A Disney venue with no mouse, no hockey

Planning ahead to avoid confusion, Los Angeles Music Center officials began instructing their underlings about two years ago to refer to the flashy new home for the Los Angeles Philharmonic by its full name -- Walt Disney Concert Hall -- instead of using the easy shorthand “Disney Hall.”

This concern was raised at a December 2000 staff meeting of the L.A. Philharmonic, when general manager Deborah Borda noted that people were already confusing the Frank Gehry-designed concert facility, slated to open in fall 2003, with Disney-owned theme parks, Disney Studios and even a hockey rink for the Mighty Ducks.

At least one woman didn’t get the message. Recently lost in her car somewhere near the downtown construction site for Disney Hall -- er, Walt Disney Concert Hall -- at 1st Street and Grand Avenue, she frantically cell-phoned the Music Center, demanding to know if she was getting close to Downtown Disney, the entertainment promenade that is part of the $1.4-billion expansion adjacent to Anaheim’s Disneyland. Opened in 2001, that development also includes the California Adventure theme park.

No one seems to know how that California adventure turned out -- but now Music Center officials are trying to avoid a new area of confusion: Curious Angelenos and tourists are beginning to call to find out if the concert hall is open for tours. The answer is no.

Although visitors are free to stroll around the block (the Music Center euphemism for that is “perimeter tour”), the only folks currently being allowed to don hard hats for a guided look inside the unfinished structure are local politicos, a few members of the press and potential donors.

Music Center spokeswoman Catherine Babcock reports that any level of donor might be considered for an invitation to tour, but she acknowledged that “the vast majority” of gifts to Walt Disney Concert Hall’s Capital Campaign are $10,000 and up -- suggesting that the group of lucky individuals who will see the hall’s interior before opening night is a small world, after all.

-- Diane Haithman