The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre and public park in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the ten best live music venues in the United States by Rolling Stone magazine in 2018 and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2023.
The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distinctive bandshell, originally a set of concentric arches that graced the site from 1929 through 2003, before being replaced with a larger one to begin the 2004 season. The shell is set against the backdrop of the Hollywood Hills and the Hollywood Sign to the northeast.
The "bowl" refers to the shape of the concave meadow or dell, originally called Daisy Dell, into which the amphitheatre is carved. The Bowl is owned by the County of Los Angeles and is the home of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the summer home of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the host venue for hundreds of musical events each year.
Located on North Highland Avenue, it is north of Hollywood Boulevard and approximately 1 mile (1.6 km) from the Hollywood/Highland Metro Rail station. It is adjacent to U.S. Route 101.
History
Siting and opening The site of the Hollywood Bowl was chosen in 1919 by William Reed and his son H. Ellis Reed, who were dispatched to find a suitable location for outdoor performances by the members of the newly formed Theatre Arts Alliance, headed by Christine Wetherill Stevenson. The Reeds selected a natural theater, a shaded canyon and popular picnic spot known as Daisy Dell in Bolton Canyon, which was chosen for its natural acoustics and its proximity to downtown Hollywood. The Community Park and Art Association, then headed by F. W. Blanchard, was the first organization to begin building the Bowl.
One of the earliest performances at the Bowl was Hollywood High School's Performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. The Women's World Peace Concert was held on November 11, 1921. On November 11, 1921, the first Sunrise Service took place at the bowl, in one of its first major events. With the building of the first actual stage, consisting of little more than wooden platforms and canvas, The Bowl officially opened on July 11, 1922.
Community function The Bowl began as a community space rather than a privately owned establishment. Proceeds from the early events at the Bowl went to financing the construction of new elements of the bowl such as a stage and seating in 1922 and 1923 respectively. In 1924, a backdrop to the stage was added.
During the early years of the Bowl's existence, concert tickets were kept at the lowest available price of 25 cents using the slogan popular prices will prevail, coined by F.W. Blanchard. While serving as the venue for concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Bowl also served as a community space, used for Easter services, the Hollywood Community Chorus, as well as Young Artists Nights where younger musicians could perform well-known classical music. Children were also invited to perform at community events with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Hollywood Community Chorus, beginning with Sibelius' Finlandia in 1921.
The Bowl hosted a variety of Native American tribal events, as well as international music ensembles.
In 1924, the land was deeded to the County of Los Angeles.
Women in the Bowl Many of the key influential figures in the founding of the Hollywood Bowl were women, most notably the pianist Artie Mason Carter, whose connections with the Los Angeles arts patrons were vital in the early days of the Bowl's existence. Christine Wetherill Stevenson and Marie Rankin Clarke both donated $21,000 to purchase the land on which the bowl was built. E.J. Wakeman, Leiland Atherton Irish, Harriet Clay Penman, and composers Gertrude Ross and Carrie Jacobs Bond all contributed to the Bowl through fundraising drives. Josephine P. Everett was a financial contributor as well.
Band shells
Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. (commonly known as Lloyd Wright) designed the second and third band shells. The original 1926 shell, designed by the Allied Architects Association, was considered unacceptable both visually and acoustically. Wright's 1927 shell had a pyramidal shape and a design reminiscent of southwest Indigenous architecture. Its acoustics generally were regarded as the best of any shell in Bowl history. But its appearance was considered too avant-garde, or even ugly, and it was demolished at the end of the season. His 1928 wooden shell had the now-familiar concentric ring motif, covered a 120-degree arc, and was designed to be easily dismantled. Unfortunately it was neglected and ruined by water damage.
For the 1929 season, the Allied Architects built the shell that stood until 2003, using a transite skin over a metal frame. Its acoustics, though not nearly as good as those of the Lloyd Wright shells, were deemed satisfactory at first, and its clean lines and white, semicircular arches were copied for music shells elsewhere. As the acoustics deteriorated, various measures were used to mitigate the problems, starting in the 1970s with an inner shell made from large cardboard tubes, which were replaced in the early 1980s by large fiberglass spheres (both designed by Frank GehryIsenberg, Barbara. Conversations with Frank Gehry. Knopf, 2009, p. 107.) that remained until 2003.
These dampened the unfavorable acoustics, but required massive use of electronic amplification to reach the full audience, particularly since the background noise level had risen sharply since the 1920s. The appearance underwent other visual changes as well, including the addition of a broad outer arch (forming a proscenium) where it had once had only a narrow rim, and a reflecting pool in front of the stage that lasted from 1953 till 1972. Sculptor George Stanley, designer of the Oscar statuette, designed the Muse Fountain which has stood outside the Hollywood Bowl's main entrance since 1940.
