Hollywood Bowl Deal Questioned by Promoters

The head of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn. is poised to award a multimillion-dollar contract that would grant San Diego promoters affiliated with his son exclusive rights to produce rock concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

Ernest Fleischmann, executive vice president and managing director of the association, negotiated the contract over a 20-month period without issuing a formal request for competing bid proposals.

The promotion firm of Andrew Hewitt and Bill Silva Presents said the pending deal would permit it to put on as many as eight rock concerts a year--two more than now allowed at the county-owned facility.

The contract, principals say, could be worth $20 million to the promoters and $2 million to the Philharmonic.

Fleischmann’s 28-year-old son, Martin, who introduced the promoters to his father, is working as a public relations and transportation consultant for the firm, but has declined to disclose what he is being paid.

Competing firms and neighborhood activists have questioned the propriety of the Hollywood Bowl contract, which officials say is not yet signed.

“What really disturbs me is that we were not even invited to the table,” said Alex Hodges, vice president of the Nederlander Organization, which presents concerts at the Los Angeles city-owned Greek Amphitheatre and produced shows by Rod Stewart and the Beach Boys at the Hollywood Bowl in 1990. “I think most of us (concert promoters) wonder why an exclusive contract was dished out to an out-of-town company which turns out to be associated with the Philharmonic director’s son.”

The elder Fleischmann, 67, said no favoritism was involved and that he disclosed his son’s business relationship to the Philharmonic board, county officials and community groups.

“I must stress that I asked Martin, as a favor to me and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn., to search out potential pop/rock promoters for the Bowl,” he said in a three-page fax from Salzburg, Austria, where the Philharmonic is performing.

“Therefore, any suggestion of nepotism is completely unfounded, unless there is such a thing as nepotism in reverse, whereby a son provides free assistance to the association for which his father works.”

The promoters and Philharmonic officials refused to provide The Times a copy of the Hollywood Bowl contract, and county officials familiar with the document declined to elaborate on its terms.

The contract was to have been signed three weeks ago, the promoters told The Times. But now the deal is unlikely to be closed before Sept. 8, when Ernest Fleischmann returns from Austria.

As word of the pending agreement spread through music circles, other major concert promoters and neighborhood activists have questioned why the financially strapped organization did not solicit formal bids from a variety of established promoters--as other public facilities frequently do--and grant the contract to the bidder with the best offer.

“It’s inappropriate for the Philharmonic to award an exclusive to a San Diego promoter without even discussing the option with very able, established local promoters,” said Larry Vallon, executive vice president of MCA Concerts, the company that produces shows at Universal Amphitheatre.

Ernest Fleischmann said he sought the bid of one other promoter. But he did not comment on why, during a fiscal crisis, his organization chose not to solicit formal bids from a variety of established competitors.

Hollywood Bowl general manager Anne Parsons said it was not a common practice for the Philharmonic to seek bids for contracts.

“I don’t go out and solicit half the business that I do here,” Parsons said. “I’m solicited! People who are trying to sell something to you, they come to you and they say: ‘I’ve got something I want to do here.’ ”

Fleischmann, director of the Philharmonic since 1969, is highly regarded as one of the most effective administrators in classical music. He was paid $396,000 last year, including a onetime payment of about $135,000 for accrued unused vacation time.

The Philharmonic leases and operates the Bowl under a two-decade-old, rent-free agreement that grants the senior Fleischmann and his association’s 36-member board of directors wide latitude in running the facility.

Under the arrangement, the county, in essence, subsidizes the nonprofit Philharmonic association by spending $1.4 million a year for the Bowl’s maintenance, repairs and security. The Philharmonic retains revenues from its ticket sales, concessions, souvenirs and its subleases to other presenters.

Over the years, neighborhood complaints about rock shows have forced the county to establish strict guidelines regarding sound levels, traffic, security, alcoholic beverage control and the number of rock concerts each season.

However, officials say that neither the County Board of Supervisors nor the Parks and Recreation Department has any authority over subleases with music promoters.

“This issue of reviewing sublease contracts with promoters is not something we’ve ever done and it does not appear to be something that we have the authority to require,” said John Weber, the county parks official who oversees Bowl activities.

