The Hollywood Bowl
Hollywood Bowl in 2005 (with Hollywood Sign in background)
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| Location | Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°06′46″N 118°20′20″W / 34.11278°N 118.33889°WCoordinates: 34°06′46″N 118°20′20″W / 34.11278°N 118.33889°W |
| Owner | County of Los Angeles |
| Operator | Los Angeles Philharmonic Association |
| Type | Outdoor Amphitheater |
| Seating type | Seats |
| Capacity | 17,500 |
| Construction | |
| Opened | July 11, 1922 |
| Renovated | 2003–2004 |
| Website | |
| Hollywood Bowl | |
The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheater in Hollywood, California.
The Hollywood Bowl is known for its band shell, a distinctive set of concentric arches that graced the site from 1929 through 2003, before being replaced with a larger one beginning in the 2004 season. The shell is set against the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills and the famous Hollywood Sign to the northeast.
The "bowl" refers to the shape of the concave hillside the amphitheater is carved into. The bowl is owned by the County of Los Angeles and is the home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the host of hundreds of musical events each year.
It is at 2301 North Highland Avenue, north of Hollywood Boulevard and the Hollywood/Highland subway station and south of Route 101.
The site of the Hollywood Bowl was chosen in 1919 by William Reed and his son H. Ellis Reed, who were dispatched to find a suitable location for outdoor performances by the members of the newly formed Theatre Arts Alliance headed by Christine Wetherill Stevenson. The Reeds selected a natural amphitheater, a shaded canyon and popular picnic spot known as 'Daisy Dell' in Bolton Canyon.
On 11 November 1921 the first Sunrise Service took place at the bowl, in one of its first major events. The Bowl officially opened on July 11, 1922.
At first, the Bowl was very close to its natural state, with only makeshift wooden benches for the audience, and eventually a simple awning over the stage. In 1926, a group known as the Allied Architects was contracted to regrade the Bowl, providing permanent seating and a shell. These improvements did provide increased capacity for the all-time record for attendance set in 1936, when 26,410 people crowded into the Bowl to hear opera singer Lily Pons, but were otherwise disappointing, as the regrading noticeably degraded the natural acoustics, and the original shell was deemed acoustically unsatisfactory (as well as visually unfashionable, with its murals of sailing ships).
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Wikipedia