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TIME Magazine praised it as “perhaps the most impressive display of virtuoso money-raising and civic citizenship in the history of US womanhood.” Newspapers around the world acclaim it as altering the cultural trajectory of Los Angeles. They’re referring to the exemplary efforts of Dorothy Buffum Chandler in giving birth to the Music Center of Los Angeles County.
As the wife of Norman Chandler, whose family published The Los Angeles Times since 1883, Dorothy Buffum Chandler became active in Los Angeles cultural circles. Seeing the importance of building a home for the arts in Los Angeles, Dorothy Chandler forever changed the city when she agreed in 1955 to head a citizen’s committee to build a permanent home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Chandler championed the cause and expanded the goal to include a performing arts center.
On March 17, 1955, Chandler, along with Mrs. Henry Salvatori and Mrs. Lemuel Bancroft, co-chaired a benefit concert at the Ambassador Hotel featuring Dinah Shore, Danny Kaye and Jack Benny. Known as the famous El Dorado party (named for the Cadillac El Dorado which was auctioned at the soiree), the $1,000-per person event raised $400,000, launching Mrs. Chandler’s historic Music Center fundraising crusade. This fundraiser began a nine-year crusade that raised some $20 million of the estimated $35 million total cost; the remainder was paid through private bond sales.
“Chandler... almost single handedly raised a staggering $18.5 million to build the Music Center, and organized a company to float another $13.7 million in bonds to finish the job,” TIME magazine reported when it featured Mrs. Chandler on the cover of its December 18, 1964 issue.
The County of Los Angeles provided the site and architect Welton Becket designed the original complex. Construction began March 12,1962.
Chandler realized that one building would not be enough for the Center to showcase a rich array of performing genres. She determined the complex would be more culturally-relevant if it housed space not only for symphonic music and opera, but chamber music, and traditional and experimental theater. She soon found many donors for her expanded goal, among them Mark Taper who made the first $1 million donation in November 11, 1962 and Howard Ahmanson and the Ahmanson Foundation, the donors of $1.5 million in December 28, 1965.
The Los Angeles Music Center was dedicated on September 27, 1964 as “A Living Memorial to Peace,” becoming one of the most significant cultural accomplishments in the post-World War II history of Los Angeles. It held its first performance on December 6, 1964.
The complex was completed in 1967, comprising three venues: the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Mark Taper Forum and the Ahmanson Theatre. The Chandler Pavilion served as the home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic for 39 years, from 1964 until 2003. In that year, the Music Center celebrated another historic milestone: the debut of its fourth hall, the $274-million Walt Disney Concert Hall designed by Frank Gehry. This became the new home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Through the years, the Music Center has become an international performing arts venue and tourist destination. Today, more than forty years since its birth, the Center continues to celebrate its position as one of the world’s leading, iconic cultural centers for the performing arts.
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