“I do not think there’s anything unethical about the Philharmonic entering into an exclusive relationship with Silva,” Weber said. “Whether they do or they don’t, it’s not our job to monitor things like that.” He said he has not seen a copy of the proposed contract.

Bowl general manager Parsons said she believes it would have been virtually impossible for interested promoters to have been unaware that the Philharmonic was planning to award an exclusive contract for rock concerts.

“Ernest had put the word out on the street that he was interested in (an exclusive) a long time ago,” said Parsons, adding that she learned about the Bowl exclusive two years ago while she was managing the Boston Symphony. “This was no surprise for anybody in the industry, in the nation, let alone in Los Angeles.”

But officials at Southern California’s top three concert promotion firms--Nederlander, MCA Concerts and Avalon Attractions--disagree.

“That might’ve been the word in Boston,” said Nederlander’s Hodges. “But the only word on the street in Los Angeles was that Bill Silva had an exclusive.”

The promoters’ relationship with Martin Fleischmann became public this year when newspaper ads appeared for two Hollywood Bowl pop concerts--July 13 by Michael Bolton and Sept. 15 by Bonnie Raitt. The ads said the shows were promoted “in association” with Martin Fleischmann’s firm, Rum and Humble.

Hewitt and Silva’s most recent ad, run after The Times began inquiring into the Bowl contract, announces an Oct. 11 show by singer Morrissey at the Bowl but makes no mention of Rum and Humble.

The younger Fleischmann, a former MCA Records executive, confirmed that he is a consultant to Hewitt and Silva. He said he does not work for any other promoters.

“It’s very simple really,” Fleischmann said. “I introduced Andy and Bill to my father and they went ahead from there. I am not Andy and Bill’s partner, but I do not intend to discuss the nature of my financial arrangements with them because it goes beyond the Bowl.”

The promoters hired Fleischmann’s firm to do public relations work and design park-and-ride strategies to reduce traffic congestion around the Bowl.

“If we had been able to obtain some kind of sweetheart deal from the Philharmonic, then I’d say having Martin involved with us might have really helped out,” Silva said. “But I can assure you that was simply not the case.”

Under the proposed contract, Hewitt and Silva say they will pay the Philharmonic a guarantee estimated at $300,000 to $400,000 per year, or $50,000 per show, depending on the number of performances each year. The association, they said, also will be paid an estimated $120,000 per concert to cover the cost of stagehands, ushers, security guards and maintenance personnel.

Other promoters said the fees were no higher than they have paid in past years to put on shows at the Bowl. They said they could have matched the offer of Hewitt and Silva, if given an opportunity to bid.

Hewitt and Silva said they deserve the contract because of the resources they have put into the deal. They noted that the Philharmonic required them to invest more than $60,000 to revamp sound and lighting at the Bowl and had them attend a dozen meetings over the past year with Philharmonic officials and the Hollywood Bowl Homeowners Advisory Committee to work out noise and traffic problems. Martin Fleischmann said he attended some meetings, but never in the presence of his father.

The parties disagree on how many shows will be permitted under the deal. Hewitt and Silva said their company has been tentatively granted the right to put on as many as eight rock events per year until 1997. They said they also hope to extend the Bowl season, which runs from June to mid-October, by six weeks.

The senior Fleischmann said the proposed deal runs only three years and is limited to 18 concerts.

County Supervisor Ed Edelman and the parks department’s Weber attended several meetings where details of the contract were discussed. Edelman’s spokesman and Weber declined to clarify the agreement. Edelman is on vacation in Europe and could not be reached for comment.

Silva dismissed his competitors’ complaints as “sour grapes.”

“Before we arrived on the scene, the Bowl was always considered to be a place that was too expensive and too bureaucratic with horrible catering and costly, ineffective stagehands,” the 33-year-old promoter said. “The people complaining now have sat on the sidelines for years, but as soon as we start to succeed at turning the Bowl around, all of a sudden everybody wants a piece of the pie.”

For many contemporary rock acts, a concert at the Hollywood Bowl--where the Beatles and the Doors once played--is looked upon as a prestigious outing.

Before Ernest Fleischmann decided to negotiate a long-term deal with Silva and Hewitt, however, the Philharmonic had shown no interest in setting aside more than a few dates per season for rock shows, local promoters said.

