Balboa Park History 1982
Summary of Events in 1982
(Note: Dates of events are approximate only.)
Simon Edison Center for the Performing Arts dedicated (January 14, 1982)
Flag display dedicated in front of Aerospace Historical Center (January 21, 1982)
—
January 3, 1982, San Diego Union, F-1, F-3. “New” Old Globe jury out until curtain rises, by James Britton, II.
Would Shakespeare be satisfied with the new Globe Theater in Balboa Park?
Surely, as a playwright and player hungry for audiences, he would be grateful for the thousands of performances his works have had under auspices of the Old Globe. These occurred in the “old” Globe Theater built in 1935 and burned in 1978. The new $6.5 million theater is a replacement for the old, occupying pretty much the same place — and there’s the rub.
The new theater had to be squeezed between existing buildings. Its size was dictated by the available space and by the decision to duplicate the shape of the 1935 “original.” The intent in 1935 was to simulate one of the Elizabethan theaters in which Shakespeare’s works first surfaced. That meant, in Shakespeare’s phrase, a “wooden O.”
Because the new theater has not put on its first performance, no one can tell how it will sit, how it will feel, how it will listen, above all how it will deliver living actors into your lap. A visitor who picked his way among the workmen in the final throes of construction could sense that the ghost of the Old Globe was very much present in the new.
The interior is all black, so, in effect, there are no walls, only infinite space, waiting to be filled with significant sight and sound. The audience, cradled in seats more comfortable than before, is to be focused on the stage with minimum distraction.
The stage itself is as variable as a Rubik’s Cube, as susceptible of combinations — and one hopes, easier to manipulate. Whole sections of floor go up and down on elevators. Trap doors are everywhere, as befits a house that is bound to abound with Shakespeare’s numerous ghosts. A sizable segment of the seats can be wiped out instantly to allow actors to come and go beneath the feet of the others by way of the most inelegantly named facility, the vormitorium.
The stage can thrust forward or shrink back. Scenery can “fly” — that is, rise out of sight — but only to a limited degree, the limitation being caused by the fact that a “flyloft” of full height would contradict the illusion of an Elizabethan theater.
Illusion is the main game in theater, whether on the stage or in the house itself. True, great drama has been produced in plain brown wrapped, in storefronts. But the San Diego Old Globe probably never would have achieved the momentum it did (getting a national reputation) if it did not give the illusion of an Elizabethan figment of space suddenly to be discovered tucked away behind the might armada of Spanish-style showplaces that predominate in Balboa Park.
One could argue that the Globe supporters should have been braver and moved their operations — lock, stock and wooden “O” — into the downtown, an area that needs every cultural help as it seeks to become a major metropolitan center. The Globesters actually did try using old theaters downtown after the burning of their park property, but the results were limited partly because some patrons were afraid to go there after dark.
Grand plans were considered by Globe supporters to provide parking structures just west of the theater. If this had been part of the actual design procedure, the theater could have benefited in several ways, the most obvious being an easy access for patrons. More important from the production point of view, the backstage could have expanded into part of the parking structure, thus eliminating a certain tightness which directors are already finding troublesome.
Even more beneficial for the Globe’s future would be a series of spaces usable as classrooms, allowing the dream of a theater academy to become a reality. All this should have been built, along with the parking structure, as part of the Globe’s construction project. It could happen yet, if money gushed in.
Money to support the new Globe has to come from many sources other than box office. Increased seating of 800 or even 1,200 seats was considered before 580 was settled on. This is only slightly larger than the old Globe, which is why the rebuilt structure is likely to seem familiar rather than new, and retain the ghost of the old.
Also familiar will be the fake half-timbering on the exterior, the fake leaded glass of the few windows and the fake timbers on the lobby ceiling. The lobby space, upstairs and down, is somewhat larger than before. And the intermission crowds may be expected to filter into the night air on the green, as they always did. Intermission at the Globe was always one of the guaranteed pleasures.
