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In its 93 years, Bridges Auditorium has played host to a literal A to Z of notable artists, from Maya Angelou to Frank Zappa. The 2,500-seat venue in Claremont has also been closed or dormant at various times, either for renovations or to save money. The big white building has sometimes been deemed a white elephant.
Now there seems to be a renewed commitment to Bridges on the part of Pomona College in advance of the auditorium’s centennial in 2031.
A gathering Jan. 11 for members of the Rembrandt Club, a Claremont arts nonprofit that’s even older than Bridges, was a sort of opening shot. More than 100 people came to the auditorium to hear about its architecture and history, both illustrious, and walk around at will.
I was invited too and was thrilled to be there. For one thing, it was a rare assignment within walking distance of home. More significantly, Bridges is a fantastic space, but with a light schedule, 20 to 25 events a year.
The main performances anymore are “The Nutcracker” during December and the Shen Yun dance extravaganza in March. (Sarcastic T-shirt seen on campus: “I Lost My Virginity at Shen Yun.”)
I’ve been inside Bridges a number of times for disparate events: civil rights icon Myrlie Evers last year, Jason Alexander in 2017, Larry Wilmore the day after the 2016 presidential election, David Sedaris in 2006, a joint concert by Beck and The Flaming Lips in 2002, possibly one or two more that have slipped my mind.
Bridges Auditorium, built in 1931 on the quad at Claremont’s Pomona College, has hosted a wide variety of speakers and performers over nine decades, many of them household names. They include former presidents, jazz singers, actors and classical pianists. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
Guests take photos from the stage and wander Bridges Auditorium in Claremont after a Jan. 11 program on the 1931 building’s history, art and architecture. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
A basement hallway displays photos of people who have performed or spoken at Bridges Auditorium that include, clockwise from top left, writer Kurt Vonnegut, jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon, pop singer Peggy Lee and folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
People mingle in the ornate lobby at the start of the Jan. 11 event, “The History, Art and Architecture of Bridges Auditorium.” (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
The Zodiac mural on the ceiling of Bridges Auditorium may be its most distinctive feature. Pomona College in Claremont is already planning for the 2,200-seat auditorium’s centennial in 2031. (Photo by David Allen, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin/SCNG)
The roster of past guests is mind-boggling.
Among the musicians are folk singers Pete Seeger and Joan Baez, country singers Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, jazz artists Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Dave Brubeck, classical stars Vladimir Horowitz and Isaac Stern, and pop singers Morrissey, Fiona Apple, Linda Ronstadt and the Supremes.
Speakers have included political leaders Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and Winston Churchill, writers Carl Sandburg, Kurt Vonnegut and Sinclair Lewis, and comics Steve Martin and Margaret Cho.
Also, such icons as Bono, Amelia Earhart and the Dalai Lama. (The trio did not walk into a bar.)
One of the most infamous events involved a 1975 concert by Frank Zappa. Students overnight altered the stately frieze of composer names near the roofline, replacing Chopin with Zappa’s name, likeness and a marijuana leaf.
“I saw Frank Zappa, last row,” Alba Cisneros told me in the lobby before the presentation began. Janet Johnson saw Cary Grant at Bridges discussing his career in 1985. Shortly after Karen Rosenthal moved to town in 1970, the Los Angeles Philharmonic performed after locals raised the money to pay its fee.
In 2012, Taylor Swift filmed a VH1 “Storytellers” show at Bridges. Admission was by lottery and limited to college students, mostly but not entirely.
Catherine Caporel was there with her 9-year-old daughter, Jacqueline. “We knew Pomona College students who weren’t interested in Taylor Swift, so we got to go,” Caporel told me.
Even if you haven’t been inside, you may have seen Bridges on the big or small screen in “The West Wing,” “Gilmore Girls” or “Beaches.”
“Bridges was the West Coast stand-in for statehouses,” observed Nestor Romero, the auditorium’s assistant technical director, during his remarks.
Before running down highlights from Bridges’ history for the audience, many of them seniors, Romero said preparing for the talk as if he were an expert made him a little nervous: “I was acutely aware of how many of you can fact-check me.”
Bridges is named for Mabel Shaw Bridges, who died in 1907 during her junior year at Pomona College. The music student was also treasurer of the Rembrandt Club.
Her wealthy parents first backed construction of the campus’ Bridges Hall of Music, with 550 seats, in 1915, and in 1931 made the college’s wish for an auditorium nearly four times larger a reality. The venues, a stone’s throw apart, are colloquially known as Little Bridges and Big Bridges.
The Beaux Arts-style auditorium has five enormous arches on its exterior and, inside, a massive, curved ceiling.
Painter Giovanni Smeraldi incorporated large-scale versions of the Zodiac signs, which, lined in gold leaf, seem to glow against the ceiling’s pale blue wash.
“This vastness, this open space,” artist Teale Hatheway said in her remarks from the stage. “You feel like maybe you ARE sitting under the night sky.”
What you can also see, alas, are some long cracks in the ceiling. Those might be the most obvious problem with the building, but there are others, including accessibility.
A structural engineer has catalogued the needs. Those will be prioritized and a plan developed to pay for them, according to KJ Fagan, director of Bridges since 2015.
The biggest need is no secret.
“There’s no air conditioning in the building,” Fagan told me. “It’s been difficult to use it between the months of May and October because of the heat.”
We were chatting on the Bridges stage. After the presentations were over, anyone could come up and trod the boards, as it were. Many of us did, taking selfies or aiming our cameras at the Zodiac ceiling.
Upgrading the building and determining how best to showcase its history are among the goals “as we gear up for the centennial,” Fagan said. Internal talks about the milestone began in 2021, the 90th anniversary.
“We’re actually feeling a little panicked because it’s only eight years away,” Fagan confided. “Seven years, now that we’re in 2024.”
The rest of us can relax. Like Taurus, I am bullish on Bridges’ future.
Two classic slapstick comedies, Buster Keaton’s “Sherlock Jr.” from 1924 and Laurel and Hardy’s “The Music Box” from 1932, will be shown as a double feature — total length: 74 minutes — at 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 20 at the Contemporary Club, 173 S. Eureka St., Redlands, for free, sponsored by the A.K. Smiley Public Library. As a fan of both movies, as well as the famous Music Box stairs in L.A., I give them the coveted ranking of five cream pies out of five.
Acoustic Damp David Allen writes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday, three pratfalls. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, like davidallencolumnist on Facebook and follow @davidallen909 on Twitter.