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Draft:Frederick Woodward Blanchard

Frederick Woodward Blanchard (1864-1928) was an American entrepreneur, businessman, impressario, civic activist and civic leader in Los Angeles, California. Blanchard involved himself in a wide range of music and arts ventures, and was a vigorous proponent of the development of Los Angeles infrastructure and social capital during a period - 1890 to 1920 - when the city grew in size from 50,000 to 580,000 inhabitants.[1] In the two decades before World War I he was arguably the city's leading advocate of affordable concert music.[2]

Blanchard founded a music business in Los Angeles in 1889; in 1899 he was responsible for the construction of Blanchard Hall, a large-scale rehearsal, arts and performance venue which he ran for 20 years. He was the organiser of, or sat on, numerous committees and commissions for the improvement of Los Angeles covering facets such as its arterial road system; municipal art; the development of its civic center; ornamental lighting and, more generally city planning. He acted as chair of the Police and Firemen's Relief Fund, of the first Los Angeles Community Chest, and of the reception committee for the visit of Albert I of Belgium to the city. He also founded a Brahms Quintet, and later acted as president of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra.

With others, he formed the Community Park and Arts Association of Hollywood in 1920, serving as President from 1920-23, during which period it established the Hollywood Bowl. He was also involved in a plethora of other clubs and associations, notably including the Gamut Club and the Los Angeles Country Club.

Biography

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Early life

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Frederick Woodward Blanchard was born on August 25, 1864 in West Millbury,Massachusetts, the son of John Sibley and Harriett (Putnam) Blanchard. He was one of six children. He had two brothers, Henry Wright and Steven and three sisters, Nelly Marie, Anne Louise and Elizabeth. After Los Angeles became Blanchard’s permanent home, his sisters Anne Louise and Elizabeth moved relocated to Los Angeles.

Blanchard’s father was the owner of a shirt factory in West Millbury and later acquired the “Albany house”, a hotel on North Beacon Street in Boston. The family moved to Boston and Blanchard worked as a clerk at the hotel with his siblings.

Blanchard supplemented his public schooling by a course in the Boston Latin School, Boston, Massachusetts.

At the age of sixteen years, Blanchard toured various countries of Europe for two years.

He returned to the US in 1882 and settled in Denver, Colorado, where he first worked in a music store as pianist and piano tuner and later, in partnership, opened a music store - Clark and Blanchard. Blanchard sold his interest in that venture in 1889, and moved to Los Angeles, California.

<<<< Fredrick W. Blanchard, b. Millburg, Mass., 1864; d. Los Angeles, 1928. Blanchard graduated from Boston Latin School and probably traveled and studied abroad before going to Los Angeles in 1886. In partnership with James T. Fitzgerald, he opened Blanchard-Fitzgerald Hall in their music store in 1896. In 1899, he opened the Blanchard Music and Art Building, with studio space for 150 musicians and artists, an art gallery, and an 800-seat recital hall, in which he presented recital series by local chamber music groups. He organized the Los Angeles Art Commission in 1904 and served on it until his death. He raised the $10,000 prize, secured the convention, and served as impresario for the production of Horatio Parker's opera, Fairyland, at the convention of the National Federation of Music Clubs in Los Angeles in 1915. No collection of Blanchard's papers has been located.{{sfn|Smith|1993|p=238} >>>>

Business in LA

 
Blanchard Hall - 233 South Broadway, Los Angeles

After settling in Los Angeles, Blanchard formed a partnership with J.T. Fitzgerald and they founded a music company that sold pianos and other musical instruments. It was located in the retail district of Los Angeles, near Spring and First streets. The business soon gained recognition as the leading music firm in Southern California, a position which it retained during the later years through its progressive and up-to-date policies.

In 1899 he opened the Blanchard Hall Music and Art building which contained a recital hall and studio space; promoted a wide variety of musical events on his own account at the venue, employing local musicians.[2]

On February 24, 1898, Blanchard signed a contract with Harris Newmark to construct a $75,000 four-story building on the West side of Broadway, between second and third streets, devoted from the ground up to Music and Art. The architect was Abram W. Edelman and the building, was erected wholly under the supervision of Blanchard.

The entire ground floor of the building was to be occupied by Blanchard’s existing business,The Blanchard Piano Company, the second floor a concert hall with special acoustics and a seating capacity of approximately 500, a banquet hall and ante-rooms featuring every modern convenience. The third floor was divided into studios to be occupied by musicians and artists and the fourth floor, a large Art Gallery with a lighted dome. Every detail of the building was designed with the most up to date amenities - steam heat, electricity, elevators, plate glass, wrought iron, mosaic tiling in the rotunda on the ground floor, using the best materials available.