One consequence of the limited acreage in which this theater was built is that the auxiliary usages — offices, dressing rooms, restrooms and the rest — are fitted into spaces that have a leftover look, not as generous as a new theater deserves. Fortunately, the workshop in which sets are prepared is a high loft that should please any craftsman and may be the envy of any sculptor.
Too bad the jealousy that prevails over every square foot of parkland prevented adequate enlargement of the site. Many San Diegans think parkland should be open space, free of buildings. Every project in the park is debated — you win some and lose some. The rebuilding of the Navy Hospital in the park is considered the greatest loss by those who care most about the park as a park. The Globe, however, was in no position to put up a similar fight.
However, the overall limitation of the site was a byproduct of the squabbling over usages of the park that have increased over the decades and is now civic disease for San Diego.
Ticket-buying visitors to the new Globe will be treated to the best efforts of seasoned theater professionals, aided and abetted by starry-eyed amateurs. As time goes on, the intent is to add music events and films of a high order. This building, which is a reverberation of Shakespeare’s own theater, echoing through centuries, is sure to be a centerpiece of San Diego culture for decades.
The Globe is to be an all-purpose theater offering the top output of all periods including the future, but Shakespeare will remain the chief supplier of staging material. His plays will occur both in the theater and in the outdoor festival stage, a nearby facility tucked into a canyon.
Both the festival stage and the Globe Theater’s internal arrangements were designed by Richard Hay, a stage designer whose main base is the Ashland, Ore., Shakespeare Theater. Eugene Weston of La Jolla was the architect.
In this case that means Hay’s main contribution was not the concept of the building, but the details of construction that made it a safe and sane place to play. He gave the exterior a discreetly somber look, which will be relieved by tiny lights under the eaves. These eaves, by the way, should shed sheets of water on a rainy night because the sloping roofs have no gutters.
Hay was reluctant to take undue credit as designer of the Globe, but producing director Tom Hall make it clear than Hay had developed the Globe to resemble the successful arrangement he has established at Ashland.
Rave reviews on the building can be expected but as with performances of plays themselves, the building cannot be finally judged until it has performed.
The festival stage is an innocent-appearing entity but it represents the power of art to loom larger that the routine life around it. Everybody was sure this would be a temporary facility, to be torn down when the new Globe came into being. In fact, the Globe people promised that it would be demolished. However, it is so successful, so decided a triumph as an aesthetic environment, chances are it will remain until termites consume its woodsiness.
The Globe Theater itself is a much more complex environment than the festival stage. It does not vibrate with free spirit as readily because it is loaded with more of the trappings of a serious purpose. Better siting, and a more expansive “footprint” or basic plan, would have added much value. But how it performs is eagerly awaited by all who see the place as a touchstone, or touchwood, for new dimensions of artistic vitality in San Diego
If Shakespeare himself were to stand on the new Balboa Park stage and look out over the audience, his all-seeing eyes would have to rise to the especially wondrous sight that can only be seen from the stage looking out. I refer to the tier on tier of catwalks built into the roof structure, where technicians can move back and forth manipulating equipment to strengthen illusions and perhaps even holding cue cards to give reassurance to actors whose hearts are where their tongues should be.
One can imagine that Shakespeare, standing there and taking in the dramatic technological tomorrowland of the catwalks, would glance down his nose at the comfortable audience and say, “Hereafter, in a better world than this, I shall desire much love and knowledge of you.”
Shakespeare would be quoting a line from “As You Like It,” his play which will inaugurate the new-old Globe Theater January 14.
January 3, 1982, San Diego Union, E-1, E-3. Helen Edison’s gift of love, by Donald Dierks.
As the principal single contributor to the new Old Globe, it was logical that an appreciative theater administration would suggest that Mrs. Edison choose a commemorative name for the complex that the Old Globe shares with the Cassius Carter Centre Stage. She chose the name of her late husband and it is as the Simon Edison Center for the Performing Arts that the new theater will be opened and dedicated with performances and celebrations taking place during the next two weeks.
