The marker at the entry of the Wallace Bowl, the historic outdoor amphitheater in Wilmette’s Gillson Park, holds a slight mystery for any careful reader; how does the 2,500-seat bowl merit two birth dates — both 1936 and 1947? And why does the park district tout 2017 as the 80th anniversary of the lakefront venue?
The stories surrounding Wallace Bowl — including that bewildering dual birth date – stretch back to America’s Great Depression, said Patrick Leary, curator at the Wilmette Historical Museum. He and Bill Lambrecht, the park district’s veteran superintendent of parks and planning, shed some light last week on the amphitheater’s history.
Leary said the project was born in part thanks to the Works Progress Administration program, the federal Depression-era effort to hire unemployed Americans and build public works projects.
“Not only was the bowl supported by the WPA, but the music was, too,” Leary said. “The orchestra that played there, the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, was paid by the WPA.”
A look through museum records indicates the orchestra might have at least indirectly supported the bowl’s construction.
It had played at the park’s lakefront in 1935, on what was called the Esplanade, a venue on the roof of the Wilmette water plant. The concerts drew an estimated 70,000 people that summer, according to the Wilmette Life at the time. But the symphony disliked the Esplanade, according to a letter from Herbert Mulford, a village resident who supported the orchestra, to then-Village President Harry Kinne.
Orchestra conductors, Mulford wrote, “felt it is the worst place in Wilmette to perform. They would much prefer the park with some sort of band shell … due to the impossibility of preventing the tones being so badly flattened out by the breeze.”
More Top Picks Best Rolling Kitchen Carts
Cue the construction of the bowl, which began in 1936 — hence the first birth date – and allowed the symphony to play there in 1937 — making 2017 the 80th anniversary of the bowl’s use — with actual completion in 1939, according to Lambrecht’s records
The bowl, designed by future park district superintendent Gordon Wallace, but originally simply called the Wilmette Amphitheater, cost $68,263, Lambrecht said July 21. The WPA paid the workers, but the amphitheater was funded locally by groups like the Chamber of Commerce, the Civic League and the Wilmette Women’s Club, according to museum archives.
By 1945, the bowl, which featured seats of California redwood on flagstone bases, needed a permanent stage for its acts, from the Illinois Symphony to military bands, opera singers and other attractions.
Helped by a $10,000 gift from former park commissioner Charles H. Feltman a new stage opened in 1946, spreading the bowl to an area that was once the site of a village dump, museum records say. The addition cost $23,165.50 and wasn’t dedicated until Memorial Day of 1947, Lambrecht said, clearing up the final marker mystery.
Wallace Bowl continued to draw crowds. Archived news stories at the museum report up to 90,000 people attending weekly events there some summers. In 1969 it acquired its current name to honor Wallace, who had retired the previous year, Lambrecht said.
Musical theater began in 1979 with the Starlight Theatre series, Kathy Bingham said July 20. Bingham, the park district’s recreation superintendent, said the district has had only one year since, 1996, when a musical wasn’t mounted there. Until 1987, most years boasted two or even three different shows, she said.
“That’s astounding, considering how much work goes into just one show,” she said. “The evolution of entertainment over the last 35 years, with so many options like television or movies in air conditioning, has meant a drop in attendance, but we’re still getting 500-600 people for the musicals.”
By 1982, Wallace Bowl was showing its age, with damaged seating, poor drainage in the grass bowl in front of the stage, which otherwise could be used to seat another 500 people, and aging equipment.
To meet the challenge, the district created the Ouilmette Foundation. By 1984, Wallace Bowl was renewed, with a $479,000 price tag, new Douglas fir wood seats on Wisconsin flagstones, modern equipment and redesigned bowl drainage.
Since then, the district has offered a full summer’s worth of concerts, movies, live events, and theater, all for free. This year’s season began in mid-June and this year’s musical, “Damn Yankees,” began July 13 and runs until July 29.
“Julie Nichols, our center for the arts supervisor, was having discussions with Alison Dornheggen, our artistic theater director, when they realized that it had been 80 years since things started at Wallace Bowl,” Bingham said. “They said, ‘Wow, we need to let people know. This is a special place.’ And it is, a truly special place.”
To learn more about the 2017 Wallace Bowl entertainment schedule, visit www.wilmettepark.org/.