11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Mark Hilbert hides in plain sight, as himself, in Pageant piece
In a cast of volunteers with many children among them, it is not uncommon for audience members, and especially parents, enjoying an evening at the Pageant of the Masters to know exactly when and where their star will appear.
The Laguna Beach-based living picture show has always featured a human element, casting individuals young and old to step in as subjects in the larger-than-life recreation of original artwork.
A change in the crowd's decorum on Wednesday evening spoke volumes about just how many people were in on a not-so-well-kept secret. Where an audience might hold its applause until a piece has been presented for its full 90 seconds and the stage has gone dark, attendees were quick to react when the lights went up on Bradford J. Salamon's 'Monday at the Crab Cooker.'
Mark Hilbert, who along with his late wife, Janet, co-founded the Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University, stepped in to play the part of himself in the piece. It depicts three men — including Gordon McClelland and Salamon — talking over dinner.
'For years, we'd been talking about the possibility of an art museum, and so that was one of those nights where we were discussing what kind of museum we should have, what kind of exhibitions we should have, and just kicking around some creative ideas to come up with a unique museum,' Hilbert said. 'Then [Salamon] just said to the waitress, 'Hey, would you take our picture?' So she took the picture, and a couple months later, he walks into my office with the painting.'
Hilbert said he never faced the audience during the experience, but he could hear the clapping. He attributed the cheering from the crowd to the museum's 'loyal following.'
In coming face to face with volunteers in backstage roles as contributors to the costume, headpiece and makeup departments, Hilbert remarked that it was 'staggering' to see the coordination involved in putting on the production.
'I was in it for the fun,' Hilbert said of his one-night-only appearance in the show. 'I thought it would be fun. It turned out to be 10 times more fun with all the different staff people doing this for you, doing that for you. I felt like some kind of a king, or something.
'It was fun, and then when we got up to the moment of being on, it was exciting. This is an exciting moment, something I've never done before. I thought, 'This is great.''
'Gold Coast: Treasures of California,' the current production of the Pageant of the Masters, takes viewers on a two-hour trip exploring many of the most-recognized art attractions and institutions across the state, including Balboa Park, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Hearst Castle.
Hilbert, a Pasadena native and a retired engineer and commercial real estate investor, said he was 'blown away' to have multiple pieces from his museum — themed for California scene art — among the selected works for the show.
'It was a big deal for me,' he said. 'I could hardly sleep the night I heard about it.'
While the art institutions themselves were widely recognized by attendees, Cindi Finley couldn't believe her luck that her longtime place of work was featured in the show.
Finley, who went to Huntington Beach High, said she worked as a server at the Crab Cooker in Newport Beach from 1974 to 1998. She moved to the Tustin location until her retirement in 2005.
Finley gathered with a group of women from her church at the Hilbert Museum, where she saw the painting of the restaurant. She then picked up a postcard carrying an announcement the painting would appear in the pageant, which she first saw at the age of 16.
'I didn't really read it, but I thought, 'Oh, this is cool,'' Finley said of the postcard. 'When I got home, I saw that this painting was going to be in the Pageant of the Masters, and I had to go. All of the sudden, all these emotions and thoughts and feelings started building about all the people I've waited on, all the cast of characters that I've worked with — very hardworking women.
'There's a history. You basically work with the same people, wait on the same people, and then I loved hearing Mark Hilbert's story — how as a little boy, he was on the [Balboa] peninsula the day they pulled the great white shark that now hangs in the restaurant, how he saw that. There was just this thread of homecoming and of a place that's been a significant part of my life.'
