Music Center records, 1732-2018

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Summary

Creators:
Music Center of Los Angeles County and Music Center of Los Angeles County
Abstract:
The Music Center of Los Angeles County, a seven-acre performing arts complex in downtown Los Angeles, opened when the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion raised its curtain for the first time on December 6, 1964. The Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum followed in April 1967. The complex expanded to eleven acres on October 24, 2003, when the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened, which includes the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater and the W.M. Keck Foundation Children's Amphitheatre. The Music Center records range from 1732-2018 and contain the files of the Music Center Operating Company, Otto Rothschild, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Center Theatre Group, fundraising organizations, the Music Center Education Division, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Music Center Reference Library as well as memorabilia and ephemera.
Extent:
905.4 linear feet (1,609 boxes, 224 flat boxes, 209 shoe boxes, 102 half boxes, 12 phonograph boxes, 8 magazine boxes, 5 map folders, 6 costume boxes, 6 cartons, 4 custom boxes, 3 telescoping boxes, 3 framed prints, 2 oversize flat boxes, 1 oversize carton, 1 negative box, and 1 open reel audio container.)
Language:
Materials are in English.
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Music Center records (Collection 3261). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Background

Scope and content:

The Music Center records range from 1732-2018 and contain the files of the Music Center Operating Company, photographer Otto Rothschild, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hollywood Bowl, the Los Angeles Civic Light Opera, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Center Theatre Group, fundraising organizations, the Music Center Education Division, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Music Center Reference Library, as well as memorabilia and ephemera.

The Music Center records also contain the following collections: the Dorothy Chandler collection of awards and memorabilia, the Otto Rothschild photographs collection, the Marion Burke collection, the Edwin Lester Los Angeles Civic Light Opera photographic collection, the Pat Martin Opera collection, the Pilgrimage Play Theatre records, the George Zoritch collection of Playbill Magazine, the Kenn Randall collection of theatre programs, the Charles Coburn collection of sheet music, the Raymond Barnes collection of theatre programs, Mrs. Leiland A. Irish collection of Los Angeles theatre history, and the Olga Rosenthal collection of performing arts ephemera.

Biographical / historical:

The Music Center of Los Angeles County, a seven-acre performing arts complex in downtown Los Angeles, opened when the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion raised its curtain for the first time on December 6, 1964. The Ahmanson Theatre and Mark Taper Forum followed in April 1967. The complex expanded to eleven acres on October 24, 2003, when the Walt Disney Concert Hall opened, which includes the Roy and Edna Disney/CalArts Theater and the W.M. Keck Foundation Children's Amphitheatre.

Proposals for a performing arts center in Los Angeles had produced years of unsuccessful discussion and compromise between private citizens, County government, and downtown business organizations. The Music Center's story began with the Southern California Symphony Association's search for a permanent home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

In 1955, the Board of Supervisors appointed Dorothy Chandler, wife of Los Angeles Times publisher Norman Chandler, as chairperson of a civic committee to promote a performing arts facility for the County of Los Angeles. After many years of negotiation, a County site was designated in downtown's Bunker Hill district with 34.5 million dollars needed for construction. With Dorothy Chandler leading the drive, the Music Center Building Fund of the Southern California Symphony Association was established. Operating out of her home with the help of hundreds of volunteers, 20 million dollars was raised by donations from the business community and private citizens.

A contract between the County and The Music Center Lease Company was then established to build the facility on County-owned property. The remaining balance of 14.5 million dollars was raised by creating a land leaseback arrangement using mortgage revenue bonds.

The Music Center Operating Company (MCOC) was formed in 1961 to oversee the construction and to manage the Music Center complex. The MCOC handled the administration and operation of the Center. Its responsibilities ranged from management of theatre, stage, and box office operations; supervision of a restaurant and concessions; and providing the information center for the complex. The MCOC licensed the use of the three theatres to both long- and short term-tenants. Long-term producing organizations, also known as resident companies, had the first choice of the available time in the theatres. The resident companies included the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, the Center Theatre Group, the Los Angeles Opera, the Joffrey Ballet, and the Master Chorale.

Source: The Music Center of Los Angeles County History and Description document, Box 402, Folder 11, Music Center records (Collection 3261). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, 2018.
Custodial history:

Mr. Joel Pritkin joined the staff of The Music Center Operating Company on September 8, 1970 as the Archivist for the Music Center. He was responsible for collecting, evaluating, systematizing, preserving, and making available for reference Music Center public records and documents of historical significance. Prior to Pritkin's arrival, Kenn Randall and Norman Macdonald, two of the Music Center's House Managers initiated the archives out of two small storage rooms in the Ahmanson Theatre. Randall and Macdonald undertook to collect historical items from the previous five years of the Center's existence. Because up until that time there was no plan to systematically retain these things, many were lost or scattered throughout the offices and even outside of the Music Center complex. Music Center chief administrator Bill Severns arranged for the purchase of the Raymond F. Barnes collection through the estate. This collection forms a nucleus of reference books and biographies, as well as historical items (mainly programs) covering much of the past of the Music Center and its Resident Groups, along with a wide selection of other theatres around the world. Shortly after Pritkin's hire, the Archives office was relocated to two rooms in the Ahmanson Annex where Pritkin was joined by Archives assistants James Davis and Larry Phillips. Pritkin's role as curator of the Music Center Archives continued until the arrival of Archivist Molly Paradiso circa 1990. Paradiso was joined by Julio Cesar Gonzalez circa 1993. Gonzalez worked as the Music Center Archivist for over two decades until his retirement on September 1, 2017.

Sources: Music Center Operating Company Bulletin, September 8, 1970., Paradiso, Molly. Music Center Operating Company memo, April 12, 1990., Paradiso, Molly, and Julio Gonzalez. Music Center Operating Company memo, July 1, 1993., and The Top O' The Mall IV, no. 1 (January 1971).

Processing information:

Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.

Processed by Kelly Besser, Genie Guerard and Octavio Olvera in 2018, with additional assistance from Tess Livesley-O'Neill in 2020.

The Music Center records were transferred to UCLA Library Special Collections in January 2018.

We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Potentially Offensive Description in Library Special Collections.

Arrangement:

This collection has been arranged in the following series based on the existing order of the records:

Series 1: Music Center Operating Company files, 1949-2017

Series 2: Otto Rothschild files, 1930-2004

Series 3: Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra files, 1909-2010

Series 4: Hollywood Bowl files, 1920-2014

Series 5: Los Angeles Civic Light Opera files, 1935-1998

Series 6: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion files, 1858-2017

Series 7: Center Theatre Group files, 1732-2010

Series 8: Fundraising organization files, 1962-2015

Series 9: Music Center Education Division files, 1970-2014

Series 10: Walt Disney Concert Hall files, 1974-2012

Series 11: Music Center Reference Library, 1872-2018

Series 12: Music Center memorabilia and ephemera, 1919-2018

Physical / technical requirements:

CONTAINS DIGITAL, AUDIO, AUDIOVISUAL MATERIALS: This collection contains both processed and unprocessed digital and audiovisual materials. Digital, audio, and audiovisual materials are not currently available for access, unless otherwise noted in a Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements note at the series and file levels. All requests to access processed digital, audio, and audiovisual] materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Physical location:
Portions of the collection stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.

Terms of access:

Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Music Center records (Collection 3261). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.

Location of this collection:
A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
Contact:
(310) 825-4988
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
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