LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA.- Lloyd E. Rigler, 88, an investor and arts supporter, died at his home in Los Angeles. He was president of the Rigler-Deutsch Foundation and vice chairman of the New York City Opera.

He founded of Classic Arts Showcase and of the American Association for Single People. He began the Lloyd E. Rigler-Lawrence E. Deutsch Foundation. With his partner Lawrence E. Deutsch. This foundation helped the creation of the Los Angeles Music Center and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington.

Lloyd E. Rigler made significant contributions to the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts and the refurbishing of Carnegie Hall.

A native of North Dakota, Lloyd E. Rigler grew up working in his family’s General Merchandise Store. Before developing a lucrative career in food brokerage, the enterprising young Rigler took a variety of positions in sales and marketing, including: Market Researcher and Waring Blender salesman; the RCA Head of Guest Relations at their TV exhibit at the Worlds Fair Century of Progress; L.A. Salesman for Decca Records; Agent for Motion Pictures (working with Charles Wendling who represented his sister Claudette Colbert); and finally a plastic rice bowl exporter.

In 1948, Rigler and partner Lawrence Deutsch bought the name and recipe for Adolph’s Meat Tenderizer from a Santa Barbara restaurant owner and turned it into a sensation all over the world.

In the early 1950’s, Rigler & Deutsch created a foundation which grew with their annual contributions and those of their company. When they sold Adolph’s in 1974 to Chesebrough Ponds, they concentrated on philanthropy with an emphasis on the arts. They were instrumental in getting the newly founded Los Angeles Opera, of which Deutsch was president, to bring the New York City Opera to the Music Center.

Following Deutsch’s death in 1977, Rigler honored his friend and business partner (an avid record collector), by underwriting a project which came to be known as the Rigler & Deutsch Index of Recorded Sound. Rigler’s efforts put the sound recording holdings (from the first Edison disk onward) of five archives, including the Library of Congress, on tape (now on CD Rom) so that they would be available to the public. Many of the current re-releases of recordings on CD owe their discovery to this project.

Rigler developed the CLASSIC ARTS SHOWCASE, a 24-hour, non-commercial arts network, with 3-5 minute clips provided without charge by the record companies with waivers from unions. It is available unscrambled and free to anyone who carries it without advertising as a National Audience Development Program for the Arts. It was launched May 3, 1994 and today is in over 38 million cable subscriber homes.