'Driving to the Bowl' Exhibition at Hollywood Bowl Opens; Auto Club Vintage Photos and Maps Featured at Museum

HOLLYWOOD, Calif.--June 24, 2005--Did you know that the Hollywood Bowl, one of Southern California's cultural icons, helped to shape transportation in the region?

In a new exhibition produced by the Automobile Club of Southern California in cooperation with The Edmund D. Edelman Hollywood Bowl Museum, the design of Highland Avenue, the ceremonial role of Hollywood Boulevard and development of Cahuenga Pass are all traced through vintage photographs and maps.

The year-long exhibition, "Driving to the Bowl," is now open at the premier summer cultural venue with photographs and maps from the Auto Club Corporate Archives and the Hollywood Bowl Collection. The exhibit will be open 10 a.m. until show time Tuesdays through Saturday. The hours are 4 p.m. until show time on Sundays. The show will switch to off-season hours on Sept. 19, 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. The exhibition will continue through June 23, 2006.

"The Hollywood Bowl has been a central part of Los Angeles cultural life since it opened in 1922," said the Auto Club's Historian Matthew Roth. "This exhibit shows how it also had a profound impact on development patterns in the Cahuenga Pass areas and the other transportation patterns throughout much of the city."

The exhibition features vintage photographs and historical information about Hollywood Boulevard, Highland Avenue, the Cahuenga Pass and the Hollywood Freeway. The exhibit also features original artwork for the Auto Club's historic maps, hand-drawn ink-on-vellum renderings, which offer a unique insight into the creation of maps that accompanied growth of regional transportation networks. For example, the exhibit features the Auto Club's 1912 "Automobile Touring Route from Los Angeles through San Fernando Valley and Return."

Roth, and Archivist Morgan Yates and the Hollywood Bowl's Curator Carol Merrill-Mirsky produced the show. Hunt Design of Pasadena created the exhibit design which was customized for the second-floor gallery.

"We considered an exhibit about maps of the Hollywood Bowl area for a long time," said Merrill-Mirsky. "We realized that a partnership with the Auto Club involving the curators and collections from each institution would be much stronger."

Along with the natural amphitheatre's grounds, the exhibition is free to Auto Club members and the public.

The Hollywood Bowl is located at 2301 N. Highland Ave., Hollywood. From the Hollywood (101) Freeway, exit at Highland Avenue. The museum is located on the Hollywood Bowl grounds, adjacent to the Patio Restaurant. For more museum information, call 323-850-2058.