On June 12, 1899 Blanchard Hall opened to the public. It was the first building West of Chicago devoted exclusively to music and art. The following day, an article in the Los Angeles Herald described the opening event as “eminently successful from every point of view”. The Art Gallery featured several popular local artists, of which many had their own art studios in the building including Laura King, Florine Hyer, J. Bond Francisco. Popular artists Paul de Longpre and Ada Shahan had paintings featured in the Art Gallery and the Ruskin Art Club studios displayed many of their fine art collections. The music studios were occupied by local musicians, performers, educators and music teachers, including F. A. Bacon, Paul Jennison, Arthur Perry, Mary Belle Daily, Franklin Campbell, Adele Stoneman, Myrtle Cannady and Professor WilhartItz among others. Arguably, the most famous tenant was actor Charlie Chaplin who rented a studio for his publishing business, “Charlie Chaplin Music Publishing Company”.

At the opening night reception, Blanchard was presented with a solid sliver and cut glass loving cup that stood on a mahogany pedestal. The cup was a gift from the artists and musicians in the building as a testimonial of esteem for what Blanchard was endeavoring to do for those professions. The cup was engraved “To Frederick W. Blanchard, in grateful appreciation from the musicians and music lovers of Los Angeles, June 12, 1899”. Blanchard was sympathetic to young struggling artists and musicians and would delay, or reduce rent, even picking up a rent burden from time to time.

On June 13, 1904, Blanchard announced that Blanchard Hall would be enlarged with an addition that would extend from the current Broadway location all the way through to Hill Street. When the addition was completed, the building had a depth of 327 feet, it was sixty feet wide and five stories high. There were two large auditoriums. The largest had a seating capacity of 900 and the other a 500 seat capacity. There was a banquet hall and kitchen for the use of societies, receptions and dance parties.

The retail stores on the ground floor were occupied by the Bartlett Music Company on the north side of the building. The south side on Broadway along with the entire frontage on Hill street was occupied by the J. W. Robinson Company (the Boston Store). A. W. Edelman was the supervising Architect and designed the plans for the addition which was paved with specially designed mosaic and wainscoted with marble.

Although Music and Art continued to be Blanchard’s priority, he was also engaged in multiple civic projects and activities that were demanding more of his time. With the new expansion, Blanchard booked much larger events and it soon became a popular venue for visiting dignitaries, guest speakers and important civic and community related events. Blanchard’s involvement and leadership in numerous organizations made the venue a convenient option for meetings of civic and historic significance.

During the early twentieth century, Blanchard Hall was considered one of the most important public buildings in Los Angeles, along with other notable structures in the city including the Federal Building, the County Courthouse, the Hall of Records, City Hall, the Shrine Temple, the YMCA, the Bible Institute and the Trinity auditoriums.

Source: Credit Line: Library of Congress

Stanford, Harold Melvin, Ed. . Chicago, National encyclopedia company, 1923. Pdf. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/23017447/>.

National Encyclopedia for the Home, School and Library, Vol. V. , National Encyclopedia

(insert major events , suffrage movement, President Taft’s visit to Blanchard Hall, Good Roads Meeting - Resolutions passed, etc)

Impressario Activities

Blanchard is identified as the leading advocate of affordable concert music for the people of Los Angeles in the Progressive Era, the twenty-year period before World War I. He organised concerts and music education events from the mid-1890s, and from 1899 recitals held at his Blanchard Hall premises. His slogan for these was "popular prices will prevail".[2] Further series of concerts and lecture courses are noted in the 1901 to 1905 period.[3]

Blanchard brought innumerable international music celebrities and dignitaries to Los Angeles. It was during this time that Blanchard founded and directed the popular Brahms Quintet. The musicians were Oskar Seiling, first violin; Hermann Seidel, second violin; Rudolph Kopp, viola; Axel Simonsen, violincello; and Homer Grunn, piano. The group performed regularly at Blanchard Hall as part of Blanchard’s concert series.

<<<< 8. Although Blanchard sponsored some excellent performances, both under his own name and that of the Blanchard & Venter Concert and Lyceum Bureau, he failed to compete with L. E. Behymer's more commercially based, frankly elitist concert series, first offered in 1902. Between 1899 and 1920, Blanchard also sponsored chamber music series by such local groups as the Lott-Krauss ensemble and the Brahms Quintet, in his own downtown recital hall.{{sfn|Smith|1993|p=233} >>>>

Lynden Behymer


Civic activism & leadership

For forty-two years, Blanchard was involved in most every major civic project in the City and County of Los Angeles. As President of the Central Development Association, he planned and initiated a wide range of projects, of which many became landmarks of the city and still endure today.

Blanchard’s most notable civic contributions to Los Angeles include the work he did for the Los Angeles Municipal Art Commission, the new City Hall Building, and the new City Union Station, the “Good Roads” Commission, the Ornamental Street Lighting System, the Fairyland American Opera and the Hollywood Bowl. The Bowl project provided Blanchard with an opportunity to use all of his skills and talents (business experience, music and art connections and civic sensibilities) in addition to the financial support he provided. He was the first President of the Hollywood Bowl.

