When my sister came to visit me in LA in 1988 the only thing she wanted to see was “Xanadu.” Just a year later I watched it burn from the balcony of my home. Just heartbreaking. Thanks for a really wonderful memorial of this iconic piece of history.
Hey, it’s XANADU‼️ I was a kid when it burned down, I was bummed. I had never seen the inside until this video. Your research and these pictures are AWESOME!!
I had never seen the inside either. I had no idea it was really just a big open space which could be configured for many uses. So it's facade is what really made it distinctive. Fortunately that lives on at Disney.
When I was a kid in the 1950s, I went to the Pan-Pacific to see the Peter Pan Ice Capades. I also went with my dad to see a car show there. I also went to see the circus under the big tent on the Pan-Pacific parking lot. I also went to Gilmore Field and saw the Angels play the Hollywood Stars before there was any professional baseball in Los Angeles.
I bet it was insurance arson. Owners hate it when their buildings get landmark status, because it limits their options. Worse, they almost always get away with it.
@@FrankGrauStudio Agreed. The blimp hangar in Tustin received landmark status which REALLY upset the greedy land developers. What happened to it? Mysterious fire.
I mentioned in my comments about Bullock's Pasadena that I grew up in Southern California in the 1950s. I went to the Pan Pacific a number of times. I went with my older Boy Scout brothers and their troop to see the Auto Show in 1956. I remember seeing the Continental Mark II on display. We also went to "The Metal Show", a trade show for the metals industries. A fellow at the pop rivet booth (a new item in 1957) asked my mother if she wanted to be "Rosie the Riveter" and let her operate the gun. Afterwards, we went to Canter's Delicatessen on North Fairfax for pastrami sandwiches (with coleslaw inside). I saw the building last in 1982, during a visit to the adjacent Farmer's Market. I look forward to seeing more of your videos and offering my own memories.
The Pan Pacific Park had to have been there before 2002 because I remember being a kid playing there with my Brothers and Sisters. I remember the structure vividly back in the 80's. There was a chain link fence blocking the structure from the park, but that didn't stop kids from getting to the other side to explore. I remember my Mom sternly warning us to not be "lookie-loos" and stay on the park side. We used to have picnics there too. That park was huge and so clean. Fun times. I remember my Mom and Dad being saddened by the fire. They spoke of going to events back in the 60's. Thanks for the trip down memory lane :)
5/2024..........Thanks for making this video. I've been pulling images of the building off the Internet for 20 years of this amazing building. The tragedy of all abandoned buildings, is you gotta know some sleazy developers were behind its demise. I'm sure the news accounts said winos or homeless individuals were responsible for it burning down. The story will always be about winos who while trying to keep warm, in an abandoned building, built a small fire and it got out of control. NO, it is usually never that. It is usually the developers who hire criminal arsonists. I've seen it happen in my city hundreds of times. Even with local preservation groups keeping tabs and publicity, focused on wanting to save a city's most important architectural achievements, wealthy scum bags are lurking in the shadows to burn it all down. So thanks for all the great photos you have posted. Regards, from Columbus, Ohio.
@@machupikachu1085 I'd never heard of a town named Tustin. I am just learning about it, there is good photo of the blimp hanger. That building was something else, huge, monumental! How could a huge ,mostly empty hanger burn down, that doesn't make sense. Looking forward to learning more.
I lived up the street from the Pan Pacific when I was a kid. In fact, it burned down back when o was in High School. I remember taking my Go-Kart to the nearby Drive-In (closed down)when I was a kid- it was fun looking at the auditorium as I drove by it. But like everything else in Los Angeles, the city leaders allowed the whole facility to languish until it was destroyed by fire in the late-80s. From what I was told, the Grove shopping center was supposed to build on that lot, but was thwarted by the whole “historical monument” thing, which resulted in their using Farmer’s Market instead.
