KEVIN McCORRY, HOST: I’m Kevin McCorry and this is ‘Jukebox Journey.’
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Listen To What the Man Said” by Paul McCartney and Wings, “Man in the Mirror” by Michael Jackson, “The Man” by The Killers]
KM: We’re unstuck in time, jumping through decades and genres, meditating on a theme. This week: Ahead of the 50th Anniversary of the Mann Center, a look at the roots of Philadelphia’s premier outdoor concert venue.
[MUSIC: “Prelude, Die Meistersinger” by Richard Wagner]
KM: The Mann Center as we now know it debuted in West Fairmount Park in mid June of 1976. But before it was the Mann Center it was the Dell West, and before that it was the Robin Hood Dell.
And it was there, on the east side of the Schuylkill River near Strawberry Mansion, that our story starts in the late 1920s.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: The Philadelphia Orchestra wanted a summer home away from the Academy of Music. The Fairmount Park Commission wanted a new attraction. And the musicians union wanted more opportunities for paid live performances.
From that will to action came a huge fundraising push, and after a mere 36 days of construction, the Robin Hood Dell was built. Its first performance in July of 1930 had The orchestra opening with a composition by Richard Wagner.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: From the start, the Dell had a democratic mission. It was to offer high art, accessible for all. Subscribers paid $5 for the summer season. Single tickets were 50 cents.
[MUSIC: “Overture to School for Scandal” by Samuel Barber]
KM: Year one of the Dell was considered a smash success. But as the novelty wore off, and against the headwinds of the Great Depression, questions loomed about its viability for much of the 30s and 40s.
All the while, the bands played on. West Chester native Samuel Barber had an early world premiere there with this overture:
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: Local heroes Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson had noteworthy performances.
[MUSIC MONTAGE: “Heav’n, Heav’n” by Marian Anderson, and “Ballad for Americans” by Paul Robeson]
KM: Benny Goodman’s 1941 set was the first time a racially mixed band played at the Dell.
[MUSIC: “The Wang Wang Blues” by The Benny Goodman Sextet]
KM: And Judy Garland’s first live concert came at the Dell in 1943. Garland sang to a record-setting crowd that had throngs of people covering East Fairmont park, inside and outside the gates.
[MUSIC: “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” by Judy Garland]
KM: But by 1948, the bottom fell out. Ticket sales dropped precipitously, and facing a deficit, the Dell opted to shut down midseason.
And that’s when Fredric R. Mann comes in.
[MUSIC: “Piano Concerto No.1” by Ludwig Van Beethoven, as conducted by Leonard Bernstein]
KM: Mann was titan of the era. He made a fortune in cardboard box manufacturing, became politically connected, and just so happened to love the arts.
He had been a member of the Dell’s board, but had quit years earlier and the calamity of 1948 was his chance to re-enter, seize power and right the ship.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: He created a new “Friends of the Dell’ association with new energy to raise money; he leveraged political connections to get a matching subsidy out of city council; and he leaned on famous musician friends like Leonard Bernstein to play the Dell at a reduced rate.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: The new arrangement became known as “The Philadelphia Plan.” The envy of cities across the U.S., it allowed Mann to keep costs extremely low for regular ticket buyers. By 1953, he was able to make the entire season free and realize his vision of a “people’s concert hall.”
[MUSIC: Puccini: Madama Butterfly – Hollywood Bowl 1948]
KM: Philadelphia Orchestra conductor Eugene Ormandy led the first three shows of the season, and kicked things off with Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
[MUSIC SWELL]
KM: With that resurrection of the Dell, the legend of Fredric Mann began to grow. But many existential challenges still lie ahead: including the rise of popular music and the corporatization of the live music industry. Could the Dell adapt and survive?
That’s next week, same time, same place on Jukebox Journey with Kevin McCorry on WHYY.
And major shout out to Jack McCarthy and his excellent book “A Century of Music Under the Stars”…a history of the Mann and the Robin Hood Dell.
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