An excerpt from Blanchard’s eulogy, printed in the Los Angeles Times, October 4, 1928, summarized some of his most important contributions:

”The work of Fred W. Blanchard will live as long as the Civic Center he took so large a part planning. Not in the Hollywood Cemetery but in America’s noblest City Hall he has reared his most lasting monument. When the Hollywood Bowl vibrates with its starlight symphonies, his spirit is there. Whenever the Municipal Art Commission devises new means for beautifying our city, a seed he planted flowers again.”

Municipal Art Commission

In early (1906), (?) Blanchard organized an Art Commission and became its secretary. The commission gained official recognition and became the Municipal Art Commission, under the Los Angeles City Charter on September 5, 1911. Blanchard was named President. He served on the commission in various appointments and again served as President and chaired the commission from August 2, 1922 and every succeeding year until his death in 1928.

Blanchard was one of the organisers of Los Angeles's Municipal Art Commission, which was constituted from (1904), (?) and from 1911 written into the city's charter. He chaired the commission until his death.[2]

In honor of his service and contribution to community art and music endeavors, a memorial portrait of Blanchard was commissioned after his death. On December 6, 1931, his portrait, the work of local artist, Max Wieczorek, was hung in the Municipal Art Commission’s office located in Los Angeles City Hall. The portrait remained there until it was reported stolen in early 2000. The portrait has not been recovered.

City Hall - Los Angeles

In 1926, Los Angeles began construction of a new City Hall. Blanchard, in his capacity as President of the Central Development Association, took a leading role in the planning and building of this new city landmark, which opened shortly before his death in 1928. He headed the committee that selected the inscriptions to be placed over the main entrance of the building and served on the committee that selected and developed the design on the bronze entrance doors that featured Illustrations of important events in the city’s history. Blanchard also organized the effort to establish a permanent art exhibit at City Hall, a venue that he thought could promote the work of local artists. He obtained and organized a small collection of paintings for the new building’s opening.

(insert information regarding the architects and Blanchard’s relationship with them on other projects)

Union Station - Los Angeles

Blanchard was an early advocate of an adequate railway passenger station, and in his role as chairman of the Union Station commission, he helped to drive the development of the station after city engineers recommended the plaza site Northwest of Pacific Center downtown, across the street from Olvera Street, Fred help city officials with their plan to build a legal efforts to compel the railroads to build a station.

“It was Blanchard however, who was among the most tireless advocates for Union Station. Blanchard was the developer of the eponymous Blanchard Hall, a multi venue, building for theater arts, and presided on the Broadway Boulevard improvement Association. When the Los Angeles, Union Station association was established, Blanchard was also serving on the municipal art commission with John Parkinson, one of the most prominent architects in Los Angeles, who, along with his son Donald would later be named as the consulting architect for Los Angeles union station”.

Source: Los Angeles Union Station, Marilyn Musicant, William Deverell, Matthew W. Roth, Getty Publications, www.getty.edu/publications, ISBN 978-1-60606-324-8, Copyright 2014, J. Paul Getty Trust

Notes: Blanchard, F.W. (Frederick Woodward) civic activities of, 97-98n11, 98-99n41, 99n3 economic interest in union station plan, 27 and mayors committee on Sachse Report, 100n24

Support of Union Station plan, 11, 29, 97n11, 98n24

After the resolution of several legal and political issues, the major railroads -Southern Pacific, Union Pacific, Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe - began cooperatively constructing the station.

Architects John Parkinson and his son Donald B. Parkinson (the designers of City Hall and many other early 20th century, Los Angeles landmark buildings) were hired to design Union Station, a combination of Spanish Colonial Revival and Art Deco architecture. Union Station opened in May of 1939.

Good Roads Commission - Los Angeles

Blanchard served as the Los Angeles county chairman and vice president of the good roads commission. The purpose of the commission was to gain support for a bond measure to upgrade and connect the major roads in Los Angeles and the neighboring cities and counties.

On July 11, 1908 a meeting of the Good Roads Commission held a convention at Blanchard Hall to gain endorsements for the good roads campaign. Blanchard chaired the meeting and passionately urged the audience to continue working towards getting the $3,500,000 bond measure passed. The convention endorsed the Good Roads campaign and unanimously passed two supporting resolutions.

(insert copy of resolutions)

The special election was held on July 30, 1908 and the bond measure passed. The work to construct 307 miles of highways that would connect Los Angeles to every other community in the county was the beginning of the major highway systems in California.

Ornamental Cluster Lighting System -Los Angeles

Blanchard initiated the installation of the first ornamental cluster lighting system in Los Angeles. He formed the Broadway Improvement Association, a group of business owners dedicated to advancing the cluster lighting system in the city. Blanchard was president of the organization, Clover P. Whitney, secretary, and J.M. Schneider, treasurer. Blanchard’s plan to electrically illuminate the city called for the lighting to be installed first on Broadway Boulevard then on Hill, Main and Spring Streets. Blanchard presented his idea to the Association and it was overwhelming embraced by the Broadway merchants.