When I was a little kid, I went with my mom to a garden show there. It must have been around '62 or '63. When I returned to L.A. at the end of the '70s, the Auditorium was closed and fenced off, but the Theatre was still open as a second-run discount house. I saw _They All Laughed_ there, and possibly one other film.
When I think of the L.A. I WANT to remember, the Pan-Pacific is a part of it. Even if a place wasn't specifically built in the Moderne style, embellishments or modifications adorned many higher-end buildings, and was a classic everyday view until the late 60s. I left So. Cal. in '84 so the fire was only an article later on. Still, I feel privileged to have known L.A. when the Red Cars still ran.
It is so bittersweet for me to watch this video. When I was a teenager in the late 1960's and early 1970's I lived just 3 blocks away on Gardner St. I went to schools in the area. My friend and I would often walk to the Pan Pacific Auditorium and it was a truly beautiful bldg. We were young giggly girls and got to know the door man that worked there. He would let us in for free sometimes. I don't remember his name and I'm sure he is no longer alive. I just remember he was such a nice man and very tall. We moved away from there to another state around 1973 and it is sad to know of this fire that brought the end to this historical site. It was a wonderful place.
What an amazingly authentic Art Deco building. Imagine actually being there when it first opened and it was in its prime. Art Deco began in Paris but the USA took it to hear and created some of the greatest buildings. The Chrysler Building is still my fav.
My friend and I rode our bikes there from Westchester because he really loved Xanadu so of course we had to go see it in person. Is a day I will never forget. We actually Climbed up to one of the upper levels and went in even though we weren’t supposed. I even have Polaroid pictures of the inside that I took that day. Yes I still have them. Thank you so much for sharing this video with us.
Thank you for doing this video highlighting the Pan Pacific Auditorium! I fell in love with the Architecture as a kid watching Zanadu! I still keep a 4X6 black and white postcard of that iconic entrance on my bookshelf to this day. You get a like and subscribe from me for the sensitive way you handled yourself and the subject matter!
I was always fascinated with this amazing structure & went with my Dad to several events as a child. It's tragic that it burned down, what a huge loss. Thank you for the awesome video & all your research.
Great production details! The low key voice over is relaxing and informative unlike much of the hysterical energy on this platform. Well done. I subscribed.
I had just moved to LA in April of 1989 and never had a reason to go over to see the building before it was gone. It’s not hard to imagine a developer seeing to it a fire got started in it. That land is sacred.
Amazing video! This historic place was on my list already to visit next time. Specially because we are really fans of Xanadu. And at least, there is a little recreation on that spot… Thank you very much for all this videos!
In 1960, the Los Angeles Sports Arena near USC opened. The Lakers would play there. Pan Pacific Auditorium, as a result, played as lesser role for hosting athletic contests. Bill
The stills you brought together are incredibly fascinating, wish you didn't flip through them so fast. One has to stop (sometimes back up and pause) to drink in all the detail and appreciate all that's there. None the less, nice video, good research. 👍
Wonderful and informative video. Having never lived in that area, I'd never heard of it. Always nice to learn about these now gone places. You do a great job.
i’ve never heard of this building before. that makes me so sad because it was so significant to the city and people. my eyes watered when i saw that fire footage 😢
Honestly, I think it's for the best that it burned down. It was in such disrepair, it was an insult to the building's history to see how bad shape it was in. It's usefulness had mong since gone by. Good that there's so many photos and films of its heyday.
The only time I saw the Pan Pacific was after the fire in the early ’90s. They left just the damaged iconic front facade standing after the rest of the building was cleared away. I recall the facade was propped up from the rear and it was surrounded by chain link fence. I assumed they were trying to save that historic section perhaps for restoration, but clearly it’s no longer there.
