In my view, the Hollywood Bowl is fairly spectacular no matter which angle you shoot it from, no matter the time of day, no matter the season. But aerial shots of the place really do show how spectacular it is. This one was taken in 1929 after the Bowl got its 4th shell. That’s the one made of concentric circles that we all think of whenever we think of the Bowl. This shot also shows how far back the last row is and yet when you’re there, it doesn’t seem quite so far.
This is roughly how that view looked in December 2023:
Martin, thank you for the memories. Yes, the key word here is spectacular.
This place literally takes your breath away. It defines Hollywood.
They have asked me a couple of times to be a host there, but I’m working at Warner Brothers in tours. Yes, built in 1929 (the inconic white shell), and there’s a story about a wealthy woman ( heiress to the Pittsburgh Paint Company) who suggested an outdoor theatre be built on the land, which was being used for silent films at the time. That’s how it began. No surprise, Frank Lloyd Wright had a hand in the structure, who was building homes for the stars. Across the street is the historic studio museum, originally a horse barn! — that was converted into a small movie studio for Cecil B. DeMille. Highland Avenue has a ton of great stores.
Tom, the studio museum you mention, which now rests on the parking lot for the Hollywood Bowl, across Highland Avenue from the Bowl, is the historic Lasky-DeMille Barn which originally was located on the corner of Selma and Vine Streets. It is the birthplace of Paramount Pictures and in its present location houses the Hollywood Heritage Museum. Anyone who is interested in the early motion picture industry and/or Hollywood should support and visit this oldest and largest artifact of Hollywood’s early motion picture industry which has Cecil B. DeMille’s office inside and has fabulous programs and exhibits. See more at http://www.HollywoodHeritage.org.
You are right, Alan. The horse barn should have been on wheels! It was the birthplace of Paramount Pictures, used in many of their westerns. When the lot was reconconstructed, rather than tear it down, the barn was moved across from the Bowl. Definitely a beloved piece of history. There are many fond stories about that little building, and if that structure could talk, all that it has seen. You have to chuckle a bit, it’s not always the fancy, glittering buildings in Hollywood that have all the history.