Music educator Ben Bollinger was also a successful entrepreneur who ran a successful dinner theater in Southern California for more than three decades. Photo credit: Legacy.com
Many classroom teachers also become successful entrepreneurs. One of these was Ben Bollinger, a beloved music educator who established a highly successful dinner theater in the Inland Empire of Southern California.
Ben was born on July 4, 1938, in Anaconda, Montana. As a teenager, Ben moved with his family to Southern California, where he attended Citrus Union High School. After his graduation in 1956, Ben attended first Citrus Community College and then the University of Southern California (USC). There he majored in Music Education, with minors in Voice and Opera. During his college years, Ben performed in several operas at USC’s Bovard Auditorium and the Shrine Auditorium, including classics such as The Ballad of Baby Doe, The Barber of Seville, Simon Boccanegra, Manon Lescaut, and Otello.
After he graduated from USC, Ben accepted a position as the Chair of the Fine Arts Department at Ramona High School in the Riverside Unified School District, where he taught music education from 1962 to 1968.
After his stint at Ramona High, Ben returned to his alma mater at Citrus Community College as a full-time instructor. Under his leadership, the college’s Music Department became one of the most successful programs in the country. The choral group travelled internationally, winning numerous music festivals around the globe, including being the only American choir to win all three categories of the International Choral Festival in Spittal, Austria, in 1979. Over the years, the Singers performed at many major events in the Los Angeles area, including Super Bowl VII at the LA Coliseum, the Rose Parade, Opening Day at Dodger Stadium, the Grand Opening of Ontario Motor Speedway in 1970, and Richard Nixon’s campaign stop at Ontario Airport in 1972. Ben was also earned credit on the 1978 solo album of Gene Simmons from the rock group Kiss, and a select group of the Citrus Singers provided backup vocals on the album. When Ben retired from Citrus College in 2005, he was honored as a Citrus College Faculty Emeritus.
For his work as a music educator, Ben earned many accolades, including being named a Citrus College Distinguished Alumni in 1979-1980 and Glendora’s Citizen of the Year in 1980. Ben was also a successful businessman, opening the Candlelight Pavilion Dinner Theater in 1985. He sketched the idea on the back of a napkin and then made the dream a reality, choosing as the theater’s location the old Claremont gymnasium where he had played basketball during his high school years. The 299-seat dinner theater was a popular location for many years. In recent years, the enterprise was run by Ben’s family, but after a run of nearly four decades, the theater will close its doors next month.
Sadly, Ben Bollinger passed away on Oct. 17, 2018, in Pomona, California. He was 80 years old. To read more about this Chalkboard Champion, see his obituary at legacy.com.
