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22 | February 7, 2019 | 22nd century media Highland Park 150 22ndCenturyMedia.com In the early 1900s, Ravinia was known as the summer opera capital of the world. 1904 Baseball stadium : When Ravinia opened as a high-end amusement park in 1904, its attractions included a baseball stadium. Ravinia Festival: Much more stage Ravinia’s 1915 Program book cover: Ravinia’s early program books were lavish full-color collectibles. When the train company that started Ravinia went bankrupt, it was taken over by a group of prominent businessmen. The self-owned not-for-profit is still overseen by an all-volunteer Board of Trustees today, as it was in this photo of the “organization” from 1917. First opened on August 15, 1904, Ravinia remains the oldest and most programmatically diverse music festival in North America, and brings about 600,000 guests to over 140 events each year. It was conceived as a high-end amusement park—complete with music pavilion, dance hall, baseball stadium, theater, and electric swing—by the A.C. Frost Company as a lure to get Chicagoans to ride its fledgling Chicago and Milwaukee Electric Railroad to a respite in the woods, far from the heat and smells of a city known as the “hog butcher to the world.” Trains still stop at Ravinia’s historic entrance today, serviced by the Metra Union Pacific North line, making it the only private train stop left in Illinois. As Ravinia grew in popularity, summer cottages popped up nearby, and when the train company went bust, Ravinia continued to thrive under the leadership of a group of North Shore philanthropists who created the Ravinia Company, headed by Louis Eckstein. Today Ravinia operates as a self-owned not-for-profit, still run by a volunteer board of business and community leaders, but now overseeing a professional staff, with support from its active and insightful Women’s Board (established in 1964) and its Associates Board of young movers and shakers (established in 1988). From 1919 through 1931, Ravinia was known as the “summer opera capital of the world,” welcoming to its stage the most-celebrated singers from Europe who sailed to America to perform at the Met and were in no hurry to make that arduous return voyage. Even during this period, the railway proved crucial the festival’s success, and many great operas were truncated so audiences original music pavilion was made of wood. would not miss the last train of the evening. Ravinia shuttered for four years during the Great Depression, reopening in 1936 with a greater emphasis on symphonic music, hosting the first formal summer residency of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, an enviable relationship that exists to this day. In 1938, Benny Goodman made headlines by breaking racial barriers, performing at Ravinia with an integrated band. Ravinia continues to attract headline-making artists from all genres of music to Highland Park. The festival’s illustrious roster includes (alphabetically): Louis Armstrong, The Beach Boys, Leonard Bernstein, Tony Bennett, Glen Campbell, The Carpenters, Ray Charles, Chicago, Van Cliburn, Common, James Conlon, Aaron Copland, Elvis Costello, Crosby Stills & Nash, Miles Davis, Plácido Domingo, Bob Dylan, Earth Wind & Fire, Duke Ellington, Christoph Eschenbach, 50 Cent, Ella Fitzgerald, Sir James Galway, George Gershwin, Dizzy Gillespie, Jascha Heifetz, Janis Joplin, Lady Gaga, Yo-Yo Ma, Stevie Nicks, Jessye Norman, Dolly Parton, Luciano Pavarotti, Itzhak Perlman, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Ross, Mstislav Rostropovich, Santana, Steely Dan, Isaac Stern, Sting, Igor Stravinsky, Tina Turner, Frederica von Stade, Yuja Wang, John Williams, and Frank Zappa & the Mothers of Invention. Pianist Lang Lang was launched to international superstardom from the stage of Ravinia’s 1999 Gala. Six of the CSO’s music directors first appeared with the orchestra at Ravinia, including Sir Georg Solti and Riccardo Muti. Aretha Franklin’s fi- Please see Ravinia, 29
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