With visitors seeking diversion, and many stage and screen players among its residents, Los Angeles is an important theatrical centre. Besides numerous theatres in the city and motion picture palaces, it has secondary theatrical centres like Hollywood, and an energetic "little theatre" activity. Grand opera is given in the Shrine Civic auditorium, seating 6,500 persons. Orchestra and other recitals are given in the Philharmonic auditorium. The Mission Play theatre, at San Gabriel, is one of the famous playhouses of the region. As climate makes outdoor entertainment attractive, the city has a number of gathering places like the Los Angeles Coliseum, seating 90,000 persons, Hollywood Bowl, seating 25,00o, the adjoining Pilgrimage Play amphitheatre, and outlying auditoriums, as Pasadena Rose Bowl, 75,00o. The "symphony under the stars," in Hollywood Bowl, during July and August, has become widely known. Easter morning is an occasion for outdoor services in various natural amphitheatres.
The Los Angeles museum of history, science and art has a spacious building in Exposition park. It exhibits mounted skele tons of sabre-tooth tigers, Imperial elephants, American masto dons, camels, wolves and small mammals recovered from La Brea asphalt pits, and has thousands of unmounted specimens. Its pictures, statuary, historical and scientific collections amply cover the field embraced in its title. The Southwest museum, in a building ornamented with cement casts from Mayan sculpture, specializes in the rich civilizations of the south-western United States, Mexico and Central America, and also has collections of conchology, entomology and ornithology.
The Los Angeles public library, with 1,443,479 books, is housed in a new building of monolithic concrete, and has 48 branches, mostly in special buildings. The city has various special libraries, belonging to colleges, professional associations and business con cerns, devoted to law, medicine, architecture, mining, petroleum, minerals and industrial subjects. The Henry E. Huntington library and art gallery at San Marino, near Pasadena, is rich in rare books and manuscripts, mostly English and American, with the largest collection of incunabula in America. There also is an outstanding collection of the works of the great English painters of the so called Golden age—Gainsborough, Reynolds, Lawrence, Romney. The Arabella Huntington Memorial, in the same place, includes rare art objects.
Parks.—Among the 13o parks, having an aggregate area of 5,412 ac., are: Griffith park, 3,751 ac. of natural foothill, with
golf course; Exposition park, 114 ac., with Los Angeles museum; Elysian park, 599 ac., in natural state, with a motor camp; Syca more Grove, 15 ac., a natural tract of dry river-bed (arroyo) ; Barnsdall park, io ac., for children; Lincoln park, 46 ac., with a museum, zoo and exposition buildings; and Pershing Square, which is the only park in the business section, besides the old Spanish plaza. Many tourists visit Mt. Wilson and Mt. Lowe, north-east of the city, and Santa Catalina island, 23 m. south west from San Pedro.
More than 298,00o pupils were enrolled in 617 public schools in the fall of 1933 10,476 teachers were giving in struction. Institutions for higher education, in order of the found ing, are :
) the co-educational University of Southern California (1879), Methodist, with students of all denominations. It is corn posed of six colleges and seven schools and is situated on large grounds in the central part of the city. Its enrolment in 1936 was approximately io,000. (2) Occidental college (1887), Presbyterian foundation, non-sectarian. It is co-educational, with the women's college at Eagle Rock, outside the northern border of the city, and the men's college at Brentwood, on the western border. The college is devoted to the liberal arts; its enrolment in 1936 was about 75o. (3) California Institute of Technology (1891), at Pasadena. Its work is confined to scientific and engineering sub jects, notably for pure science and research. (4) Loyola college (1912), conducted by the Jesuit Fathers, in the city, gives courses in science, art, engineering, commerce, finance, pre-medical studies and law. (5) University of California at Los Angeles (1919). It is situated on a 375 ac. campus at Westwood on the western border of the city. The institution has about 7,25o students, is co-educational and gives complete university training. Many pri vate schools, military academies, conservatories and summer schools, give additional educational facilities.
The city's 600 churches, increased by about so yearly, are nearly all new, and are varied in design and setting. Total church membership in 1926 was 326,466; of whom 147,255 were Protestant, 114,211 Roman Catholic and 65,000 Jewish. The 15o charitable and welfare organizations of the city secure funds through a yearly community chest solicita tion. The contributions for 1935 totalled $2,805,077.