1985.09.28 - LA Street Scene Festival, LA, USA

Street Scene -1 Million Due to Come Alive in ’85

By EDWARD J. BOYER,
Times Staff Writer

"No, Joan Rivers will not be appearing,” the secretary was explaining over the telephone when Sylvia Cun-liffe, producer of the Los Angeles Street Scene Festival, overheard.

"Don’t say that,” Cunliffe shouted from her City Hall office. “She will be appearing.”

The confused secretary put the caller on hold as Cunliffe, general manager of the city's General Services Department, briefed her on yet another schedule change in the two-day festival, which attracted nearly 1 million visitors to the Civic Center last year.

As late as Thursday, a harried Cunliffe and her cadre of aides were juggling schedules, revising programs and nailing down last-minute details for the eighth annual Street Scene Festival, which runs Saturday and Sunday in the 13-block Los Angeles Civic Center.

Joan Rivers is indeed on the program for a 5.-30 p.m. appearance on Saturday at the festival’s Times Plaza Stage, one of 21 festival stages featuring such stars as Richard Pryor, Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, Tierra, James Brown and Bill Withers.

The entertainers are appearing largely through the efforts of Mayor Tom Bradley, who hosted a luncheon for show business managers and agents several months ago and asked them for help providing talent for this year’s festival, a Street Scene spokeswoman said.

Festival organizers are again expecting more than 1 million visitors this year, and nearly all of them should be able to find music to their liking among the symphony orchestra, jazz, country, rhythm and blues and ethnic music groups that will give 300 live performances.

Attractions also will include shows for children, strolling clowns, comedy acts, 150 arts and crafts booths and a panorama of ethnic food on sale throughout the festival area, bounded by Broadway and Aliso, Alameda and 1st streets.

Festivities actually get under way Friday evening with an invitation-only "Opening Night Gala” on the south lawn of City Hall. About 1,000 guests will be entertained by a Polynesian revue flown in from Hawaii and will dine on roast pig, ribs and chicken.

Spring Street will be closed between 1st and Temple streets on Friday for the City Hall gala. Broadway, Spring, Main, Los Angeles, San Pedro and Temple streets will be closed between 1st and Aliso all day Saturday and Sunday, except for a half block of Los Angeles Street near 1st, which will remain open to allow access to underground parking at City Hall East and the Civic Center Mall. The north side of 1st Street between Broadway and San Pedro Street will also be closed.

Portions of Broadway and 1st, Hope and Temple streets will be closed Sunday morning for the festival’s 3-1/2-hour parade, which steps off at 10 a.m. with marching bands, drill teams, equestrian units, folk dancers, a children’s chorus and floats.

A plan by KMEX-TV to broadcast a telethon from the festival site to raise funds for Mexican earthquake relief fell through on Wednesday, the day after news accounts of an agreement between the city and the station appeared.

“I checked with top producers who all said the telecast was technically feasible,” Cunliffe said. “But the station, after initially agreeing, said it was not feasible.”

A spokesman for the station said plans to broadcast from the festival were scrapped because “logistical-ly, it just didn’t work out.” Instead, KMEX-TV will broadcast the 12-hour telethon from its studios on Sunday, with a camera at the festival to feed live segments to the station.

American Red Cross volunteers will collect contributions for Mexican earthquake relief at several locations at the festival, Cunliffe said.

While the lost telecast is disappointing, Cunliffe remained enthusiastic about new features at this year’s festival: a fireworks display at 9 p.m. Saturday that will be “choreographed” to music broadcast simultaneously over KMGG-FM, a Mexican program featuring rancheras sung by various local groups, a drawing for a Pontiac Fiero, and an expanded carnival with larger, more daring rides.

The festival’s $700,000 budget was provided by General Motors’ Pontiac Division, Camel cigarettes, Coors beer, California Cooler, Denny’s restaurants, Xerox Corp., Kal Kan Foods, Mogen David Kosher Meat Products, Pepsi Cola and Chipwich.

Showcase for Fun

“The festival is a showcase of how people can get together and have a couple of fun days with free, quality entertainment,” said festival board member Willie Davis. “Free entertainment is almost non-existent today.”

Davis, a former All-Pro defensive end with the Green Bay Packers and now owner of a beer distribution business in Los Angeles, launched the idea for a festival after spotting Mayor Bradley aboard an airliner in 1977.

After persuading stewardesses to allow Bradley to leave his seat in the coach section and join him in first class, Davis told the mayor that Los Angeles should have a festival similar to those held in other cities around the country.

“The mayor expressed some excitement,” Davis said, and invited the National Football League Hall-of-Famer to start one.

“The whole idea was to show off downtown and remove misconceptions about the area,” Davis said. “From that standpoint, this thing has gone an extra mile in bringing millions of people back downtown.”