January 3, 1982, San Diego Union, D-1, D-10. It was another opening, another show, December 2, 1937, by Beth Mohr.
January 5, 1982, San Diego Union, B-2:1-3. Balboa Park Committee opposes permitting any kind of night parking in Balboa Park.
January 21, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-15. International Hall of Fame and Soroptimists International of San Diego will dedicate a flag display this weekend in front of the Aerospace Historical Center.
January 21, 1982, San Diego Union, B-3:5. Arts Museum Wins Support of City Council.
The San Diego Opera Association won backing from a San Diego City Council committee yesterday for a more than $6 million project to renovate the crumbling House of Charm in Balboa park and turn it into a museum for the performing arts.
The opera has launched a separate Performing Arts Center Foundation with $150,000 to start to carry out the massive task of raising funds, renovating the Spanish-style building and developing museum exhibits and educational programs.
“We have over 4,000 supporting members, a strong balance sheet and a budget that’s been balances for the last five years,” noted Joseph Hibben, an opera association official who is now co-chairman of trustees for the new foundation. “Sure it’s an ambitious project. But some of us feel musical education in the schools has been somewhat curtailed with the passage of Proposition 13.”
Included in the building would be the only performing arts museum west of the Mississippi River, including exhibits demonstrating the history and mechanical workings of the stage, a public library for music and art criticism, complete with music listening rooms, a 250-seat theater for recitals, rehearsal rooms with view windows for the public, and a museum gift shop.
The group won out in its bid for the House of Charm over competition from the Textile Arts and Conservation Center and a proposal for a Navy museum.
Yesterday’s 5-0 vote of the Public Facilities and Recreation Committee authorized the city manager to begin negotiations on a lease-operating agreement that will make fund-raising possible.
February 4, 1982, San Diego Union, B-3:2-5. Unwilling to admit defeat, the Committee for Charter Protection for Parks filed yet another lawsuit to block construction of a new Naval Hospital in Balboa Park; the Committee for Charter Protection for Parks — an umbrella group that includes the League of Women Voters, Sierra Club, Citizens Coordinate for Century 3, and other environmentalists — hopes the project can be scuttled even at this late date by forcing he navy to pay cash for the land.
February 14, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1:6. In an attempt to cut down on alleged vandalism, muggings and fights in Balboa Park, a group of men and women have formed a “task force” to patrol the park at night and on weekends.
February 14, 1982, San Diego Union, F-1:1-8. Grading nearly completed on 39-acre site in Balboa Park for the world’s most expensive military hospital complex.
February 15, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-6. Representatives Clair Burgener and Bill Lowrey (Republican) and Lionel Van Deerlin (Democrat) will ask City Council to change name of Case de Balboa to the (Bea) Evenson Building.
February 7, 1982, San Diego Union, F-27. Transit planner Glenn Erikson says Balboa Park is “highly overrated,” by Roger Showley: “Balboa Park, I think, is highly overrated. The maps say it consists of 1,400 acres. Well, after you take away the Zoo and the Navy Hospital and the scout camps and everything else without free access by the public, there isn’t a whole lot left. It doesn’t hold a candle to Golden Gate Park.”
February 24, 1982, San Diego Union, At Ease – 7:1-8. About 30 Natural History Museum volunteers take turns guiding weekly nature walks through Florida Canyon; volunteers, called canyoneers, are graduates of a 10-week museum course on canyon ecology; nature determines the collection of plants and animals throughout the year.
April 7, 1982, San Diego Union, At Ease – 7:1-8. Balboa Park’s Marston Point offers a ballroom for skaters of every degree; in other places there, roller skating has been prohibited, but it can still be practices west of the Laurel Street bridge and Marston Point is its ballroom; weekends there is music supplied by the recordings of a Fifth Avenue shop, Sunshine Skates.
April 9, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-4. EDITORIAL: Balboa Park tree loss hurts us all . . . San Diego Zoo has cut down 250 trees to extend a parking lot: The parking lot plan was not brought before the public to discuss its merits. Neither the City Park and Recreation Department Board not the Balboa Park Committee were formally consulted by the zoo before the trees were felled. It is within the strict legal confines of the lease that the city gave to the zoo for the zoo to do what it wishes with the land.
