Hollywood Bowl
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I was 12 years old, sitting around with my friend Jimmy DeLoy, who was two or three years older, and we heard that Duke Ellington was going to be at the Hollywood Bowl that night. "Let's go."
Neither of us actually knew where the Hollywood Bowl was. Jimmy had never even been to Hollywood. A couple of busses got us to Hollywood Boulevard.
@ (see how we got directions to the Bowl on page )
At the Bowl, we got tickets for $.50 in the nosebleed section. There were maybe 50 people up there. The box seats were mostly filled. And few sitting in between.
Then the show starts. Not sure if there was an opening act. I do remember Duke Ellington, after playing one song, said he's so happy that we all came, but that the seating arrangement is crazy. So he invited all of us from the cheaper seats to come in and fill the closer seats. We got center box seats.
Then a great concert.
Now as you know, I don't like to shuffle with the exiting crowd. Jimmy and I were sitting there talking, and Duke Ellington came out to get his music off the piano.
He calls us over and says, You guys were the youngest people in the audience, what are you doing here? I say, We love your music. Did I play everything you wanted to hear? I said, I would've liked to hear Creole Love Song. And he said, Oh, that's an oldie, you really do listen to my music.
We exchange a few more words and then an awkward goodbye.
We walked to Hollywood Boulevard, and caught the bus home.
When I got back home it was 2 am, and my dad was waiting up for me. Where were you? The Hollywood Bowl, he said, Who was there? I said, Duke Ellington, he said, What did he play? I told him what I remembered.
My familiarity with Duke Ellington was mainly from my father.
He told me he'd never been to the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl calendar was in my pocket and I showed him how you could go hear rehearsals for free. Starting then, and increasingly more as he got older, and sometimes a few times a week in his last few years, he went to see rehearsals at the Hollywood Bowl.
How many shows, how many artists, how many times have I been? Not a clue. But multiple times, most summers, for 60 years.
Suzi and I lived with her mother on San Marco Drive, only a 20 minute walk away. We wandered over a few times to see if there were tickets for that same night.
Going with baby Thea, we learned the etiquette of sitting way up in the cheap seats in the baby ghetto.
When Hana came around we no longer lived close, we drove.
With Max I had my favorite parking lot. With Max in a Snuggly baby carrier we got to know Ken the Sax Man who busks at the Bowl. Ken asked 3 year old Max for a request. Max asked for the Flintstones. Ken has, for the last 40 years, always played at least a bit of that tune when we finish visiting.
After an appearance of the cast of The Three Amigos, four year old Hana and I went down the middle of the Bowl instead of exiting out the proper way. We got to the stage and she wanted a look. Martin Short came back to the stage, said hello, and gave Hana the Three Amigos salute.
When Suzi was exactly 9 months pregnant, we went to see Etta James and Lou Rawls. She started having contractions. I had asked for easy exit parking, but then someone blocked us. I had to inch the car out. A couple were possibly making a baby in a nearby car. He got out and helped me.
Noah was born at midnight.
Sarah, the kids, and I went to see Garrison Keillor. Baby Lily was uncomfortable. During the Visit to Lake Woebegone I walked around with sleepy Lily. Listening and walking with a baby. I was so happy.
Not shuffling out with the exiting crowd, we stay until the crowd leaves. The kids would keep themselves occupied by collecting and piling the hundreds of rented cushions. They got to know many of the staff. We met Mark who worked there, he was kind to the kids. He promised them jobs when they were ready. Frannie got a job at one of the Bowl restaurants.
Once we were graduated from the baby ghetto, I got seats through the group sales office. We got a reduced price, and usually better seats. I would buy 10 to 12 tickets. The kids had room for a nap. And a ticket to Ken on the way in.
The story of Noah’s birth won Sarah and me box seats in a contest on the Bowl website.
As the kids got older we would still buy cheaper tickets, but then liberate better seats if the event didn’t sell out. Often, they don’t sell all 18,000 seats.
As they got older their enthusiasm about the place lessened. Now, Thea completely boycotts the place. I’ve wondered if this is her being an introvert or maybe some bad memories.
There are so many performances at the Bowl I remember, I’ll spare you those stories.
Except these….
I saw James Brown perform in the 70s in a little place that maybe held 100 people. He put on such a show, and had each and every one of us in control. We saw him at the Bowl. He had control of 18,000 people. It was amazing.
A couple years ago we went with Frannie and the boys to see cartoons on the big Hollywood Bowl screens with the philharmonic supplying the music. There was a point where someone was onstage droning information about Bugs Bunny and the Warner Brothers and two year-old Zephyr heckled, “More cartoons, please!”
Another time with Frannie to hear classical music. We were a little late. We came in and there was a young violinist playing. Frannie and I both said that this young man was going places. An amazing talent! It turned out he was Joshua Bell. We got to nod a hello to him when we exited down towards the stage.
We went to see a concert production of Jesus Christ Superstar, Cynthia Erivo played JC. When she sang the Garden of Gethsemane song, the doubt song, she traveled far beyond the stage, she went somewhere else, and took the entire audience with her. Perhaps the best word to use is we were enraptured.
Maybe more Hollywood Bowl stories if there is another volume.