Thursday, July 12, 2012

Happy Birthday Randy's Donuts & Hollywood Bowl

When I drove by this morning, the sky was not as blue (this picture is from October 2010) and there were birds sitting atop the donut like so many candles. Randy's Donuts, in case you missed the news last night, turned 60 yesterday (July 11, 2012).

And--how cool is this?--July 11, 2012 is the day Marty McFly arrived in the future, at 11:21 AM.

As for the Hollywood Bowl, it opened July 11, 1922, so it's NINETY. Can that be possible? Vintage Los Angeles (on FB) says it's so.

That was the date of the first Symphony Under the Stars, although the Los Angeles Library (where I found this photo) has shots of 50,000 people attending an Easter Sunrise Service earlier in the year. However, none of those pictures show a stage--only the audience.

The place used to be called Bolton Canyon, according to the Bowl's own history pages. Civic-minded folks got together as the Theater Arts Alliance and raised funds to buy 59 acres. They persuaded the LA Philharmonic to play for Easter Sunday services in 1921, and there were also choral performances and Shakespeare plays performed before the Bowl officially opened in 1922.

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