Abstract
The founding of the Hollywood Bowl belonged to the progressive movement that sought social and political change of American institutions; the Bowl resulted from community organizers' interest in an alternative forum for the arts. Sociologist Robert Putnam has noted that community is closely related to the idea of social capital, which entails forms of mutual obligation within social networks. Here, Marcus determines the social networks in three ways: in terms of the Bowl's founders, the music they sought to have performed at the Bowl, and finally the audiences who attended performances. To Association members, it was the product of the Progressive era's emphasis on the "civilizing" values of classical music and opera. To audiences the Bowl meant the opportunity to support the arts at only twenty-five cents per seat, all within the natural setting of a dell. While African Americans occasionally had the opportunity to perform religious or art music to black or mixed audiences, remarkably few Latino or Asian artists performed at the Bowl in its early years.