April 13, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-10. Letter, Making the case for the Festival Stage, by Denise M. Lavell, Linda Vista.
While having a third major stage in the park does add to the already congested traffic and parking problem, the Balboa Park Master Plan, to be completed in 1983, has set out to alleviate the traffic problems for the entire park area.
I would urge the City Council to extend the lease for the Festival Stage at least until the Master Plan is completed.
April 13, 1982, San Diego Union, B-3:2-5. A group fighting the construction of the Navy Regional Medical Center in Balboa Park has asked a Superior Court Judge to reconsider his decision that a proposed land swap between the federal government and the city of San Diego is proper.
April 16, 1982, San Diego Union, D-5. Globe Seeks Support For Festival Theater.
According to a theater spokesman, more than 700 theatergoers to date have indicated their support for the Globe’s plans to continue to present its own shows and to host other performing arts events on the stage.
April 19, 1982, San Diego Union, B-8. EDITORIAL: Save the Festival Stage: Continued use of the Festival Stage is such an attractive prospect that it should not become a victim of Balboa Park’s long-standing traffic problems.
April 20, 1982, Los Angeles Times,, II. Asset or eyesore? . . . Battle staged over Old Globe’s amphitheater, by Barry M. Horstman: The Festival Stage sits at the upper end of a small wooded canyon, adjacent to both the Old Globe and the San Diego Zoo. It consists of a simple wood stage, supported by wood poles driven into the ground, facing rows of plastic, stadium-type seats.
The $225,000 facility was built in only 52 days after the City Council issued an emergency construction permit and waived time-consuming environmental reviews, with the understanding that the structure would be removed after the 1978 summer festival, since Old Globe officials hoped to rebuild their indoor theater in time for their 1979 season.
April 21, 1982, Los Angeles Times, II-1. Park & Recreation Board recommended that Old Globe Theater be permitted to operate its outdoor Festival Stage in Balboa Park this summer, by Barry M. Horstman.
However, Lee Hubbard, a Museum of Art trustee, said the museum plans to hold many evening events this summer, and suggested that it is time for the Old Globe to begin to show some good neighborliness by offering fewer plays each month.
April 21, 1982, San Diego Tribune. B-3. City Manager Blair told City Council he has found more money for nine park proposals he had left out of next year’s fiscal budget, by Reginald Smith.
April 21, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1. Park & Recreation Board okays continued use of outdoor Festival Stage by Old Globe, by Mary Hellman.
April 22, 1982, Los Angeles Times,, II-3. Zoo officials defend removing 250 trees, by Barry Horstman.
Stung by criticism over their removal of 250 trees from the San Diego Zoo’s parking lot, zoo representatives tried to convince city officials Wednesday that they are not San Diego’s version of U. S. Interior Secretary Jams Watt.
The zoo’s official message to a City Council committee was simple: While their action hardly qualifies them for the Joyce Kilmer appreciation awards, they are not the kind of people who would try to sneak into Sequoia National Forest at night with chain saws.
“It’s unfortunate tat the public has been left with a negative impression about this,” said Charles Bieler, the zoo’s executive director. “This is not as bad . . . as the (press) coverage made it seem.”
April 25, 1982, San Diego Union, F-3:1-2. Weeklong events in “Balboa Park, Its History and Future Development,” sponsored by the San Diego Chapter of Landscape Architects, culminate April 25 at Casa del Prado, Balboa park; Balboa Park landscape architects directly involved in the planning of the park will be on hand to explain their services and give information; on display will be a historical look at the development of the park and San Diego, and the architects’ master plan for future development.
April 27, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-6. EDITORIAL: Save the Old Globe’s Festival Stage: We join the chorus. The outdoor theater, like the temporary Spanish-Colonial style buildings that came before it, is an asset that deserves to live.
