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| Dorothy Buffum Chandler, the namesake of Bunker Hill's Dorothy Chandler Pavilion. Chandler was an important fundraiser whose work led to the entire Music Center campus. |
A Brief History of the Philanthropists of the Music Center
by Julie Riggott
What would the Renaissance have been without Lorenzo de Medici? The famous statesman, poet and patron of the arts in 15th-century Italy was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent with good reason. He supported and helped get commissions for esteemed artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Sandro Botticelli.
Downtown Los Angeles has its own benefactors to thank for some of its world-class arts institutions, the biggest of which are clustered on Bunker Hill in the Los Angeles County Music Center. The 11-acre complex includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre and Walt Disney Concert Hall (and the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater inside).
L.A.'s cultural universe has a vibrant sun because of Dorothy Buffum Chandler (1901-1997). Chandler, whose father started a department store chain and whose husband's family owned the Los Angeles Times, had the money, but more importantly the vision, to champion the creation of a performing arts complex worthy of one of the world's biggest cities.
Among her other achievements, Chandler served on the board of the Southern California Symphony Association and later became its president. That group and the County Supervisors asked her to chair a committee to raise funds to save the Hollywood Bowl in 1951. After that, Chandler turned her focus to creating a winter home for the L.A. Philharmonic. In 1955, she held the famous El Dorado Party at Downtown's Ambassador Hotel that raised $400,000. As head of the County advisory committee she continued her work through the early 1960s, raising $18.7 million.
Her fundraising efforts landed her on the cover of Time magazine after the $33.5 million Music Center was dedicated as "A Living Memorial to Peace" and opened as a nonprofit partnership with the County of Los Angeles in 1964. In fitting tribute, the L.A. Phil's new home was named after Chandler.
$1.5 Million Donations
Chandler also found donors to name the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, which opened with the Center Theatre Group handling programming in 1967.
S. Mark Taper (1902-1994) gave $1.5 million for construction of the theater in his name. Born in Poland, Taper owned shoe stores in England before coming to California, where he used his wealth to transport hundreds of Catholic and Jewish children out of Nazi Germany. He later turned to real estate and built 35,000 homes for low- and middle-income buyers, and he founded the First Charter Financial Corporation of Beverly Hills. Incidentally, when the Mark Taper Forum reopens in August after a $30 million renovation, the auditorium will be named the Amelia Taper Auditorium in honor of his wife (the S. Mark Taper Foundation donated $2 million).
The Ahmanson Theatre is named for Howard Ahmanson (1906-1968), who also contributed $1.5 million. The founder of an insurance and savings and loan association called H.F. Ahmanson & Co., Ahmanson started a philanthropic foundation in his name with wife Dorothy Grannis Ahmanson in 1952 to support the arts and education as well as health and human services.
The first L.A. Phil concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was in 1964, the first Los Angeles Master Chorale performance came the following year, and the L.A. Opera took up residency in 1986. Of course, the Phil (and the Master Chorale) moved into Walt Disney Concert Hall when it opened in 2003.
The fourth addition to the Music Center complex was funded by an initial $50 million gift from Lillian B. Disney (Walt's widow) in 1987 - a sum greater than the cost of the three other buildings combined. With accumulated interest and additional gifts, the total contribution from the Disney family to the Frank Gehry-designed building is more than $100 million.
The $274 million Disney Hall is also home to REDCAT, a space devoted to experimental art and theater. Roy E. Disney, vice chairman of the Walt Disney Company, and Michael Eisner, then the president and CEO of the company, presented a plan for the CalArts project after construction on the concert hall had already begun. Both were supporters of CalArts, and Roy's father had overseen construction of the Valencia campus. The Walt Disney Company donated money to both the hall and the CalArts project; and Disney and his wife Patty matched the company's gift for the latter and named it in memory of his parents Roy (Walt's brother and partner in the company) and Edna Disney.
Without a doubt, these philanthropists have all helped to create a cultural legacy that Chandler described in the Los Angeles Times in 1964: "The Music Center will stand forever as a symbol of what creative man can accomplish when he sets his standards and has a vision far beyond our present horizons."
