donation of land makes possible the opening in 1986 of the Orange County Performing Arts Center. On Dec. 10, 1999, the Segerstroms donate a second, six-acre parcel for a $200-million center expansion.

Steve Martin, who grew up in Garden Grove, parlays his experience entertaining guests at Knott’s Berry Farm and Disneyland into a stand-up act with which he headlines concert arenas during the ‘70s and turns up regularly hosting NBC’s “Saturday Night Live.” In the ‘80s and ‘90s, Martin becomes a top Hollywood actor, writer and director.

Newport Beach marketing manager Duvall Hecht, bored by his daily commute to downtown Los Angeles, creates Books on Tape in 1975, the nation’s first audio book rental service

Nightclub owner Jerry Roach switches from the rock cover bands that had been playing his Cuckoo’s Nest Club in Costa Mesa and begins offering punk rock. It serves as the spawning ground for dozens of local punk and alternative-rock groups that in the 1990s would bring the Orange County music scene national recognition.

Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre opens in 1981, bringing Orange County its first major rock and pop concert facility.

Anaheim-bred soprano and Cal State Fullerton alumna Deborah Voigt makes her debut in 1991 at the Metropolitan Opera, the first Orange Countian to sing a major role at the venerable New York opera house.

To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Ferris wheel in 1993, Tustin resident Jeff Block takes a record-breaking 38-day ride on the Orange County Fair’s Ferris wheel.

Times librarian Lois Hooker assisted with this research.