In Fond Finale, Philharmonic Hails a Box Office Veteran

After working 60 years in the concert hall box office, Max Foster heard words Thursday that were music to his ears.

The head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic told Foster that from now on, he can write his own ticket to any event at the downtown Music Center.

Better yet, the man in charge of the parking lot at the Hollywood Bowl promised him something even more valuable: a close-in parking spot for every concert.

That’s what happens when a man who has helped shape the cultural landscape of Los Angeles longer than most residents have been alive decides to retire on his 80th birthday.

Philharmonic tickets were 25 cents when Foster first stepped into the box office in 1938. These days, they can command up to $105.

On Thursday, musicians, stagehands, secretaries and philharmonic officials saluted the man who has sold millions of tickets to generations of music lovers.

“People at the box office have to deal with some strange behavior from ticket buyers we love, but who sometimes think they own the place,” said former philharmonic Director Ernest Fleischmann, delivering a bear hug to Foster when he arrived at the Music Center’s Salvatori Room.

“Not everyone can do that. But Max always could--he always keeps an even keel.”

Foster, of South Pasadena, began as an usher at the Hollywood Bowl in the summer of 1937 before joining the box office staff at the downtown Pershing Square Philharmonic Auditorium.

Part of his concert hall job in the early days was to give visiting performers their paychecks during intermission.

Foster recalled how he would put a smile on the normally dour face of Rachmaninoff, and how other soloists such as Jascha Heifetz would brighten when they saw him coming.

He shut down the Pershing Square hall and was on duty selling tickets the day the Music Center’s Dorothy Chandler Pavilion opened in 1964 and when the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre opened there three years later.

He often was the person delivering the bad news that a concert was sold out--as every Dorothy Chandler Pavilion event was during its first three years. He suffered along with artists when the turnout was low, like the time only 25 people filed into the 2,100-seat Ahmanson for a German-language production.

Foster’s career spanned that of conductors Otto Klemperer, Alfred Wallenstein, Eduard van Beinum, Zubin Mehta, Carlo Maria Giulini, Andre Previn and Esa-Pekka Salonen, according to Susanna Erdos, the philharmonic’s treasurer.

The promise of a good parking spot for Foster came from Ed Tom, operations manager for the Hollywood Bowl. The pledge that Foster can literally write his own ticket for future concerts came from Willem Wijnbergen, the philharmonic’s managing director.

“We’d hoped Max would still be working when Disney Hall opens,” said Richard Miller, head of the Hollywood Bowl box office.

But on that opening day, Foster will be a guest, not a worker.