Pan-Pacific Auditorium, Los Angeles
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The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was a landmark structure in the Fairfax District of
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
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. It once stood near the site of
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, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating
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. It was located within sight of both
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on the southeast corner of Beverly and Fairfax Avenue and the
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on the northeast corner of Third Street and Fairfax. For over 35 years it was the premier location for indoor public events in Los Angeles. The facility was closed in 1972, beginning 17 years of steady neglect and decay. In 1978, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was included in the
National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
, but eleven years later the sprawling wooden structure was destroyed in a fire.


Architectural icon

Built by event promoters Phillip and Cliff Henderson and designed by Los Angeles architects
Wurdeman & Becket Wurdeman & Becket was an architectural firm, a partnership of Walter Wurdeman, Welton Becket and Charles F. Plummer. The Moderne Pan-Pacific Auditorium, dating from 1935, brought them local fame. Besides those works ascribed to Mr. Wurdemann and M ...
, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium opened to a fanfare of
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bugles on May 18, 1935 for a 16-day model home exhibition. Noted as one of the finest examples of
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architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and construction, constructi ...
in the
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, the green and white facade faced west, was long and had four stylized towers and flagpoles meant to evoke upswept aircraft fins. The widely known and much photographed facade belied a modest rectilinear wooden structure resembling an overgrown gymnasium inside and out. The auditorium sprawled across and had seating for up to 6,000. Throughout the following 30 years the Pan-Pacific would host the
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and the
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, serve as home to the Los Angeles Monarchs of the Pacific Coast Hockey League along with
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ice hockey, UCLA men's basketball,
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men's basketball, professional tennis, car shows, political rallies and circuses. During the 1940s it was used for audience-attended national radio broadcasts and in the 1950s for televised professional wrestling shows. At its height, most major indoor events in Los Angeles were held at the Pan-Pacific.
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conducted there in 1936, 1950s actress
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was crowned "Miss Pan Pacific" there in the early 1940s, General
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spoke to a beyond-capacity crowd of 10,000 in 1952 a month before being elected President of the United States,
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performed there in 1957 shortly before he was drafted into the Army and Vice President
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addressed a national audience from the Pan-Pacific in November 1960. The building carried on as Los Angeles' primary indoor venue until the 1972 opening of the much larger
Los Angeles Convention Center The Los Angeles Convention Center is a convention center located in the southwest section of Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming locat ...
, after which the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was closed.


Decay and fire

There were hopes throughout the surrounding Fairfax District towards refurbishing the Pan-Pacific, possibly as an ice rink or cultural center and the parking lot soon became a park. However, the building was neglected for many years and damaged by small fires started by transients. In
1975 It was also declared the ''International Women's Year'' by the United Nations and the European Architectural Heritage Year by the Council of Europe. Events January * January 1 – Watergate scandal (United States): John N. Mitchell, H. R. ...
, the Pan-Pacific made a brief appearance as the entrance to the
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Studios in Hollywood for the
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''
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''. Interest in the building was rekindled somewhat with its 1978 inclusion in the
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. The
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release of the movie musical '' Xanadu'' brought renewed hopes the building might be saved when the auditorium's facade was used to portray a dilapidated building which became a sparkling, brightly lit roller
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nightclub, but the movie was critically panned and not an economic success. It also appears at the beginning of the 1980 music video for the Barnes & Barnes song " Fish Heads". Black-and-white film footage of a man with a
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flying from left to right in front of the facade was used in the video for the 1981
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single, "Beautiful World". The dilapidated façade was used in the video for " Dancing in the Sheets" by Shalamar. Its final appearance was in the
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movie '' Miracle Mile''. The auditorium continued to deteriorate throughout the 1980s, mostly owing to neglect. A large loading door on the southeast corner was often forced open, allowing free access to anyone. A fire in May 1983 damaged the northern end. On the evening of May 24, 1989, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was destroyed by a bigger fire, the smoke from which was visible throughout the Los Angeles basin.


Site today

The site is now part of Pan-Pacific Park. An urban park with a recreation center, designed as a scaled-down replica of one of the famous towers, opened in 2002.


Pop culture

The facade of the building was used in the motion picture '' Xanadu'', in which a
muse In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, mythology, the Muses (, ) were the Artistic inspiration, inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, lyric p ...
(a daughter of Zeus) convinces two men to convert the classic but decaying building into a music and entertainment venue. Through special effects, the building is transformed to outshine the building in its heyday. The video for "She's My Girl" by The Babys featured the band playing in front of, as well as on top of the building and its iconic flagpole facades. Similarly, The Producers' 1982 music video "She Sheila" was partly filmed in front of the facade. The 1984 motion picture ''Ghost Warrior'', in which a deep-frozen 400-year-old samurai is shipped to Los Angeles, where he comes back to life, includes scenes of both the seriously decayed façade and the dimly lit interior. In the interior shots, the columns with angled knee bracing and the distinctive arched bowstring trusses are briefly visible. The music video for the 1988 song "Going Back to Cali" by LL Cool J has a black and white photograph of the building in the opening sequence. A nearly full-scale, stylized replica of the façade opened as the main entrance to
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theme park at the
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in
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on May 1, 1989, just three weeks before the original was destroyed by fire.
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, at the
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, opened new entrance gates in the style of the Pan-Pacific's façade on July 15, 2011.


References


External links


LAistory: The Pan Pacific Auditorium – Historical pictures and article


short history and photo gallery
Pan-Pacific Auditorium Playground


* [http://lainsidertours.lainsidertours.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/The_Farmers_Market_aerial-1930s-1024x651.jpg Colorized postcard of Gilmore Stadium, Gilmore Field, Pan Pacific Auditorium and Farmers Market] {{USC Trojans men's basketball navbox 1930s architecture in the United States 1935 establishments in California 1989 disestablishments in California Basketball venues in Los Angeles Buildings and structures demolished in 1989 Burned buildings and structures in the United States Commercial buildings completed in 1935 Demolished buildings and structures in Los Angeles Demolished theatres in Los Angeles Event venues established in 1935 Fairfax, Los Angeles Former National Register of Historic Places in California Ice hockey venues in Los Angeles Indoor arenas in Los Angeles Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Sports venues in Los Angeles Streamline Moderne architecture in California Tennis venues in Los Angeles Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in California UCLA Bruins basketball venues USC Trojans basketball venues Welton Becket buildings