Beech Tree News Network

The Hollywood Bowl, a music landmark, is celebrating its 100th birthday.  CBS Sunday Morning’s Luke Burbank says “if you’re looking for the perfect L.A. day, you’ll want to soak up the sun and play on the sand at one of its many beaches.  But for the perfect L.A. night, you’ll need to head about 20 miles inland for an evening under the stars at the Hollywood Bowl.  Nestled in one of Hollywood’s many canyons, this amphitheater has been the southern California destination for fans and performers for a century. 

Gustavo Dudamel is the music and artistic director for the L.A. Philharmonic.  Dudamel made his U.S. debut at the Hollywood Bowl at the tender age of 24.  “It’s overwhelming especially because of the history.  You see the Hollywood Bowl in films, in cartoons and all of that.  And when you arrive here you feel that historic background”. 

The Hollywood Bowl has often been the backdrop for great moments in tv and film, from Beaches to the Beverly Hillbillies.  And all of it under that iconic bandshell.  Well, at least one of them.  The current, built in 2004, is the fifth shell of the Hollywood Bowl, says CEO of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Chad Smith.  Smith says the original idea was to have a different bandshell built every season.  That proved too expensive during the Great Depression.  Fortunately, the shell, built in 1929, was iconic enough to stay in place almost 75 years.  Over the decades, everyone from Ella Fitzgerald to Elton John performed at the Bowl.  There was the famous Beatles concert, with screams so loud they could reportedly be heard a mile away on Hollywood Boulevard.  There was a swimming pool in front of the stage filled with water until 1968 when Jimi Hendrix showed up.  He was playing and the audience kept going crazier and crazier.  At one point, the people rushed down, jumped over the grey wall and swam in the pool.  At that time, the leaders of the Hollywood Bowl said “I think it’s about time we drain the bowl”. 

Today, that spot is one of the fancier sections to enjoy dinner and a show.  But way higher up, the Bowl makes $1 seats available for many of its shows.  The $1 seats are a nod to its earliest days and the original vision of its founders: a collection of powerfully persuasive women who decided what was needed in Hollywood was a space to present the great art forms to the widest possible audiences at low cost. 

A century later, that mission lives on.  The Bowl has survived a world war, a pandemic, financial ups and downs and 84-year-old Ron Goldman was there to see a lot of it.  “My goal was to take a stack of programs, put them under my arm and run up and down these stairs hocking the program”. The history of the Hollywood Bowl is always growing.  In fact, The Jonas Brothers and Kelsea Ballerini played The Hollywood Bowl on the final stop of the Remember This tour in October 2021.  There’s no telling what historic events the Hollywood Bowl will see next. If you’re looking for a podcast to listen to, check out mine called Blendertainment at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blendertainment/id1541097172

https://open.spotify.com/show/61yTPt9wXdz37DZTbPUs16?si=5MsNIAqZRbCtcx2c...