Our History

FFor music lovers, 1948 was a year of transformational events. It marked the introduction of the first transistor radio, allowing people to listen to music anywhere they went. It ushered in the LP or “long playing” 33-rpm record, eventually becoming the standard format of popular music over the next three decades. And in Pasadena, a group of music enthusiasts convened over tea at the home of Mrs. John B.

Callery to launch a music legacy.

Operating as the Pasadena Junior Philharmonic Committee and led by Mrs. Callery as its president, plans were made to raise money for a series of Pasadena concerts by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. The 18 founding members met their early fundraising goals with a series of traditional events: a shipwreck party, a casino night, an assortment of bridge tournaments, and popular gatherings around a new thingamajig called a television.

These TV parties were well received as they had an added attraction for guests: people could dress up as their favorite small screen stars of the time like Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy) and Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners). In those early years, the parties brought in $3,000 to $5,000 annually (or $32,000 to $54,000 in today’s dollars)—no small change, but something much bigger was on the horizon. →