The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was a landmark structure in the Fairfax District of

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. It once stood near the site of

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, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating Dodger Stadium. It was located within sight of both

CBS Television City Television City, alternatively CBS Television City, is an American television studio complex located in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles at 7800 Beverly Boulevard, at the corner of Fairfax Avenue. Designed by architect William Pereira and Ch ...

on the southeast corner of Beverly and Fairfax Avenue and the

Farmers Market A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...

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 United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

, but eleven years later the sprawling wooden structure was destroyed in a fire.

Architectural icon

Built by event promoters Phillip and

Cliff Henderson Clifford "Cliff" Henderson (1895–1984) was the managing director of the National Air Races from 1928 through 1939. Described as "the Barnum of aviation," he obtained sponsors for two of the most well-known air races of the period, the Bendix tr ...

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 constructing building ...

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

Ice Capades The Ice Capades were traveling entertainment shows featuring theatrical ice skating performances. Shows often featured former Winter Olympic Games, Olympic and United States Figure Skating Championships, US National Champion figure skating, figur ...

and the

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, serve as home to the

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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.

Leopold Stokowski Leopold Anthony Stokowski (18 April 1882 – 13 September 1977) was a British conductor. One of the leading conductors of the early and mid-20th century, he is best known for his long association with the Philadelphia Orchestra and his appeara ...

conducted there in 1936, 1950s actress

Jeanne Crain Jeanne Elizabeth Crain (May 25, 1925 – December 14, 2003) was an American actress. She was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for her title role in '' Pinky'' (1949). She also starred in the films ''In the Meantime, Darling'' (1944 ...

was crowned "Miss Pan Pacific" there in the early 1940s, General

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

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 in the southwest section of downtown Los Angeles. It hosts multiple annual conventions and has often been used as a filming location in TV shows and movies. History The convention center, ...

, after which the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was closed. Pan Pacific State Park Sign

Decay and fire

Pan Pacific Auditorium Fire Los Angeles May 24th 1989 by Ithaka Darin Pappas

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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''. Interest in the building was rekindled somewhat with its 1978 inclusion in the

. The

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release of the movie musical ''

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'' 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

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song "

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". 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 Shalamar () is an American R&B and soul music vocal group active since the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s. Shalamar's classic line-up on the SOLAR label consisted of Howard Hewett, Jody Watley, and Jeffrey Daniel, together with dancer ...

. Its final appearance was in the

1988 File:1988 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The oil platform Piper Alpha explodes and collapses in the North Sea, killing 165 workers; The USS Vincennes (CG-49) mistakenly shoots down Iran Air Flight 655; Australia celebrates its Australian ...

movie ''

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''. 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 (six days after the 54th anniversary of its opening), the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was destroyed by a 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 ''

'', in which a

muse In ancient Greek religion and mythology, the Muses ( grc, Μοῦσαι, Moûsai, el, Μούσες, Múses) are the inspirational goddesses of literature, science, and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge embodied in the ...

(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

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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 Disney's Hollywood Studios theme park at the

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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 Demolished buildings and structures in Los Angeles Demolished theatres in Los Angeles Fairfax, Los Angeles Sports venues in Los Angeles Commercial buildings completed in 1935 Buildings and structures demolished in 1989 Burned buildings and structures in the United States Former National Register of Historic Places in California Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monuments National Register of Historic Places in Los Angeles Theatres on the National Register of Historic Places in California Basketball venues in Los Angeles UCLA Bruins basketball venues USC Trojans basketball venues Indoor arenas in Los Angeles Indoor ice hockey venues in Los Angeles Tennis venues in Los Angeles Event venues established in 1935 1935 establishments in California 1989 disestablishments in California 1930s architecture in the United States Welton Becket buildings Streamline Moderne architecture in California