Workers quickly began installing approximately 135 attractive iron posts on both sides of Broadway staggering them on the curbs and placing four posts at each intersection. Each post held seven opaque bulbs, one large bulb encircled by six smaller ones.

(Insert photo)

On May 7, 1905, ? the inauguration of the new lighting system took place. Elaborate plans were made to celebrate the history making event including a large parade and a Japanese Lantern Festival. The event was attended by ____ thousand people. The night’s festivities began when Mayor McAleer pulled the handle of the electrical switch. The lights flickered and then burst into full illumination. The crowd delivered thunderous cheers and applause.

After Broadway was fully illuminated, the parade began. The Catalina Band led the way, followed by the Mayor and then Mr. Blanchard, President of the Broadway Development Improvement Association, along with the other Association members. The Hill Street Association float followed, a signal that Hill Street was next in line for the lights. The float featured “Miss Broadway” wrapped in a coronation robe with six ladies-in-waiting surrounding her, each holding a scepter that symbolized the city’s civic progress. It was followed by many other floats from notable organizations, including the Fraternal Brotherhood, the Y.M.C.A, Triangle Cadet Corps and the Los Angeles Military Academy Cadets. A colorful line of automobiles followed the floats, each decorated with flags, streamers, and flowers. The Schoneman Blanchard Military band led this entourage.

When the parade arrived at Temple Street, members could glimpse the County Courthouse, marking the northern turning point. At Temple Street, parade members made a U-turn to the north and marched back down the other side of Broadway to seventh Street. At seventh Street and Broadway, the committee that organized the work, and the men who directed it for several months, were met by Colonel J. B. Lankershim, who escorted them to his hotel for an informal supper. The celebration continued into the night, with the crowds waving lanterns, flags, and streamers until the Broadway lights shut down at midnight.

With the success of the cluster lighting system, Blanchard acquired the informal title “Father of the Lighting System in Los Angeles”. The success also drew national attention, as well as praise from famed civic architect, Charles, Mulford, Robinson, who reportedly called the street lamps, “the most beautiful in the nation.”

On January 17, 1920, the Broadway Improvement Association presented a new lighting system to the City of Los Angeles. Blanchard again headed the effort as President of the Association and made the presentation to the Mayor and gave a brief speech. The new lighting system, referred to as the “Radiant Way” consisted of luminous arc lamps giving six to seven times the light of the old cluster lights they replaced. Two hundred and sixty-eight posts were installed, each carrying two lamps. The total cost of the system was approximately $100,000. Walter d’Arcy Ryan, director of the illuminating engineering laboratory of the General Electric Company designed and planned the lighting system.

A street celebration took place after the official program ended. An estimated 100,00 people attended the lighting ceremony and came to enjoy the street carnival afterwards. Sid Grauman, owner of Grauman’s Chinese Theater arranged for celebrities to attend the event. The celebrities included Charlie Chaplin, “Fatty” Arbuckle and Gloria Swanson.

Fairyland Opera - Los Angeles

In 1912(?), Mrs. Jason Walker, chairman of the American Music Division of the National Federation of Music Clubs proposed that the Federation offer a prize for the best original American opera. Her committee suggested Los Angeles as a site for the opera debut performance since thousands would be traveling to the coast for the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco.

Mrs. Walker contacted Blanchard, President of the American Opera Association of Los Angeles to set up a meeting to discuss the possibility of the event being hosted by Los Angeles. Mrs. Walker and Mrs. David Allen Campbell traveled to Los Angeles and met with Blanchard to discuss the proposal. Recognizing a great artistic opportunity for the city, he assured them that he would be able to form a committee and develop a plan. He also agreed to serve as the committee’s chairman and was responsible for raising the $10,000 prize money for the new American opera which resulted in the National Federation of Music Clubs choosing Los angeles for its 1915, “Congress of Musicians - Ninth Biennial Convention and Festival of Music”.

Horatio Parker won the contest for his Opera “Fairyland” and was awarded the $10,000 prize. The opera premiered in Los Angeles on June 24, 1915 at the Clune’s Auditorium located at 5th & Olive Streets and ran through July 3, 1915. The opera was a major success, selling out every night??

(Insert program)

Music by Horacio Parker, Libretto by Brian Hooker, Conductor - Alfred Hertz, Artists from Metropolitan All-Star Cast, (Marcella Craft), Chorus of 125, Orchestra of 100, Ballet of 30, Ticket prices $1.00 - $4.00.

(Horacio Parker’s papers regarding the Fairyland opera are located at Yale University).

(insert letter, ticket stubs, etc.)

