View source for Pan-Pacific Auditorium

{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2024}}
{{Infobox venue
| name                 = Pan-Pacific Auditorium
| nrhp_type            =
| image                = Pan-Pacific Auditorium entrance.jpg
| alt                  =
| caption              = Entrance of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, 1970s
| map_alt              =
| map_caption          =
| coordinates          = {{coord|34|4|31|N|118|21|15|W|display=inline,title}}
| location             = 7600 W. Beverly Blvd.
| built                = 1935
| closed               = 1972
| architect            = [[Wurdeman & Becket]]
| architecture         =
| tenants              = [[USC Trojans]] ([[National Collegiate Athletic Association|NCAA]]) (1949–1959)
}}
{{Infobox NRHP
| name                 = Pan-Pacific Auditorium
| nrhp_type            = 
| added                = June 16, 1978
| delisted             = September 27, 1989
| designated_nrhp_type =
| visitation_num       =
| visitation_year      =
| designated_other1 = LAHCM
| designated_other1_date = March 1, 1978
| designated_other1_number = 183
| refnum               = 78000688
| mpsub                =
| governing_body       =
}}

The '''Pan-Pacific Auditorium''' was a privately owned [[auditorium]] in the [[Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California|Fairfax District]] of [[Los Angeles, California]]. Built in 1935, it stood near the site of [[Gilmore Field]], an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating [[Dodger Stadium]]. 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]], but eleven years later the sprawling wooden structure was destroyed in a fire.

==Event center==
The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was built by event promoters Phillip and [[Cliff Henderson]]<ref>{{cite journal |url=https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/memory-pan-pacific-auditorium/ |last1=Martino |first1=Alison |title=In Memory of the Pan-Pacific Auditorium |journal=Los Angeles Magazine |date=September 5, 2014}}</ref> and designed by Los Angeles architects [[Wurdeman & Becket]].  It  opened on May 18, 1935 for a 16-day model home exhibition. Noted as one of the finest examples of [[Streamline Moderne]] [[architecture]] in the [[United States]], the flamboyant green and white facade faced west, was {{convert|228|ft|m}} long and had a row of flagpoles and four stylized, upswept towers meant to evoke aircraft tails. The widely known and much photographed facade belied a modest rectilinear wooden structure resembling an overgrown gymnasium inside and out. The auditorium sprawled across {{convert|100000|sqft|m2}} and had seating for up to 6,000.<ref name="LAist">{{cite web |last1=William-Ross |first1=Lindsay |title=LAistory: The Pan Pacific Auditorium |url=http://laist.com/2009/05/02/laistory_the_pan_pacific_auditorium.php |website=LAist |access-date=October 19, 2016 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170609230708/http://laist.com/2009/05/02/laistory_the_pan_pacific_auditorium.php |archive-date=June 9, 2017}}</ref>

Throughout the following 30 years the Pan-Pacific would host the [[Ice Capades]] and the [[Harlem Globetrotters]], serve as home to the [[Los Angeles Monarchs]] of the Pacific Coast Hockey League along with [[University of California, Los Angeles|UCLA]] ice hockey, UCLA men's basketball, [[University of Southern California|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. 

In addition to sports, a wide variety of events were held at the Pan-Pacific.  [[Leopold Stokowski]] conducted there in 1936, 1940s actress [[Jeanne Crain]] was crowned "Miss Pan Pacific" there in the early 1940s, General [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]] spoke to a beyond-capacity crowd of 10,000 in 1952 a month before being elected President of the United States, [[Elvis Presley]] performed there in 1957 shortly before he was drafted into the Army, and Vice President [[Richard Nixon]] 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]], after which the Auditorium was closed.<ref name="LAist"/>
[[File:Pan Pacific State Park Sign.jpg|thumb|Pan Pacific State Park sign]]
[[File:Pan Pacfic Auditorium Sign.jpg|thumb|Pan Pacific Auditorium sign]]
[[File:Pan Pacfic Auditorium.jpg|thumb|Pan-Pacific Auditorium in 1985]]

==Decay and fire==
[[File:Pan Pacific Auditorium Fire Los Angeles May 24th 1989 by Ithaka Darin Pappas.jpg|thumb|The fire of May 24, 1989]]

There were hopes throughout the surrounding [[Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California|Fairfax District]] of refurbishing the Pan-Pacific, possibly as an ice rink or cultural center, and the parking lot soon became a park. Interest in the building was rekindled somewhat with its 1978 inclusion in the [[National Register of Historic Places]], but the building continued to be neglected for many years and damaged by small fires started by transients.