But they said an exclusive contract to present more than six shows a year would make the location economically attractive, despite the inflexible programming schedule and other problems with the Bowl.

The relationship among the Philharmonic, the San Diego promoters and Martin Fleischmann was forged over a four-month period in 1990 and 1991.

Ernest Fleischmann said he had asked his son to “sound out his contacts (in the rock promotion community) in order to interest them in an ongoing relationship” with the Philharmonic.

In November, 1990, Martin Fleischmann said he asked his friend Andrew Hewitt, an artists’ manager and ex-Nederlander employee, whether he was interested in staging rock shows at the Bowl. Hewitt in turn introduced Martin to veteran promoter Silva. Hewitt and Silva formed a partnership less than a month later, and Martin introduced the pair to his father.

Silva said Ernest Fleischmann asked if he was interested in an exclusive contract with the Bowl, and Silva said yes.

Avalon Attractions President Brian Murphy said he learned of the deal in a phone call to his home from Ernest Fleischmann on Dec. 13, 1990.

“Out of the blue, Ernest just dropped it on me,” Murphy said. “He says: ‘Brian, I’ve decided to give an exclusive contract to present rock shows at the Hollywood Bowl to (promoter) Bill Silva.’

“I was so surprised I almost dropped the phone. It really upset me. After putting on shows at the Bowl for eight seasons and feeling like I had a good working relationship with Ernest and the rest of the staff, I couldn’t believe I wasn’t even asked to put in a bid. I was shocked.”

Murphy said he met separately with Fleischmann and Silva in February, 1991, but was granted the right to put on only one previously scheduled show--Jimmy Buffett on June 22, 1991.

Nederlander’s Hodges was also told in February, 1991, by former Hollywood Bowl general manager Wayne Shilkret, that his organization would be unable to book the Bowl for the rest of that year.

Also that month, Martin Fleischmann formed his promotion and management company, Rum and Humble.

The formal signing of an exclusive contract between the association and Hewitt and Silva was forestalled, however, when homeowner groups found out in March, 1991, that the Philharmonic had set aside 18 dates on the 1991 calendar for Hewitt and Silva rock shows at the Bowl. In past years, the Philharmonic had rarely presented more than three rock shows per season.

“By the time the neighborhood groups found out about it, Fleischmann’s son’s involvement in the matter just made the whole thing seem like it was a done deal to us without any input from the community,” said Jeffrey Chusid, vice president of the Hollywood Heights Homeowners Assn., a neighborhood group concerned about noise, traffic and vandalism associated with Bowl rock concerts.

Concerned neighbors contacted their county supervisor, Edelman. He met with Hewitt, Silva, Weber and Ernest Fleischmann in his supervisor’s office in March, 1991, to hammer out a plan to reduce noise, traffic and the number of concerts allowed at the facility. As a result of the meeting, only three shows were permitted last year.

Hewitt and Silva began producing rock shows at the Bowl in association with the younger Fleischmann in September, 1991, with a concert by Paul Simon. The promoters have presented three shows at the Bowl and have three more scheduled before November. In the past 11 months, no other rock promoters have been allowed to book shows at the Bowl, local promoters said.

On Dec. 6, the senior Fleischmann told the Philharmonic’s board of directors that he was preparing to award an exclusive contract for rock shows at the Bowl. (Other board members did not respond to telephone calls from The Times.)

Bowl general manager Parsons said she contacted Murphy a day before the board meeting to give him a chance to bid against Hewitt and Silva.

“Anybody knows that it normally takes seven to 10 days to put a comprehensive proposal of that scope and depth together,” said Murphy, who offered $325,000 for eight shows a year. “No way was I given a fair amount of time. I had to stay up all damn night to complete it.”

At the end of December, Fleischmann called Murphy and told him the Philharmonic had decided to sign with Hewitt and Silva because the San Diego promoters had offered a better financial deal for the association.

The year 1991 had been a rough one for the Philharmonic. Things got so bad that Fleischmann was forced to institute 3% to 5% pay cuts across the board. Facing a $1.9-million deficit, the association fired 35 employees, slashed a summer-training program for instrumentalists and conductors, and cut several concert series.