February 22, 2009 | 6:00
am
Photograph by Art Rogers / Los Angeles Times
A huge crowd surrounds Pan-Pacific Auditorium for an appearance by presidential nominee Dwight D. Eisenhower, Oct. 9. 1952. |
Los Angeles Times file photo
Skating at the Pan-Pacific, about 1941. |
Photograph by Robert Lachman / Los Angeles Times
Pan-Pacific up for sale, Aug. 26, 1976. |
Photograph by Boris Yaro / Los Angeles Times
Burned in a fire blamed on fireworks, July 4, 1982. One of several blazes
before it was destroyed in 1989. |
Photograph by Cassy Cohen / Los Angeles Times
A target for taggers, June 25, 1985. |
Photograph by Ellen Jaskol / Los Angeles Times
Pan-Pacific Auditorium, awaiting probable demolition, April 7, 1986. |
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USC and UCLA played basketball for the last time at the Pan-Pacific Auditorium, one of Southern California's landmark facilities. The schools would begin playing in the Los Angeles Sports Arena the next season. For the record, USC defeated Oregon and UCLA got past Stanford in a doubleheader.
The Times' Mal Florence didn't say much about the farewell other than to report "no one shed any tears." The auditorium was destroyed in a 1989 fire.
"The Pan was an intimate place," said Al Buch, a former Cal basketball player who in 1959 hit a last-second shot there to defeat UCLA. "It only seated about 6,000 for basketball, but with an exciting game the noise level was very high."
The Times' Earl Gustkey noted that the arena was never UCLA's home court but the Bruins played some games there from 1949-59 because there was more capacity than the campus gym. USC played there regularly and the Pan also was the site of Harlem Globetrotter games, college and minor league hockey and a host of other events.
Ester Schraeder and Patt Morrison, writing in The Times on May 25, 1989, recalled how journalists described the Pan when it opened: "The auditorium, huge as it is, has an architectural dignity."
--Keith Thursby |
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I remember riding my bike out Beverly Bl. to attend the Autorama. I remember walking on a fibreglass trunk of a Corvette to demonstrate how tough fibreglass was. That was about 1953. I always liked the modern look of Pan Pacific...
Posted by: Sam Flowers | February 22, 2009 at 07:24 AM
For many of us, it's still Xanadu.
-sigh-
Posted by: Gary Alexander | February 22, 2009 at 05:14 PM
It's not just the auditorium itself that brings back memories.
There was the Pan Pacific Theatre, where neighborhood kids spent many a Saturday afternoon. Next to the theatre was a really ratty diner - great milkshakes! And of course, all those acres of parking lots, where almost every teen worked at learning to drive.
Posted by: Carol Gwenn | February 23, 2009 at 10:28 AM
if anyone has any more photos of the Auditorium PLEASE let me know, ive fell in love with the place!!
the whole visage of it was amazing!!!
the frontage with the flag poles was so 1920's & its a fashion of pure quality! something we dont see much now a days eh!
the frontage was based on a airplane look kinda like a sleekness & style, it had all of that there is no doubt!
im gutted its gone! they should of kept the main entrance or at least the towers!
if anyone has any more info or pics PLEASE email me at: keithgoddard72@yahoo.co.uk
kindest regards
keith (UK) btw im only 37!! but i remember Xanadu!!
Posted by: keith | May 08, 2009 at 07:06 AM