The Muse Sculpture under construction
2301 Highland Avenue
Hollywood Hills Los Angeles, California
Circa 1939
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Although the Hollywood Bowl officially opened on July 11, 1922 it wasn't until July 8, 1940, that this sculpture known as "The Muse of Music" was added at the entrance, the day before the opening of the 19th season. Twenty-two feet high, 200 feet long and made from 300 tons of granite covered with decorative granite slabs it depicts a kneeling woman holding a harp, symbolizing the arts celebrated at the Bowl. On either side and below are smaller figures or "sisters" representing the Muses of Dance and Drama. The sculpture was constructed between 1938 and 1940. It serves as the official gateway to the Hollywood Bowl and was a large-scale W.P.A project (Works Progress Administration) Federal Arts Project that began constructing it for the Great Depression-era reflecting optimism for the enduring nature and power of art.
The sculpture was heralded as one of America's most ambitious art projects in 1939 when artists and craftmen were hired by the federal government. The project was led by Charles Toberman, the real estate developer of such Hollywood landmarks as the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel and Grauman's Chinese Theater. Toberman was president of the Hollywood Bowl Association for one season in 1923 and then from 1934 to 1950, and he petitioned the W.P.A in 1938 for the funds to build the fountain, as well as a tearoom and restrooms. In 1937, Toberman used $125,000 in W.P.A. funds to hire sculptor George Stanley. He asked Stanley to build a work of public art, which he called a "fountain complex" to mark the Bowl's entrance.
With the help of Los Angeles County Supervisor John Anson Ford*, Toberman got the project approved at the end of 1938. As sponsor, the county provided $1,000 for the materials and through the W.P.A. the federal government granted $100,000 for labor and construction. The Fountain was an immediate success as the gateway to the Bowl, quickly becoming an icon celebrated on posters and postcards.
Time was not kind to the Muses, however. In the early 2000s, pollutants and bird droppings eroded and discolored the surface of the sculptures and mineral deposits built up in the fountain pools. Weeds began to overgrow the fountain and the Bowl's managers, lacking the funds to do a proper restoration, planted hedges to cover up the statue which had become more of an eye-sore than an icon. In the 1990s, George Stanley's son, Maitland, lived in San Francisco. Once a year, he would drive down with his family to visit his favorite of his father's works, bringing gardening shears to cut back the shrubs growing over his father's name which was etched into the fountain's base.
In 2006, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the county and the Hollywood Bowl completed a major reconstruction project on the fountain, carefully restoring Stanley's design to its original luster adding modern waterproofing and plumbing upgrades. Maitland was in attendance for the second unveiling. At the unveiling, Maitland spoke these words ..
People aren't gonna believe that that enormous thing has been there this whole time!
Maitland Cotton Stanley
Not only was the Muse restored, but it became a defining structure for the Bowl, architecturally. And as the Bowl approached its 100th season, the restored and fresh-faced muses were poised to greet artists for years to come.
Designed by George Maitland Stanley (1903-1970) the sculpture was carved by Stanley, an American sculptor and a crew of stone cutters quarried near Victorville, California between 1938 and 1940. Cedric Gibbons (1893-1960) designed the Oscar statuette in 1928, but tasked the sculpting to Stanley.
Stanley, the 35-year-old artist selected for the massive fountain had worked on projects across Los Angeles, but he was best known for one of his smallest designs: the 13 1/2 inch Oscar statuette which he created at the behest of MGM art director Cedric Gibbons for the first Academy Awards in 1929.
Born in Louisiana, Stanley began drawing at the age of three. After moving to central California with his family, he came to Los Angeles to study at the Otis Art Institute, whre he ultimately ended up teaching for over 20 years. It was there that he found his calling in sculpture and he subsequently went to the Santa barbara School of the Arts to study bronze casting. After returning to Los Angeles, Stanley began to receive commissions for architectural carving and bas reliefs, both for private homes and for commercial and public buildings such as the Griffith Observatory where he was one of six sculptors contributing figures to the Five Astronomer's Monument, a Public Works of Art Project in 1934.
Five Astronomers Monument
Unlike the Observatory, a paragon of Art Deco design, the Muse statue at the Hollywood Bowl entrance belongs to a lesser known off-shoot of Art Deco, Streamline Moderne with simpler, more grounded, more horizontal and more utilitarian in design. Moderne reflects the decade of the 1930s, as Americans found ingenious ways to economize without compromise.
For the Hollywood Bowl Fountain complex, Stanley designed the three heroic sculptures in an Art Deco style. The central figure shows the kneeling Muse of Music playing a lyre (an ancient, harp-like stringed instrument). The Muse of Dance is posed mid-movement and the Muse of Drama holds the theater masks of comedy and tragedy. These figures were placed on a tiered fountain made from 1,180 tons of concrete and faed with more granite. Stanley envisioned the sculpture as both an entrance to the Bowl and to all of Hollywood, a city working to define itself as a creative and artistic capital.
Built against the backdrop of the Great Depression and with war threatening to engulf the world, the Muse of Music, Dance and Drama embodied the city of Los Angeles' resilent optimism that music and art would endure in difficult times.
As thousands of Angelenos pour into the Hollywood Bowl, most will pass beneath the kind and watchful gaze of the three muses, perched atop a Streamlined Moderne four-tiered fountain illuminated by dozens of lights hidden inside at the North Highland Avenue entrance in the Hollywood Hills area of LA.
George Stanley's Muse of Music, Dance and Drama alit at dusk
https://first100years.hollywoodbowl.com
Muse of Dance
*Ford cited the Muse as an example of the good that can be achieved when people work together for a common cause. He quoted, as he often did, his favorite author, Edward Everett Hale: Look outward and not inward upward and not downward forward and not backward and lend a hand. Ford went on to add: "To me, that is the important thing for the future of Bowl history .. to lend a hand. Ford saw to it that all the construction workers and artisans who lent a hand on the project were given free tickets to attend the Bowl that summer.
Streamline Moderne identifies the Hollywood Bowl's prevailing aesthetics. If you look around the Bowl today, you will see horizontal lines, rounded corners, natural embedded lighting. All these touches come directly from Stanley's creation and now give the Bowl a real Hollywood heyday vibe. While it was built as a testament to the muses of music, dance and drama, George Stanley's 1940s creation has become a muse unto itself, inspiring years of redevelopment at the Bowl and delighting the thousands of audience members and millions of drivers who pass by it every day .. if they happen to notice it.
Sidenote: If I lived in LA and drove by George Maitland Stanley's 1940 creation, I would notice it and would stop to take photos. Thank you George Maitland Stanley for your creation and to Maitland Cotton Stanley (1927-2009) for making us remember and restore your father's creation that was once hidden from view.
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