April 28, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-8. Letter, Rev. Neil Voigt, Point Loma.
I am a member of Friends of the Earth; however, the people who are shouting “pure environment” are not seeing far enough. That little piece of the part was formerly full of underbrush.
April 28, 1982, San Diego Union, A-24. Griffith Park fee of 50 cents weekdays and $1 weekends extended for three months.
April 28, 1982, San Diego Union, At East – 2:1-6. Elementary students through high schoolers from Mission Bay to Borrego Springs will partake in the Festival of the Arts celebration May 1 at Balboa Park; the festival is the culmination of “The Shakespeare Year,” an educational endeavor of the San Diego County’s schools during the past 12 months.
May 9, 1982, San Diego Union, F-28. Bars and cages will be replaced by moats and rocks at San Diego Zoo in a 10-year, $22 million renovation program which has been started, by Will Parry.
The reconstruction program will focus on one of the oldest areas of the Zoo, four acres on the Bird and Primate Mesa.
Public donations will finance improvements at the 100-acre animal park which annually attracts more than 3 million visitors each year.
Since 1978, Zoo officials and the architectural firm of Buss Silvers Hughes and Associates have been working on renovation plans with the objective of displaying “the animals in the most authentic setting and to preserve the lush vegetation” while preserving the safety and comfort of both the animals and visitors.
Last week Dave Rice, director of planning and architecture for the Zoo, and Dale Jenkins of Buss Silvers Hughes, said the first of the fine phases of the project should be completed by June. They said moats and rocks have been used to act as natural barriers for the animals instead of the usual bars and cages. “Visitors can now feel they are immersed in the exhibit instead of removed from the animals,” said Jenkins.
A revolutionary new flight cage will be one of the highlights of the renovation project. A German engineer, who has designed a similar flight cage in the Munich, Germany, zoo, was brought here to help design the new exhibit for large birds, such as palm cockatoos, hornbills and maleos. Jenkins said it would cover 10,000 square feet of ground area, adjoining the existing rain forest flight cage for smaller birds. The new flight cage will be covered with 22,000 square feet of one-inch-square wire. Its shape was determined by a computer to best suit the flight requirements of the large birds.
“The total design gives the animals more space to exercise, which will keep them healthy throughout their lives,” Rice said.
May 11, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-7. Letter, Parking for San Diego Zoo patrons is more important than trees, by E. P. Nepstad, Normal Heights . . . “I would say “well done” to the zoo management.”
May 16, 1982, San Diego Union, E-1, E-2. Will it become permanent? Drama heats up for Festival Stage, by Mary Hellman.
Globe president Stacey Sullivan: “We’d have to start from scratch again. Without the Festival Stage, we’d be limited artistically and financially. So would the city, given that the Shakespeare Festival is a major tourist attraction.”
Steve Brezzo, Museum of Art executive director: “This isn’t something that can be solved by coordinating events or improved housekeeping. The park was designed to house certain institutions in certain environmental conditions. It’s clear the Festival Stage isn’t conducive to that environment.”
Steve Estrada, landscape architect and consultant drawing the Balboa Park master plan: “A park is a passive, peaceful place, but it isn’t just lawn. Balboa Park is a little of everything — culture, recreation, open space. Our job is to mesh the activities to reduce conflict. That’s why you can’t look at the Festival Stage without considering other areas of the park.”
Artistic merits aside, the 617-seat Festival stage is a major financial asset, producing more than 20 percent of the Globe’s annual income.
May 18, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1. Like a phoenix, Casa de Balboa rises from ashes according to Dave Seyfarth, park’s director, by Carl Ritter.
Mayor Wilson late in the afternoon yesterday snipped a ribbon to open officially the park’s new $8 million Casa de Balboa.
In fact, the Casa de Balboa is not really open to the public except for a tenant in the basement, the Model Railroad Museum which has one exhibit set for display Sundays from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
May 18, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1:6-8. Proposals for the city’s master plan for Balboa Park were discussed May 17; the plan eventually must be reviewed by the Balboa Park Committee and the full Parks and Recreation Committee before going to the City Council for approval.