💐 Beautifully covered, thank u! What an absolute shame, allowing such an LA treasure to hit the skids so profoundly. Way before my time, yet viewing ur tribute placed me back in the PP' heyday! I don't have the heart to visit this marvel, it would hurt too much. However, i can revel in all it' former glory through ur eyes, thank you for that!💞👏👍
Sadly with most young people, particularly today with social media etc… it is about “NOW”…. Not “THEN”…. Breaks my heart at young people’s indifference
3:01 Quiznos later deployed this kind of toaster for their amazing sandwiches. Thanks for capturing this building as we’ve lost a lot of buildings from that period. The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 left many great buildings in ruins. Some buildings were just not designed to last 100 years. The cost to upgrade and retrofit must have been huge. The LA Convention Center must be at least 10x as big. I really love you pointing out how they had “Velcro Neon” that they could highlight the current show on the 2nd line - brilliant actually!
my favorite park, I learned how to ride a bike there, first time smoking pot, getting to 3rd base with a girl, ditching Fairfax High, first library card, running laps with my dad. I have baby pictures on the wooden playground. soccer on the weekends.
The Pan Pacific fire was only 20 days after the First Interstate Tower fire downtown. At least the tower was saved in an historic, heroic wee hours defense by the LAFD.
Sorry, but unless the city is willing to keep up the maintenance of a building it should NOT be declared a special building that cannot be demolished. This just leads to wrecks and the owners not being able to do anything with it! It is just a downward spiral to everyone’s detriment.
Attempts to make DTLA a hub, came at a cost to many memorable structures throughout Los Angeles. Oh yes, fire caused by homeless or greed, an all too often end for buildings that have outlived their usefulness...and DTLA is still a dump.
That place where you locate Pacific Park is totally wrong. Many of the suppositions about the Pan Pacific auditorium occurred after it was gone in 1989. Most of everything said after that is untrue or supposition.
Not only was it prominently featured in the roller-disco era bomb "Xanadu", but was also the RV Show backdrop in the 1954 Vincent Minelli-directed hit film, "The Long, Long Trailer" starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz... 🚗🚃
I moved to LA from Seattle 10/88. I had some friends there and they said “what do you want to see first”? I said Pan Pacific Auditorium. They asked why??? I said I was fascinated by it because of the Xanadu movie (1980). It had the chain link fence around it and was very sad looking but magnificent at the same time. I went one more time 1/89, then heard it burned down. It’s important to see places, nothing lasts forever.
Recall it well. Went there in the late 40s into the mid 50s as a small child and for a time lived about a mile from it. Attended the Ice Capade shows with my grandmother and much later went to a couple of the car shows there. The other part of the complex I recall from regular visits, but I don't think you mentioned, was the Pan Pacific Drive In Theater. That whole Fairfax and West Los Angeles area - then really a L.A. suburb had so many iconic places -- Farmer's Market (that actually was), Kiddie Land etc. Thanks for bringing it back.
It’s clear you gave this video so much time and love to research every single detail about this landmark! I walk by the pan pacific park every day and wondered where exactly was the theater before it’s destruction. Thank you for another amazing video!
While the opening of the L.A. Convention Center in 1970 may have taken away the expositions, arena-type events would have left earlier with the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena opening in 1959, the Forum in 1967, plus Pauley Pavilion, Long Beach Arena and the Anaheim Convention Center. The Pan-Pacific might have endured longer had it not been built of wood, but as we all know facilities can become obsolete fairly quickly (witness the Sports Arena).
Excellent video!!! I love all the history you conveyed in your documentary video. I’m a native son of Los Angeles and so I did get to go to the Pan Pacific Auditorium a few times as a kid. My favorite visit was to see the circus. I remember the day it burned down. It was on every newscast and there was a feeling of sadness for all of us that enjoyed that venue.
I was there for that fire. I never saw the theater when it was open, but even as a kid I was sad it was going to be lost. One small correction is the park that was also a flood control basin was always called the Pan Pacific Park, even before the theater burned down. The community center in the spot of the old theater was dedicated in 2002. I happened to see the theater burn because I was riding my bike around the park that day when the flames erupted. In the 70s and 80s LA wasn't much into preservation so many wonderful old buildings were lost to neglect.
