Monday, October 06, 2008

The Pan Pacific

So on the Big Orange Blog this week's Landmark is the Pan Pacific Auditorium. It is history now (more later), but it was a great big deal a long time ago.
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It was built during the depression and hosted a bunch of items in it's years, including Elvis' first West Coast Concert, and Bruin basketball from 1949 -1959.
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It was most famous for it's iconic flagpole facade.


This is a picture of the facade sometime between 1972 (when the place closed) and 1990 when it burned down.
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It was the "home" of Xanadu, the musical and the fictional Roller Disco in the movie. So yes, Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton John and Steve Gutenberg really did roller disco inside.
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The facade is famous and revered long after the building itself burnt down. Some examples.


The facade of the new Pan Pacific Park admin building (on the site of the old Pan Pacific).

The entrance booths to MGM Studios in Florida.
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I wasn't old enough to ever have visited it, but I did visit the facade and watch it from Beverly Boulevard every time we drove by. It was Streamline Modern at it's most classic.