May 20, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Balboa Park home seems likely for Festival Stage; Public Facilities and Recreation Committee voted 4-1 to recommend extension through October 31, 1983, by Alison Da Rosa.
“I’m not voting against the stage,” said Councilman Bill Mitchell, explaining his negative vote. “I want to recommend a 25-year lease, not this temporary permit. All we’re going is playing games with them, because we know that stage is permanent.”
May 20, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1, B-9. Globe Outdoor Theater May Be Saved, by Mary Hellman.
The Old Globe Theater moved a step closer toward obtaining permanent status for its outdoor Festival Stage in Balboa Park as the City Council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee recommended use of the amphitheater for this summer and next.
- Stacey Sullivan and Museum of Art leaders acknowledged that 11thhour talks late Monday had come close, but failed to resolve differences between them. Scheduling conflicts have been worked out and Globe officials agreed to pay for a consultant to end noise from a museum air conditioner. But museum leaders are still opposed to the Globe’s landscaping plans and wanted only a one-year extension on use of the stage.
May 20, 1982, San Diego Union, B-7:5-8. Juggler Kit Summers, 32, was a versatile juggler, attaining popularity at an Atlantic City casino nightclub until he was stuck by a truck and left in a coma April 3; although he is slowly improving, red tape over insurance coverage has left him stranded in a New Jersey hospital; performers Sunday afternoon along Balboa Park’s street theater, where Summers gained prominence, raised about $450 to help pay for transporting him back home.
May 22, 1982, San Diego Union, D-1. Hubert Guy has sculptured ladies from old Electric Building in his garden at Grossmont home.
May 25, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Festival Stage can call Balboa Park home, by Allison Da Rosa.
The City Council has voted unanimously to extend the 617-seat outdoor theater’s temporary use-and-occupancy permit through October 31, 1983.
June 3, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1:2-4. Mike Woods, a retired police officer, remembers the days he patrolled Balboa Park on horseback for the San Diego Police Dept. in 1938 and 1939; seven officers were assigned to patrol on horseback at the time: Police Chief William Kollender will offer the City Council a few proposals for a horse patrol within the next week or so; Balboa Park will be the “primary target” for horse patrols because of the park’s topography and size.
June 7, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1:1-8. Several hundred people gathered in Balboa Park next Sixth Avenue and Laurel Street to pray for an end to the nuclear arms race; the occasion was the Interfaith Service of Affirmation for Peace service sponsored by about 12 area religious leaders and organizations.
June 8, 1982, San Diego Union, B-2:4-6. A 12-member citizens group called Citizen Task Force has been patrolling in pairs on weekend nights since January; the organization says it is fed up with “the epidemic rise of violent crime: after dark in Balboa Park.
June 13, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1:2-5. A Bread Not Bombs picnic organized in front of the United Association Building in Balboa Park June 12 following a walk from the General Dynamics plant on Pacific Highway; slogans were prevalent, including “Blow Up Balloons Not People: and “You can’t hug your child with nuclear arms.”
June 16, 1982, San Diego Union, At Ease – 6:1-8. Balboa Park often looks like a three-ring circus on a sunny afternoon; among the street entertainers one might see clowns, musicians and jugglers.
June 17, 1982, San Diego Union, E-1:6-8. Those strolling the 28th Street side of Balboa Park last Saturday afternoon may have blinked at bit at the rather Victorian scene — several men and women, all dressed in white, were playing croquet on the lawn; the occasion was the sixth annual Golden Hill Invitational, dreamed up by croquet devotee, Ron Stein; the format is always the same — each guest brings a bottle of champagne and a dessert and wears white.
July 18, 1982, San Diego Union, B-1:4-6. Beginning July 30, neighborhood residents and others throughout the county will assemble in the Conference Building in Balboa Park for a three-day Italian Cultural Festival; some Italians recently gathered at Mama’s home (Madeline de Philippis) in the India Street neighborhood to plan the second annual festival.