Unfortunately, exhibition and hall type buildings are often built quite inexpensively in the first place and are generally regarded to have a life span of 40 years. By then the spaces no longer suit modern requirements or safety standards.
Thank you for this video l. I grew up attending events at this location. I witnessed Jet Pack. Man at the Air Show. So I am probably in that clip you featured. The Pan Pacific was an icon, and still is today in the memories of us who experienced it in person. Now, here is a suggestion for your next video, Pacific Ocean Park.
Sad that such an amazing building met with such a tragic end, after years of decay and abandonment. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an act of arson. The owner probably wanted to get rid of the building, but they couldn't demolish it because it was declared a historic landmark, and they either didn't have the funds to restore it, or didn't want to bother with it, so maybe they figured that burning it down and making it look like an accident was the easiest way to get rid of the building! Whatever the case, it's sad that this building is no longer around today!
This is what occurs when the public is fascinated with a new destination. If one looks at the demise of the Crystal Palace in Britain. At first it was the most dazzling place of the Victorian era. Then it was moved and remained in use but as that fell due to progress elsewhere , it became a firetrap, until it finally also burned down. Unless there us continuing public interest, even landmarks will die.
The facade of the the Pan Pacific was beautiful. Inside it was just a cavernous space. I worked for Barker Brothers Furniture in the early 1970's. We would hold warehouse sales there. The only memorable thing I remember about the inside was the snack bar had lovely blue mirrors behind it with ice skaters etched into the corners.
When my sister came to visit me in LA in 1988 the only thing she wanted to see was “Xanadu.” Just a year later I watched it burn from the balcony of my home. Just heartbreaking. Thanks for a really wonderful memorial of this iconic piece of history.
Hey, it’s XANADU‼️ I was a kid when it burned down, I was bummed. I had never seen the inside until this video. Your research and these pictures are AWESOME!!
Xanadu was the first thing I thought of too......... LOL!!!
I had never seen the inside either. I had no idea it was really just a big open space which could be configured for many uses. So it's facade is what really made it distinctive. Fortunately that lives on at Disney.
LOL!!! That's exactly what I said when I saw it😂
@georgerady9706
Ice Capades that’s something I haven’t heard in an awhile!
Yep as I saw the movie came up and thought of Olivia I miss her
When I was a kid in the 1950s, I went to the Pan-Pacific to see the Peter Pan Ice Capades. I also went with my dad to see a car show there. I also went to see the circus under the big tent on the Pan-Pacific parking lot. I also went to Gilmore Field and saw the Angels play the Hollywood Stars before there was any professional baseball in Los Angeles.
Wow, that's a real Los Angeles upbringing! Great that you were able to enjoy it in such memorable ways.
I went there when it was a roller skating disco in 1980
I bet it was insurance arson. Owners hate it when their buildings get landmark status, because it limits their options. Worse, they almost always get away with it.
I was thinking the exact same thing. They couldn’t sell or demolish it, so the only way to circumvent the landmark status is to burn it down. So sad.
@@FrankGrauStudio Agreed. The blimp hangar in Tustin received landmark status which REALLY upset the greedy land developers. What happened to it? Mysterious fire.
Great video! Instantly recognizable to me just from the Xanadu movie!
We need to bring back classic American architectural styles and this one would be an easy one to rebuild!
I mentioned in my comments about Bullock's Pasadena that I grew up in Southern California in the 1950s. I went to the Pan Pacific a number of times. I went with my older Boy Scout brothers and their troop to see the Auto Show in 1956. I remember seeing the Continental Mark II on display. We also went to "The Metal Show", a trade show for the metals industries. A fellow at the pop rivet booth (a new item in 1957) asked my mother if she wanted to be "Rosie the Riveter" and let her operate the gun. Afterwards, we went to Canter's Delicatessen on North Fairfax for pastrami sandwiches (with coleslaw inside). I saw the building last in 1982, during a visit to the adjacent Farmer's Market. I look forward to seeing more of your videos and offering my own memories.