Hollywood Bowl

 
Hollywood Bowl in 1922

The early history of the Hollywood Bowl is described by Catherine Parsons Smith[a] as contentious; the Bowl emerged out of a collective desire on the part of many groups and individuals interested in arts in Los Angeles for a permanent outdoor venue for productions; but also involved a series of events, initiatives and leaders, each one displacing previous ones.[4] An official history issued in 1926 summarises, but also elides, the diversity of antecedents.[4] Blanchard is described by Smith as a 'major figure' in its early history.[2]

Two key early outdoor productions, associated with the Los Angeles Theosophical Society, in part led to, or were followed by, the creation of the Theatre Arts Alliance; accounts vary as to its initiation, but Theodore Perceval Gerson and H. Gale Atwater are identified as taking the initiative, Christine Wetherill Stevenson served as first president, and Frederick Blanchard was a founder member.[5][6] The TAA succeeded in involving a wider community from the LA music business in the notion of an arts venue, and raised sufficient capital to purchase a site, albeit held mainly by Stevenson. However in October 1920 a new organisation, the Community Park and Arts Association of Hollywood was formed, with the TAA apparently deciding to abandon the project.[7] The organisational change appears to reflect a divergence in views: Stevenson was focussed on a theatre venue, and more narrowly on a cycle of seven plays based on the lives of the prophets of the major nations, whilst other TAA members espoused a wider remit.[7] The CPAA, charactarised by Parsons as being "committed to the orderly fiscally prudent developmnt of an arts centre",[8] appointed Blanchard as its president;[9] Smith sums up Blanchard's fit for the position as:[10]

Blanchard was Los Angeles's forgotten early entrepreneur of music, and a champion of music in the community. A tireless progressive political activist in behalf of the arts, he brought his long experience in negotiating amongst musical factions, and fund of community respect, earned over several decades, to the Bowl.

The CPAA bought out Stevenson's interests in the bowl, and appointed Artie Mason Carter, the leader of an established LA community music movement, as secretary of the organisation.[10] Parsons identifies a clear rift in the early CFAA between business interests and "irrational dreamers", such as Stevenson and Carter.[8] Blanchard, himself commercially successful, was able to work harmoniously with Carter. The two set about organising summer concert seasons at the Bowl in the 1920-1923 period, despite skepticism amounting to opposition from business interests in the CPAA.[9]

Blanchard served as president until 1923; the CPAA evolved into the Hollywood Bowl Association, which runs the venue to this day.

The Hollywood Bowl's official history, which notes that "Mrs. Carter and F.W. Blanchard deserve praise above all others for the successes of the Summer Symphony Concerts" is seen by Smith as merely a qualified endorsement made once the CPAAs successor had moved on from both Carter and Blanchard.[9]

“A Community Park and Art Association was incorporated on October 25, 1920. The new organization raised $18,000 by donations, and borrowed $12,000 on an open note guaranteed by Messrs. Martin, Toberman, F. E. Keeler and Frederick W. Blanchard. Then the Citizens National Bank was persuaded to loan $25,000 on the property secured by a trust deed.”

(insert copy of the deed if possible)

“The new factors involved in the Community Park and Art Association were, Mr. Blanchard, capitalist, public benefactor, art patron and adroit politician-owner of the Blanchard Building where artists of all varieties had their studios, and F. E. Keeler, banker. The organization was an interesting study in varied personalities. A realtor, lawyer, a doctor, a dentist, an actor, a gentleman of affairs with distinctly artistic leanings, “

“The Community Park and Art Association had as its first president, Mr. Blanchard; first vice-president, Mr. Keeler; second vice-president, Mrs. Clarke; and the keepers of the purse were Mr. Martin, Dr. Gerson, Mr. Toberman, and another important man in the philan-

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thropic and financial life of the community, Allan C. Balch.”

PAGE 26

“With the election of President Blanchard, headquarters of the Association were moved over to the Coulter Building through his invitation.”

“The choice of Mr. Blanchard as president of the strangely assorted assembly was made after due consideration of the fact that the everyday American is suspicious of lawyers and realtors on general principles,”

“Blanchard, a courteous, diplomatic, urbane gentleman of the polished-politician school, was just the person to represent a cultural community plan. He was independently wealthy, a patron of the arts, owned much property farther up from the Bowl in Cahuenga Pass, where he lived on a magnificent estate and entertained social leaders, political henchmen and celebrities alike and in profusion, and stood well with the city government. At that time the Los Angeles City Hall was directly opposite his office building and the intervening distance was often traversed by those who yearned for the seats of the mighty. Moreover, he was skilled in managing temperamental musicians, and no one ever saw him vexed. His service to the Hollywood Bowl for the first three years, the crucial years, will never be fully appreciated, for much that he did was attributed

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to others, and it was his nature to play social and political games with comity and without fanfare.”