July 29, 1982, San Diego Newsline. Old Globe Theater eyes Balboa Park canyon, by Virginia Bisek.
August 14 – 22, 1982. America’s Finest City Week.
August 15, 1982, San Diego Union. A great day for Great States Picnic in Balboa Park yesterday, by Carl Ritter.
September 15, 1982, San Diego Tribune, A-2. More than $1 million in federal grants from Institute of Museum Services are going to 43 California museums, zoos and botanical gardens, including $140,000 to San Diego organizations. . . . Grants of $35,000 each are going to the Junipero Serra Museum and to the San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego Museum of Man and the San Diego Zoo.
September 16, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-1. Attendance at Old Globe’s summer season was 190,000, by Neil Morgan..
September 18, 1982, San Diego Union, B-3. Birds, primates moving into new homes at San Diego Zoo in the first phase of the Zoo’s major renovation of the mesa west of the main entrance.
The aviaries and six primate enclosures of the new Whittier Southeast Asian Exhibits, which will open to the public September 25, have been built in such a way to present a more biologically and geographically correct mix, according to Zoo officials conducting a preview tour yesterday.
The centerpiece of the Southeast Asian rain forest section is the orangutan exhibit set on a hillside above Fern Canyon.
Birds of the Southeast Asian rain forest will occupy a unique tent-like flight cage made of stainless steel.
The new flight cage connects with a renovated 14,000-square foot Tropical Rain Forest aviary..
September 22, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-3. Golfers tee off, win round on monthly fees.
The Public Facilities and Recreation Committee today responded to complaints from about 150 most senior citizens by shelving a proposal to eliminate a discount monthly charge for use of the course.
October 9, 1982, San Diego Tribune, A-11. EDITORIAL: City needs income from golf, tennis.
The Public Facilities and Recreation Committee has urged the City Council to boost fees at Torrey Pines and Balboa Park municipal golf courses and possibly use non-profit organizations to operate 80 municipal tennis courts.
If approved by the council, the recommendations might well bring the city some much-needed income from its public golf courses and put the tennis courts on a paying basis.
October 10, 1982, San Diego Union, D-6. SPIN DRIFT: Party at Old Globe . . . time for benefactors to select seats that would bear their name plaques, by Janet Sutter.
October 21, 1982, READER, 3. Ernest Chew, chief botanist at San Diego Zoo, has resigned after eleven years on job; could no longer dig it, by Neal Matthews..
Though he doesn’t want to foment trouble, and is therefore reluctant to speak freely, Chew acknowledges that he quit because of a series of disagreements with the zoo’s new general manager, Terry Winnick. Winnick’s background isn’t in zoos; he’s a former Universal Studios executive who took over at the zoo last spring. “I’d say I’m only the first casualty,” Chew predicts, hinting at seedlings of discontent growing among zoo staffers.
Chew’s problems with the new management stemmed from what is perceived, and referred to by insiders, as the zoo’s embrace of a new “Tinsel-town” sensibility.
November 12, 1982, San Diego Union A-31. The Old Globe Theater ended its “Year of Celebration” last month with reason to cheer.
The theater expects to post a “slight surplus” for the past 12 months, its first fiscal year as a fully professional company.
November 22, 1982, Downtown, 16. Public Facilities & Recreation Committee voted in favor of designating Balboa Park a historic site.
December 3-4, 1982. Christmas on El Prado schedule.
December 9, 1982, San Diego Tribune, C-1. Crime in Balboa Park, by John Sinor.
Christmas music poured out through Balboa Park as some pitiful petty thieves merrily smashed the passenger door window of my car and rapidly ripped out my tape machine, assorted cassettes and one of my speakers.
December 25, 1982, San Diego Tribune, B-1, B-5.. San Diego Zoo employees are told no more cuts in store, by Elizabeth Wong.
San Diego Zoo employees angered by layoffs and rumors their workday would be shortened to help cover an estimated $1 million operating deficit were misinformed, says Zoological Society president-elect Sheldon Campbell.
