More Props for the Stagehands

I feel that the writers forgot to mention an important component of the Bowl. It’s odd that there is no mention of the local stage crew that has been doing the physical labor at the Bowl for 40 years or more. You covered all the drivers of the bus but not a word about the engine. Stage manager for a long time, Rusty Cole, and crew members J.O. Davis, Phil Ranucci, Kevin O’Dea, and many more put on show after show on a concrete apron while Old Spanish Days was storing costumes under the deck. The lighting was par cans on a couple of tresses held up by Genie lifts, that the brave of heart shinnied up to focus. Sound was stacked six high by brute force, and the sound boards themselves were carried by hand out over the lawn—yes, there was a lawn—to a couple of folding tables that was called the sound position.

Years have gone by and the crew organized and joined IATSE Local 442 which to this day provides the local stagehands that man and woman the Bowl. The Bowl has provided summer jobs for all these years for local labor, and the failure to cover that part of the history of the Bowl was a sorry oversight.