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

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

. It once stood near the site of

Gilmore Field Gilmore Field was a minor league baseball park in Los Angeles, California, that served as home to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League from 1939–57 when they, along with their intra-city rivals, the Los Angeles Angels, were displa ...

, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating

Dodger Stadium Dodger Stadium is a baseball stadium in the Elysian Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It is the home stadium of Major League Baseball's Los Angeles Dodgers. Opened in 1962, it was constructed in less than three years at a cost of ...

. It was located within sight of both CBS Television City on the southeast corner of Beverly and Fairfax Avenue and the Farmers Market 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 ...

, 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 ...

, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium opened to a fanfare of Boy Scout bugles on May 18, 1935 for a 16-day model home exhibition. Noted as one of the finest examples of Streamline Moderne

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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 Olympic and US National Champion figure skaters who had retired from formal competition. Started in 1940, the Ice Cap ...

and the Harlem Globetrotters, 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, USC 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 appear ...

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'' (194 ...

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,

Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...

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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Funny Lady ''Funny Lady'' is a 1975 American biographical musical comedy-drama film and the sequel to the 1968 film '' Funny Girl''. The film stars Barbra Streisand, James Caan, Omar Sharif, Roddy McDowall and Ben Vereen. Herbert Ross, who helmed the musi ...

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

. The 1980 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 disco 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 Barnes & Barnes are an American musical duo, formed in Los Angeles in 1970. Though commonly associated with novelty music and comedy rock, their music has also incorporated elements of new wave, synth-pop, and folk rock. The duo formed in 1 ...

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 Devo single, "Beautiful World". The dilapidated façade was used in the video for "

Dancing in the Sheets "Dancing in the Sheets" is a song written by Bill Wolfer and Dean Pitchford and recorded by American R&B group Shalamar. It was featured on the chart-topping soundtrack album of the 1984 motion picture '' Footloose'' and was also the first singl ...

" 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 Bicenten ...

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 '' Xanadu'', 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

The Babys The Babys are a British rock group best known for their songs " Isn't It Time" and " Every Time I Think of You". Both songs were composed by Jack Conrad and Ray Kennedy, and each reached No. 13 on the U.S. '' Billboard'' Hot 100 and No. 8 on ...

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 Disney's Hollywood Studios is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division. Based on a concept by M ...

theme park at the

Walt Disney World Resort The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

in Bay Lake, Florida on May 1, 1989, just three weeks before the original was destroyed by fire.

Disney California Adventure Park Disney California Adventure Park, commonly referred to as California Adventure or by its acronym DCA, is a theme park located at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Park ...

, at the

Disneyland Resort The Disneyland Resort, commonly known as Disneyland, is an entertainment resort in Anaheim, California. It is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Products division and is home to two theme parks (D ...

, 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