Shortly after the end of the 2003 summer season, the 1929 shell was replaced with a new, somewhat larger, acoustically improved shell, which had its debut in the 2004 summer season. Preservationists fiercely opposed the demolition for many years, citing the shell's storied history. However, even when it was built, the 1929 shell was (at least acoustically) only the third-best shell in the Bowl's history, behind its two immediate predecessors. By the late 1970s, the Hollywood Bowl became an acoustic liability because of continued hardening of its transite skin. The new shell incorporates design elements of not only the 1929 shell, but of both the Lloyd Wright shells. During the 2004 summer season, the sound steadily improved, as engineers learned to work with its live acoustics.
The current sound reinforcement system is a line-array configuration of multiple loudspeaker enclosures hung vertically in a curved manner, with the lower enclosures facing the front sections, and the upper enclosures angled towards the rear sections. It is manufactured by L-Acoustics, and includes state-of-the-art audio processing, allowing each individual loudspeaker enclosure to be "tuned" and directed towards the near-precise location of the listener, regardless of where in the venue they are sitting. This results in the audience in the rear sections hearing the same audio, at the same level, as in the front sections.
This electronic processing includes sound level, frequency equalization, occasional special effects, and time delay. Sound passes through wire much faster than through air, therefore the sound coming from the speakers must be delayed, allowing the actual sound from the stage to "catch up" so both sources reach the listeners' ears simultaneously. The system is maintained by Rat Sound Systems, the same company that has provided audio for the Coachella Festival, since its inception.
The 2004 shell incorporates the prominent front arch of the 1926 shell, the broad profile of the 1928 shell, and the unadorned white finish (and most of the general lines) of the 1929 shell. In addition, the ring-shaped structure hung within the shell, supporting lights and acoustic clouds, echoes a somewhat similar structure hung within the 1927 shell. During the 2004 season, because the back wall was not yet finished, a white curtain was hung at the back; beginning with the 2005 season, the curtain was removed to reveal a finished back wall. The architectural design for the shell was developed by the Los Angeles-based architectural practice Hodgetts + Fung, with the structural concept developed by the local office of Arup.
At the same time the new shell was being constructed, the bowl received four new video screens and towers. During most concerts, three remotely operated cameras in the shell, and a fourth, manually operated camera among the box seats, provide the audience with close-up views of the musicians.
On November 11, 2025, the Los Angeles Philharmonic named the concert stage after film composer John Williams, the first in the venue's 103-year history to have that honor.
Hollywood Bowl Orchestra(s) The Hollywood Bowl has had several house orchestras. A "Bowl Orchestra" performed in 1925, and a "Hollywood Bowl Orchestra" made a live recording in 1928. Later, the "Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra" made several classical recordings under music director Leopold Stokowski from 1945 to 1946, and released a number of recordings on the Capitol Records label in the 1950s and 1960s.
The Hollywood Bowl Orchestra was re-launched by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in 1991 under principal conductor John Mauceri, who finished his tenure in 2006.
Early conductors The first appointed conductor of the Bowl ensemble was Emil Oberhoffer, who served for one year. Oberhoffer was preceded by Alfred Hertz for two years. In 1925 Fritz Reiner migrated to the orchestra from the Cincinnati Symphony. Reiner was supplanted by Sir Henry Wood several years later. German-born Frederick Stark, who would later become a music librarian at Walt Disney Studios, occasionally served as conductor.Variety Radio Directory
Early ballet and opera Ballet dancer Maud Allen performed during the production of the Pathétique Symphony by Tschaikowsky under the direction of Alfred Hertz in 1926. Ernest Belcher arranged a ballet scene for Bowl Dedication Night, and dancers from the Belcher Ballet School performed the Beautiful Galatea, Enchanted Hour, and Venesive Festival. In 1932, the Belcher's ballet was performed in Greek Costumes as a dedication to the Olympic-Games Athletes. Alexis and Theodore Kosloff performed the ballet Scheherazade with dancers from Hollywood and the Klosloff Dancing School. In 1932, Theodore Klosloff performed the Flower. Also in 1932, the ballet Chopiniana was performed.
Ballet Dancers Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn performed solo dances under direction of Hertz in 1927. Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn raised their arms to point at the California Stars during the Russian Ballet sur le point at the Hollywood Bowl. In 1928, Andreas Pavley, a tenor, and Serge Oukrainsky, a ballet dancer, performed at the Hollywood Bowl. Oukrainsky performed in the ballet La Fete a Robinson alone after Pavley's death. In 1929, Norma Gould brought her Los Angeles dancers to the bowl to perform during Schubert's Unfinished Symphony and Tschaikowsky's Nut-Cracker Suite. In August 1930, Michio Ito brought five dancers to the Hollywood Bowl to perform in the Russian Ballet Prince Igor. In 1931, Adolph Bolm performed at the Bowl for Debussy's Les Nuages. He also performed The Spirt factory. This was later called the Mechanical Ballet, composed by Alaxander Mosolov. Dancers Elise Reiman and Robert Bell also performed in the Mechanical Ballet.