(Reference- “The Hollywood Bowl”, ASIN B000GT3TVW, Publisher, G. Schirmer, Inc. 1936 (1936); First Edition (January 1, 1936) Los Angeles, author Isabel Morse Jones, music and art critic for the Los Angeles Times from 1925-1947. She also served as a press agent for the Hollywood Bowl and interviewed many of the founders and key players for her book. Blanchard had already passed away by 1936 but he is referred throughout the book. Pages 24, 25, 26, 27.


Organizations and Memberships

-Served as Chair of the reception committee for the visit of Albert I of Belgium to Los Angeles

-Served as President of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra

-Served as President of the Central Development Association; advancing many applications that compelled the railroads to build the iconic Union Plaza Station in Los Angeles

-Served as President of the Union Plaza Station Commission

-Served on the City planning commission

-Served as county Chairman and Vice President of the first “Good Roads Commission”. Initiated legislation that resulted in the development of California’s original highway system.

-Served as President of the Hollywood Art Association

-Served as First President of the Hollywood Bowl and the Community Park and Art Association which was the first entity to build and run the Hollywood Bowl. It was organized on October 25, 1920.

-Served as President of the Gamut Club and assisted with its reorganization

-Founded and served as President of the Broadway Improvement Association and initiated the movement to give Los Angeles the first cluster street lights

-Served as Chairman of the Police and Fireman’s Relief Fund

-Served as Chairman of the first Community Chest

-Served as the president of the American Opera Association

-Founded the Municipal Art Commission, City charter

-Served as a member of the Chamber of Commerce for the cities of Los Angeles and Hollywood

-Served as Director of the Ventura Boulevard Chamber of Commerce

-Served as a member of the Hollywood Foothill Association

-Served as head of the architectural board for Windsor Square

-Participated in the Arrowhead, Dana Point and Hollywoodland developments

-Served as Treasurer of the Businessmen’s Cooperative

-Served as head of the Soldiers and Sailors welfare commission

-He was a member of the California, the City, the Gamut Club (of which he was one of the organizers), the Los Angeles Country Club (a charter member), the Los Angeles Athletic Club and the California, Catalina and Newport Yacht Clubs.

(insert dates and cross reference titles)


Music Compositions

Although Blanchard’s time and energy was mostly devoted to community endeavors, he was also a composer. He composed an opera, titled “COSITA”, The Daughter of the Don. It was performed in 1989 by an opera company in San Francisco.

Loners, Mavericks and Dreamers, Art in Los Angeles before 1900, Nancy Dustin Wall Moure, Copyright 1993, Laguna Art Museum, pages 45, 46, 0940872186

He also composed a Fiesta March titled “Our Italy”.

Family

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Frederick Blanchard's headstone and monument at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery

Blanchard was twice married. On October 30, 1889, he married Marion Tucker (Los Angeles Fiesta Queen), daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Issac W. Tucker. They were married in the home of the bride’s parents, in Alliston Massachusetts. On July 20, 1891, Blanchard’s son and only child, Dudley Tucker Blanchard was born. The marriage didn’t last and in 1899, the couple divorced. Dudley married and had a son, Richard Sawyer Blanchard. He was Blanchard’s only grandchild.

Blanchard’s second wife, whom he married in Los Angeles on June 18, 1902, was Grace Hampton, a native of New York, and a daughter of Ellis C. and Minerva (Baker) Hampton, both of whom were born in New York state. Grace studied at the Chicago Art Institute and continued her studies at Throop Pasadena after moving to Los Angeles with her family. She was recognized as an up and coming artist when she met Mr. Blanchard.

Thomas Blanchard - ( ) is considered one of the most consequential inventors of the Industrial Revolution. Thomas Blanchard is FW Blanchard’s great uncle on his Father’s side of the family. His Grandfather, Steven Blanchard is Thomas Blanchard’s older brother. It was in Steven’s workshop that Thomas invented the tack machine. Thomas Blanchard was a prolific inventor and held over 24 US patents during his lifetime. He is best known for the “Blanchard Lathe”, a machine that could turn irregular shapes in volume. He worked for the US government at the Springfield Armory in Springfield, MA for many year’s manufacturing muskets and guns for the military.

'General Israel Putnam' - American Revolutionary War


Blanchard Estate - Cahuenga Pass

In the early 1900’s Blanchard and his sister Elizabeth Blanchard Hartwell, purchased approximately 67 acres of property in the Cahuenga Pass with future plans to build a family estate on several acres of the property.

Construction of the estate began around 1915 and was completed around 1917. The estate plans included two large mansions, a guard gate house, a tennis court, several gardens, (including a water garden) waterfalls, service buildings and greenhouses. A long winding road led up to the two homes that sat atop of the hill with a vine covered Pergola connecting the two homes. There was a natural spring on the property that provided water.

