Perhaps it was the neighborhood it is in. Some of the Hollywood Bowl's best friends were accusing it of settling into a state of lucrative mediocrity. To bring the crowds in, the long-suffering Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra had been doing some strange tricks this season, sometimes with only a single rehearsal. It played an all-Gershwin concert under Paul Whiteman's baton; it struggled through an evening of "Music of the Americas" led by Xavier Cugat (who complained bitterly during, a 1946 rehearsal that the orchestra failed to "pay him any respect"); it accompanied Margaret Truman's concert debut.
These tricks were profitable; the Gershwin...
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