Contact Julie Riggott at julie@downtownnews.com.
page 20, 7/21/2008
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
Downtown Los Angeles has its own benefactors to thank for some of its world-class arts institutions, the biggest of which are clustered on Bunker Hill in the Los Angeles County Music Center. The 11-acre complex includes the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Mark Taper Forum, Ahmanson Theatre and Walt Disney Concert Hall (and the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater inside).
L.A.'s cultural universe has a vibrant sun because of Dorothy Buffum Chandler (1901-1997). Chandler, whose father started a department store chain and whose husband's family owned the Los Angeles Times, had the money, but more importantly the vision, to champion the creation of a performing arts complex worthy of one of the world's biggest cities.
Among her other achievements, Chandler served on the board of the Southern California Symphony Association and later became its president. That group and the County Supervisors asked her to chair a committee to raise funds to save the Hollywood Bowl in 1951. After that, Chandler turned her focus to creating a winter home for the L.A. Philharmonic. In 1955, she held the famous El Dorado Party at Downtown's Ambassador Hotel that raised $400,000. As head of the County advisory committee she continued her work through the early 1960s, raising $18.7 million.
Her fundraising efforts landed her on the cover of Time magazine after the $33.5 million Music Center was dedicated as "A Living Memorial to Peace" and opened as a nonprofit partnership with the County of Los Angeles in 1964. In fitting tribute, the L.A. Phil's new home was named after Chandler.
Chandler also found donors to name the Mark Taper Forum and Ahmanson Theatre, which opened with the Center Theatre Group handling programming in 1967.
S. Mark Taper (1902-1994) gave $1.5 million for construction of the theater in his name. Born in Poland, Taper owned shoe stores in England before coming to California, where he used his wealth to transport hundreds of Catholic and Jewish children out of Nazi Germany. He later turned to real estate and built 35,000 homes for low- and middle-income buyers, and he founded the First Charter Financial Corporation of Beverly Hills. Incidentally, when the Mark Taper Forum reopens in August after a $30 million renovation, the auditorium will be named the Amelia Taper Auditorium in honor of his wife (the S. Mark Taper Foundation donated $2 million).
The Ahmanson Theatre is named for Howard Ahmanson (1906-1968), who also contributed $1.5 million. The founder of an insurance and savings and loan association called H.F. Ahmanson & Co., Ahmanson started a philanthropic foundation in his name with wife Dorothy Grannis Ahmanson in 1952 to support the arts and education as well as health and human services.
The first L.A. Phil concert at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion was in 1964, the first Los Angeles Master Chorale performance came the following year, and the L.A. Opera took up residency in 1986. Of course, the Phil (and the Master Chorale) moved into Walt Disney Concert Hall when it opened in 2003.
The fourth addition to the Music Center complex was funded by an initial $50 million gift from Lillian B. Disney (Walt's widow) in 1987 - a sum greater than the cost of the three other buildings combined. With accumulated interest and additional gifts, the total contribution from the Disney family to the Frank Gehry-designed building is more than $100 million.
The $274 million Disney Hall is also home to REDCAT, a space devoted to experimental art and theater. Roy E. Disney, vice chairman of the Walt Disney Company, and Michael Eisner, then the president and CEO of the company, presented a plan for the CalArts project after construction on the concert hall had already begun. Both were supporters of CalArts, and Roy's father had overseen construction of the Valencia campus. The Walt Disney Company donated money to both the hall and the CalArts project; and Disney and his wife Patty matched the company's gift for the latter and named it in memory of his parents Roy (Walt's brother and partner in the company) and Edna Disney.
Without a doubt, these philanthropists have all helped to create a cultural legacy that Chandler described in the Los Angeles Times in 1964: "The Music Center will stand forever as a symbol of what creative man can accomplish when he sets his standards and has a vision far beyond our present horizons."
Contact Julie Riggott at julie@downtownnews.com.
page 20, 7/21/2008
© Los Angeles Downtown News. Reprinting items retrieved from the archives are for personal use only. They may not be reproduced or retransmitted without permission of the Los Angeles Downtown News. If you would like to re-distribute anything from the Los Angeles Downtown News Archives, please call our permissions department at (213) 481-1448.
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