Blanchard and his wife lived in one of the  homes and his sister, Elizabeth lived in the other home. Blanchard’s residence had sixteen? rooms and was decorated with antiques and art collected from his trips abroad. At the time the homes were constructed, the road running in front of the property was Hollywood Way. The address of the estate was 3215 Hollywood Way, Hollywood, California. Several years later the road was renamed and became Barham Avenue.

Blanchard frequently entertained international celebrities, dignitaries, artists, musicians and social leaders at his estate, many of whom he had personally invited to Los Angeles. The Estate was also used for film locations

(insert photos)

Eventually, Blanchard and his sister Elizabeth Hartwell, sold some of the property surrounding the estate to Universal Studios and to developers planning to build two new suburban communities later named Hollywood Knolls and Hollywood Manor. The Blanchards and Mrs. Hartwell retained eight acres of the property surrounding the estate.

After Blanchard’s death in 1928, his widow remained in their home until his sister, Mrs. Hartwell passed away on January 20, 1932. Eventually, all of the estate property was sold to Universal Studios and in the mid sixties, the homes were torn down. On December 15, 2014, NBCUniversal installed and dedicated a monument and plaque on the grounds where the former Blanchard estate once stood, to acknowledge the historical significance of the former estate and the prominence of its previous owner.


Universal Studios Blanchard Monument and plaque unveiling and presentation 12/15/14

(PLAQUE TEXT)

(Insert plaque Estate photo-Blanchard Residence (Left) Hartwell Residence (Right)

“ON THIS HISTORIC SITE FORMERLY STOOD THE FREDERICK WOODWARD BLANCHARD ESTATE SITUATED ON 8 ACRES. THE BLANCHARD ESTATE INCLUDED THE HOMES OF FREDERICK WOODWARD BLANCHARD, HIS WIFE GRACE HAMPTON BLANCHARD AND HIS SISTER ELIZABETH (LIZZIE) BLANCHARD HARTWELL. BUILT BETWEEN 1915 AND 1922, THE ESTATE WAS THE EARLIEST RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE CAHUENGA PASS.

MR. BLANCHARD,A PROMINENT BUSINESSMAN AND PHILANTHROPIST, PLAYED A LEADING ROLE IN THE MAJOR CIVIC AND CULTURAL DEVELOPMENTS IN LOS ANGELES DURING THE EARLY 1920'S. HE WAS BEST KNOWN AS ONE OF THE FOUNDERS AND FINANCIERS OF THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL AND SERVED AS THE BOWL'S FIRST PRESIDENT.”

(Sources)

NBCUniversal Evolution Project, City and County of LosAngeles http://cityplanning.lacity.org/eir/NBC_UnivPlan/DEIR/index.html

The Blanchard estates are referenced under Volume 4, IV J.1, J.2, J.3 and Volume 25, L-1, L-2.

Blanchard Monument and dedication plaque

Located on NBCUniversal property at the intersection of Barham Avenue and Blair Drive


DEATH

On Friday, September 21, 1928 Frederick Woodward Blanchard died in the Hollywood Hospital of kidney failure. His funeral was held at the Wilshire Methodist Church, located at 213 South Hobart Blvd., Los Angeles on October 3, 1928. Hundreds of friends attended the services to pay their last respects to a man described as “a pioneer patron of Los Angeles music, art and culture, a tireless worker for civic ideals, a dreamer, whose dynamic endeavors, turned dreams into reality, and a man whose name will forever be identified with the development of the city.” The flowers at the church stood in a bank six-feet high that stretched for fifty-feet around the altar. The floral arrangements came from city officials, civic and cultural organizations, friends and family. They also came from those who had benefited from Blanchard‘s many philanthropic works and from those who simply admired and respected him from afar.

In his eulogy, Dr. Willsie Martin noted that Blanchard “was a trailblazer, starting Los Angeles, on its way to becoming the art center of the world, a dreamer, who saw his dreams come true.” He went on to say that “citizens could only approximate the good that would come from his great work.”

In another eulogy, Rabbi Magnin said, “we shall remember Mr. Blanchard as a good citizen first. We shall see Los Angeles rise from a rather sprawling area to one of compactness. This will come through the principles of planning laid down by Mr. Blanchard. A history of our city can never omit his name as one of our outstanding men.”

The City of Los Angeles closed its civic and government offices for Blanchard’s funeral and graveside service and prepared “Resolutions of Condolence”, describing and acknowledging his service to Los Angeles. An embossed copy was presented to his widow, Grace Hampton Blanchard.

Leaders in the public, education, business and social circles of Southern California served as pallbearers. The active pallbearers were E.T. Marks, W.R. Dickinson, E.S. Bogardus, J.J. Backus, Harry Lee Martin and Charles E. Toberman. The honorary pallbearers were B.F. Bledsoe, L.E. Behymer, Harry Chandler, E.A. Dickson, J. Bond Francisco, Dr. Edward R. Kellogg, Stewart Laughlin, John Myers, Max Meyberg, John Parkinson, Victor H. Rosetti, R.J. Scott, W.P. Whitsett, S.H. Woodruff, Fred B. Kellogg and N.C. Mason.

