A natural amphitheater –
1923 – progress –
1925 –
1927 –
Rebuilt, again –
1928 –
Twilight at the bowl in the 1930s – note the more pronounced arch –
Distinctive – always –
The Hollywood Bowl – another reason I love L.A.
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Just got caught up on a week’s worth of your fabulous posts! Always a pleasure! Hope the kitchen renovation is coming along smashingly 🙂
Good morning! It’s an exercise in urban camping, but later in the afternoon I’ll post some pics of our progress. xox, V
How did I miss this post? Hewll Howser did a report on the fountain at the Bowl that I found fascinating. He claimed it was designed by the man “who sculpted the Oscar statuette.” George Stanley.
“Emilio Fernandez a Mexican actor in Hollywood befriended actress Dolores del Rio, then wife of studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer’s art director and Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences member Cedric Gibbons. Del Rio introduced Fernandez to Gibbons, who was in charge of supervising the statuette’s design.
Gibbons asked Fernandez to pose in the buff for a sketch to create the basis for the 8.5-pound trophy. Reluctantly, Fernandez did, and the design became the foundation for artist George Stanley’s famous sculpture of the statuette, given out at the very first Academy Awards in L.A. in 1929.”
Above excerpt from story “True Story: Oscar Statue Modeled After Mexican Man” by Jorge Rivas, Sunday, February 26 2012 Color Lines News For Action.
Very Art Deco — thank you — I have to look that up now.
I had no idea until Hewl brought it up. I always thought Gibbons did it all himself.
For some reason not all posts are showing in my Reader. Strange. Most likely Operator Error. Never been to the Hollywood Bowl but seeing it in so many movies it’s a place like so much of Hollywood/Southern California that just seems magical. Would love to see a concert there some day.
Amazing how much it evolved in a decade.
Like the town, boom and sprawl 😉
Wow, I didn’t realize how many people could sit in such an amfiteatre thing. You could be sitting miles away from the stage…
When I was a kid the seats all the way up the hill cost two dollars and you could see the stage with tiny little people on it and hear perfectly, but it was more about the crowd and the camaraderie – and the inevitability of someone dropping a wine bottle and hearing it clank and roll down all those steps until someone grabbed it.
Oh yes, that must have been wonderful…! It’s so interesting you could still hear it perfectly. I’m always surprised at that kind of things.
I think the Bowl was discovered by a father and son in around 1919 who were looking for an outdoor venue with great acoustics for their theater troupe — well done!
Fascinating development-in-pictures. Nice work, Madame L! The images of the illuminated bowl are particularly spectacular and evocative. Thanks for the repost, I hadn’t seen this. Happy 5th of July! (winks annoyingly)
I think the sculptor who did the figure in the last photo was the same man (George Stanley) who sculpted the Oscar.
Dearest V
As Mr Lanier has already pointed out this is the very height of art deco exquisiteness.
Yours ever
The Pefumed Dandy
PS I think the most moderne one of te three is my favourite….
When you come to visit we’ll have to see something at the Hollywood Bowl. Yesterday it was Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, but I’m thinking maybe something a little more sophisticated for you.
Dearest V
I had no idea, what instrument does Mr Bunny play?
The cello I should imagine!
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
Or a zither 😉
I missed this one too.Wonderful piece of Deco.
And still a wonderful place to hear a concert 🙂
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I never noticed before HOW MUCH SEATING there is at the Hollywood Bowl! I just did an online search and see it can seat over 17,000! It truly is a stunning facility, as all the previous commenters have said.