From the mid-1970s into the 1980s the auditorium was occasionally used for exterior shots used in film and music videos, but continued to deteriorate, mostly owing to neglect. A large loading door on the southeast corner was often forced open, allowing free access. A fire in May 1983 damaged the northern end. On the evening of May 24, 1989, the Pan-Pacific Auditorium was destroyed by a large fire, the smoke from which was visible throughout the Los Angeles basin.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://laist.com/2009/05/02/laistory_the_pan_pacific_auditorium.php |title=LAistory:The Pan Pacific Auditorium: "It all Comes Crashing Down: May 1989" |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151122033923/http://laist.com/2009/05/02/laistory_the_pan_pacific_auditorium.php |archive-date=November 22, 2015}}, includes photo of fire</ref>

The site became part of Pan-Pacific Park. This urban park with a recreation center, designed as a scaled-down replica of one of the famous towers, opened in 2002.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kay |first1=Liz F. |title=Memories of Old Pan Pacific Resurrected in New Center |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-apr-21-me-pan21-story.html |newspaper=[[Los Angeles Times]] |date=April 21, 2002 |access-date=August 19, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.laparks.org/dos/reccenter/facility/panPacificRC.htm |title=Pan Pacific Park Recreation Center |publisher=City of Los Angeles |access-date=November 11, 2013}}</ref>

==Pop culture==
{{more refs|section|date=June 2025}}
[[File:Entrance to Disney California Adventure.jpg|thumb|Entrance to Disney California Adventure, modeled after the Pan-Pacific Auditorium]]

In [[1975 in film|1975]], the Pan-Pacific made a brief appearance as the entrance to the [[NBC]] Studios in Hollywood for the [[film|movie]] ''[[Funny Lady]]''. 

The [[1980 in film|1980]] release of the movie musical ''[[Xanadu (film)|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 a box office success. 

It also appears at the beginning of the 1980 music video for the [[Barnes & Barnes]] song "[[Fish Heads (song)|Fish Heads]]".  The dilapidated façade was used in the video for "[[Dancing in the Sheets]]" by [[Shalamar]]. 

The video for the 1981 [[Devo]] single, [[New Traditionalists#Track listing|"Beautiful World"]] used black-and-white film footage of a man with a [[jet pack]] flying from left to right in front of the facade.<ref>{{cite AV media |title= Devo – "Beautiful World"|url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56u6g0POvo0|format= YouTube|time= 1:09}}</ref>

[[The Producers (American band)|The Producers']] 1982 music video "She Sheila" was partly filmed in front of the facade.

The 1984 motion picture ''Ghost Warrior'',<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091110/ |title=Ghost Warrior |via=www.imdb.com |access-date=February 22, 2022}}</ref> 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.

Also in 1984, a music video was produced for the song "Cannonball" from Supertramp, and was filmed in the derelict Pan-Pacific Auditorium, starring actor Chris Mulkey.

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.

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.

It appeared in the [[1988 in film|1988]] movie ''[[Miracle Mile (film)|Miracle Mile]]''.

A nearly full-scale, stylized replica of the façade opened as the main entrance to [[Disney's Hollywood Studios]] theme park at the [[Walt Disney World Resort]] in [[Bay Lake, Florida]] on May 1, 1989, just three weeks before the original was destroyed by fire.

[[Disney California Adventure Park]], at the [[Disneyland Resort]], opened new entrance gates in the style of the Pan-Pacific's façade on July 15, 2011.<ref>{{cite news |title=Disney California Adventure gets new entrance |newspaper=[[Orange County Register]] |first=Eugene W. |last=Fields |date=July 15, 2011 |access-date=October 18, 2018 |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2011/07/15/disney-california-adventure-gets-new-entrance/}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
{{commons category|Pan-Pacific Auditorium}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20151122033923/http://laist.com/2009/05/02/laistory_the_pan_pacific_auditorium.php LAistory: The Pan Pacific Auditorium – Historical pictures and article]
* [http://www.synthetrix.com/vasc/ppa.htm Pan Pacific Auditorium], short history and photo gallery
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100508114507/http://ppaplayground.ning.com/ Pan-Pacific Auditorium Playground]
* [http://www.yesterland.com/mgm-end.html Reference to the front gate of Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World, Florida]
* [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] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304121559/http://lainsidertours.lainsidertours.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/The_Farmers_Market_aerial-1930s-1024x651.jpg |date=March 4, 2016 }}

{{National Register of Historic Places}}
{{LAHMC}}
{{UCLA Bruins men's basketball navbox}}
{{USC Trojans men's basketball navbox}}

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