The funeral cortege from the Wilshire Methodist Church to the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, (formerly known as Hollywood Memorial Park) included over a hundred automobiles. Blanchard was laid to rest in the historic section of the cemetery, surrounded by other Los Angeles pioneers and notables; including General Harrison Otis, founder of the Los Angeles Times and businessman Charles Toberman, Blanchard’s, longtime friend and colleague. Blanchard’s graveside eulogy was printed in the Los Angeles Times newspaper on October 3, 1928.

”Today at the Hollywood Memorial Park, honors will be paid to one of the most gifted and best loved of Los Angeles citizens, Frederick Woodward Blanchard. The beautiful plot of consecrated ground, hallowed to the memory of so many of those most intimately connected with the progress of the southwest, has been the scene of many sad and impressive ceremonies, but few of these have been so fraught with feeling as to touch the hearts of so great a multitude of admirers.

The monument to the unselfish worker for civic ideals, will not be confined to the burial ground where other Los Angeles pioneers sleep the sleep eternal. Nor will the flowers laid above a cypress covered grave be the last tribute his memory will receive. Flowers that never perish, are growing in the homes, and institutions of the city he served for forty-two years devoted to its artistic betterment, and these are as immortal as the spirit that sowed the seed.

Names pass away in the rush of the years hurrying along newer areas under the direction of younger hands and brains. Obelisks and gravestones tell little to a coming generation of the one that these loving devices would save from oblivion. It will not be long before those gathered here today, will like the leader, they mourn, solve the last long problem of human destiny.

But the efforts of such lovers of their race and city as the man who was but yesterday a leading force in our civic and artistic life are beyond the touch of death or the taint of mortality. The work of Fred W. Blanchard will live as long as the Civic Center he took so large a part planning. Not in the Hollywood Cemetery but in America’s noblest City Hall he has reared his most lasting monument. When the Hollywood Bowl vibrates with its starlight symphonies, his spirit is there. Whenever the Municipal Art Commission devises new means for beautify our city, a seed he planted flowers again.

Though his name, save in the hearts of the survivors who knew him and valued him through personal contact, may in time be only a name to the curious seeking memorials of the past in the city’s Valhalla, from Windsor Square to Dana Point, from Hollywoodland to Arrowhead, All through the southwest beauty spots he devised and music and art into which he breathed the breath of life will testify to his unselfish citizenship and be an everlasting tribute to his uplifting labors. Names, indeed, may disappear in the swift changes of an age on wings, but the work of such men as him to whom today a city pays the last earthly honors, our flowers of immortality.”

Blanchard’s gravesite Monument

Blanchard is interred at the Hollywood Forever cemetery, 6000 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, California. His monument is located in the historic older section of the cemetery (Section 6, Plot 307) where several other early Los Angeles pioneers and founders are buried; many of them his friends, colleagues and collaborators.

The “Weeping Lady” monument designed by Lloyd Wright (architect of the first Hollywood Bowl shell), is carved from Carrara white marble and set on a black granite base. The top of the monument is a depiction of the Hollywood Bowl shell and the base is a sculpture of a weeping woman with a lyre on her lap, a reference to the Greek Myth Orpheus and Eurydice and the lyre. The monument, has been featured in books and articles and is frequently referred to as the “Weeping Lady” monument.

Even though Blanchard passed away in 1928, his Monument is still frequently photographed and published and continues to be a regular stop on the Hollywood Forever guided tour conducted by the Art Deco Society, LosAngeles.

Notes

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  1. ^ Catherine Parsons Smith (1933-2009), professor of music at the University of Nevada, Reno.

References

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  1. ^ Marcus 2004, p. 67.
  2. ^ a b c d e Smith 1992, p. 157.
  3. ^ Smith 1993, p. 207.
  4. ^ a b Smith 1993, p. ZZZ.
  5. ^ Smith 1993, p. 209.
  6. ^ Marcus 2004, pp. 68–69.
  7. ^ a b Smith 1993, p. 210.
  8. ^ a b Smith 1993, p. 214.
  9. ^ a b c Smith 1993, p. 222.
  10. ^ a b Smith 1993, p. 216.

Sources

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  • Marcus, Kenneth H. (2004). Musical metropolis : Los Angeles and the creation of a music culture, 1880-1940. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6418-2.
  • Smith, Caroline Parsons (Summer 1993). "Founding the Hollywood Bowl". American Music. 11 (2). University of Illinois Press: 206–242. doi:10.2307/3052555. JSTOR 3052555.
  • Smith, Catherine Parsons (Autumn 1992). ""Something of Good for the Future": The People's Orchestra of Los Angeles". 19th-Century Music. 16 (2). University of California Press: 146–160. doi:10.2307/746263. JSTOR 746263.
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