Campbell this week denied that the workday for the zoo’s full-time employees would be shortened to seven hours from eight. Zoo directors gave “fleeting consideration” to reducing workers’ hours as an economy measure, he said.
However, recent layoffs of part-time employees and other dollar-saving measures should cover the deficit caused by poor attendance, he said. Zoo attendance has declines less than one-half percent this year, he said.
A petition to Campbell, signed by 130 of the zoo’s 1,200 employees, attacked the layoffs, administrative spending and the rumored workday reduction. The petition, dated December 8, also criticized zoo managers for accepting leased zoo cars for business and private uses.
“We all have a great stake in our zoo and hate to see it go down hill. Therefore, we ask you to take a long hard look at the payroll budget from the top if we really need to economize,” the letter stated.
“Hourly-rated full-time and many part-time employees have been laid off, but we still have the same number of supervisors,” the letter said. “We are not in any way trying to tell the management how to run the zoo. We are just very concerned.”
Responding with his own letter Wednesday, Campbell said that the employees “good intentions and desire to improve the zoo” were appreciated and that a breakdown in communications was the cause for the misunderstandings.
“The concern was really an expression of the fact that people perhaps had not gotten the word and became worried about it (layoffs and hour reductions),” he said.
Zoo executive director Charles Bieler also received a copy of the employees’ letter.
Bieler explained that anxiety among employees was caused by rumors of the reduced workday and layoffs of some part-time employees who worked in areas catering to the public, such as merchandising and food services.
The layoffs took place because of the slowdown in tourism this month and because of the need to stay within the zoo’s $41 million budget for 1983, Bieler said.
“The zoo has gone through the worst four weekends of the year,” he said. “We have weathered the tough season. The first three weeks in December were the slowest weeks of the yea. But what has occurred (in layoffs and cutbacks) is all that is going to occur.”
Bieler said the zoo was coming up short of its projected year’s attendance of 3 million. About 70 percent of the zoo’s income comes from tourism, he said.
Most staff reductions were small, Bieler added. Attrition and reduction of hours for some employees helped to “save a dollar here and a dollar there.”
“In tight economic times, we don’t want to get ourselves in trouble,” he said.
“I think the letter was a sincere letter of concern for their job security and for the long-term future of the zoo. We’ve got to do a better job of communicating and a better job of listening.”
December 30, 1982, San Diego Union, B-2. San Diego Zoo, Wild Animal Park to increase some admission fees, pass prices.
Several admission fees and special pass prices at the San Diego Zoo and the San Diego Wild Animal Park will increase soon, Zoological Society officials announced yesterday.
The sharpest rise affects the zoo’s Citizen’s Pass, an admission card that was little-publicized until news accounts this year made its existence more widely known. Zoo officials said then the cost probably would increase, and it has, from $6 to $10 beginning January 17.
The Citizen’s Pass, valid only for entrance to the Zoo, is available to San Diego city residents by applying at the Guest Relations Window. A driver’s license or Department of Motor Vehicle’s identification care indicating a San Diego zip code must be presented for verification.
December 30, 1982, San Diego Union, B-9. George Divine, architect who designed Timken Gallery, is dead at 68.
Return to Amero Collection.
BALBOA PARK HISTORY
pre-1900
1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904
1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909
1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914
1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919
1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924
1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929
1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934
1935 | 1936 | 1937 | 1938 | 1939
1940 | 1941 | 1942 | 1943 | 1944
1945 | 1946 | 1947 | 1948 | 1949
1950 | 1951 | 1952 | 1953 | 1954
1955 | 1956 | 1957 | 1958 | 1959
1960 | 1961 | 1962 | 1963 | 1964
1965 | 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969
1970 | 1971 | 1972 | 1973 | 1974
1975 | 1976 | 1977 | 1978 | 1979
1980 | 1981 | 1982 | 1983 | 1984
1985 | 1986 | 1987 | 1988 | 1989
1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994
1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999