Dinner in L.A. Marks Next Stage for Rock Hall of Fame

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame doesn’t come just to California for the first time when it holds its annual induction dinner tonight at the Century Plaza Hotel. It comes to a turning point.

“If everything runs right, this may be remembered as the evening that started phase two of the Hall of Fame,” says Irving Azoff, president of Giant Records and a member of the Los Angeles dinner committee.

The artists scheduled to be inducted tonight--the first time the dinner has been held outside New York--include several whose recording identities were tied to California: Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Doors, Etta James and Sly & the Family Stone. Others honored will be Cream, Van Morrison (who has lived much of the time since the early ‘70s in Marin County), Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and Ruth Brown.

In addition, Dinah Washington will be honored as a pre-rock influence, and Dick Clark and executive and producer Milt Gabler will receive non-performer achievement awards. This brings to 94 the total number of Hall of Fame honorees--57 artists, 19 early influences and 18 non-performers.

When talking about phase two of the Hall of Fame, Azoff is referring to more than geography. The organization’s plans include its first network television show, induction dinners in other cities . . . and eventually, of course, the long-delayed opening of the Hall of Fame itself in Cleveland.

Indeed, Hall officials--who have left themselves open to ridicule over the Cleveland facility because of several highly publicized false starts--will announce tonight that construction will begin in April on the complex on the shore of Lake Erie.

A formal groundbreaking ceremony is being planned for June, with hopes that the $84-million, 150,000-square-foot facility will be completed in time to celebrate Cleveland’s bicentennial in 1996. The complex was designed by noted architect I. M. Pei.

“We do want to share the Hall of Fame activities with the general public,” says Suzan Evans, executive director of the Hall of Fame Foundation. “Once we complete the museum, there will be a multitude of public activities, including educational outreach programs.”

Evans says that $49 million has been raised through the annual dinners, record company donations and corporate sponsorships. The remaining $35 million will come from a recently approved Cleveland Cuyahoga Port Authority bond issue that will ultimately be repaid from Hall of Fame corporate sponsorships.

Funding for the project came slower than had been hoped, and a relocation from a downtown site to the harbor caused further delays.

“It’s been worth the struggle to get this built, and it will do great things for our community and attract people to show them the depth of Cleveland beyond rock ‘n’ roll,” Cleveland Mayor Michael White said Monday. “People will see that a city that almost died has become one of the country’s premiere cities.”

Additionally, plans are continuing for a network television special this year featuring taped highlights of past induction dinners, which have never been aired live, including jam sessions involving such inductees and presenters as Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Bruce Springsteen, the Byrds, Chuck Berry, Roy Orbison, Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan.

The move of the induction dinner this year to the Century Plaza, which can accommodate more than 1,400 people, as opposed to 1,200 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria, did allow for limited availability of seats for the public. But even so, the prices, starting at $750 a ticket, make it a highly exclusive affair.

That’s not likely to change, though some involved with the hall have lobbied for some tickets to be offered at lower prices, and others would like the dinner to be televised each year, a la Grammys.

“We always designed the induction dinner keeping the artists in mind,” says Evans. “We want them to be able to sit back and relax and not have to be ‘on’ all the time for an audience or the camera.”

Hall of Fame directors had long spoken of holding a dinner in Los Angeles, preferably in a year in which several California artists would be honored. There had been talk about moving it here in 1988, when the Beach Boys were inducted, or in 1991, when the Byrds were inducted.

This year’s California inductees represented some of the most vital and sociologically significant music of the ‘60s and early ‘70s--though some of the careers were marked with a sense of darkness contrasting with the cliche sunny California pop tone.

Creedence broke up acrimoniously in the early ‘70s and rhythm guitarist Tom Fogerty died in 1990 of respiratory failure. Sly Stone has been dogged by personal troubles that began when his star was at its zenith, including battles with drugs (he was sentenced to 55 days in jail and five years’ probation in 1987 after pleading guilty to cocaine possession). And, of course, Jim Morrison’s decline and death in 1972 have been well-chronicled, including Oliver Stone’s 1991 movie “The Doors.”

One other sign of the Hall of Fame’s phase two will be tonight’s dinner program itself. Producer Joel Gallen, best known for his work with MTV’s “Unplugged” series, was brought in to tighten what has in the past been a very loose presentation.

“Last year’s show ran more than five hours,” says Gallen. “We’ve formatted the show in a way that keeps people entertained with musical entertainment and by keeping the speeches brief.”

Cream members Eric Clapton, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker are expected to reunite for a number or two, and the three surviving members of the Doors may perform with Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder filling in for Morrison. Vedder will make the induction speech for the group.

Others expected to make induction speeches are Bruce Springsteen for Creedence, George Clinton for Sly & the Family Stone, Robbie Robertson for Morrison, Bonnie Raitt for Brown, k.d. lang for James, Stevie Wonder for Frankie Lymon & the Teenagers and Natalie Cole for Washington. Comedian Billy Crystal is expected to salute Gabler, who is his uncle.

BACKGROUND

Construction is set to begin in April on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, with an opening hoped for in time for the city’s 1996 bicentennial celebrations. Cost for the 150,000-square-foot, I. M. Pei-designed facility currently set at $84 million. Exhibits will include already-donated memorabilia of the Beatles, the Who, Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix and interactive displays on rock history and recording processes. Independent studies project as many as 1 million visitors annually.