The Pan Pacific Park had to have been there before 2002 because I remember being a kid playing there with my Brothers and Sisters. I remember the structure vividly back in the 80's. There was a chain link fence blocking the structure from the park, but that didn't stop kids from getting to the other side to explore. I remember my Mom sternly warning us to not be "lookie-loos" and stay on the park side. We used to have picnics there too. That park was huge and so clean. Fun times. I remember my Mom and Dad being saddened by the fire. They spoke of going to events back in the 60's. Thanks for the trip down memory lane :)
Um, it burned in 1989, genius. So yes, it was there before 2002.
@@wintersbattleofbands1144 Well Einstein, she's referring to the park not the Auditorium!
Never forget hearing Leonard Nimoy sing, "Bilbo Baggins" in there.
5/2024..........Thanks for making this video. I've been pulling images of the building off the Internet for 20 years of this amazing building. The tragedy of all abandoned buildings, is you gotta know some sleazy developers were behind its demise. I'm sure the news accounts said winos or homeless individuals were responsible for it burning down. The story will always be about winos who while trying to keep warm, in an abandoned building, built a small fire and it got out of control. NO, it is usually never that. It is usually the developers who hire criminal arsonists. I've seen it happen in my city hundreds of times. Even with local preservation groups keeping tabs and publicity, focused on wanting to save a city's most important architectural achievements, wealthy scum bags are lurking in the shadows to burn it all down. So thanks for all the great photos you have posted. Regards, from Columbus, Ohio.
This. The blimp hangar in Tustin received landmark status which REALLY upset the greedy land developers. What happened to it? Mysterious fire.
@@machupikachu1085 I'd never heard of a town named Tustin. I am just learning about it, there is good photo of the blimp hanger. That building was something else, huge, monumental! How could a huge ,mostly empty hanger burn down, that doesn't make sense. Looking forward to learning more.
I lived up the street from the Pan Pacific when I was a kid. In fact, it burned down back when o was in High School.
I remember taking my Go-Kart to the nearby Drive-In (closed down)when I was a kid- it was fun looking at the auditorium as I drove by it.
But like everything else in Los Angeles, the city leaders allowed the whole facility to languish until it was destroyed by fire in the late-80s.
From what I was told, the Grove shopping center was supposed to build on that lot, but was thwarted by the whole “historical monument” thing, which resulted in their using Farmer’s Market instead.
When I was a little kid, I went with my mom to a garden show there. It must have been around '62 or '63. When I returned to L.A. at the end of the '70s, the Auditorium was closed and fenced off, but the Theatre was still open as a second-run discount house. I saw _They All Laughed_ there, and possibly one other film.
I saw the Ice Capades there with my family around 1967-68. Also saw a lot of movies at the theater growing up.
We shot most of a movie called 'Runaway Train' in this building.
A beautiful example of Streamline Art Deco! It was an architectural gem!
When I think of the L.A. I WANT to remember, the Pan-Pacific is a part of it. Even if a place wasn't specifically built in the Moderne style, embellishments or modifications adorned many higher-end buildings, and was a classic everyday view until the late 60s. I left So. Cal. in '84 so the fire was only an article later on. Still, I feel privileged to have known L.A. when the Red Cars still ran.
It is so bittersweet for me to watch this video. When I was a teenager in the late 1960's and early 1970's I lived just 3 blocks away on Gardner St.
I went to schools in the area. My friend and I would often walk to the Pan Pacific Auditorium and it was a truly beautiful bldg. We were young giggly girls and got to know the door man that worked there. He would let us in for free sometimes. I don't remember his name and I'm sure he is no longer alive. I just remember he was such a nice man and very tall. We moved away from there to another state around 1973 and it is sad to know of this fire that brought the end to this historical site. It was a wonderful place.
What an amazingly authentic Art Deco building. Imagine actually being there when it first opened and it was in its prime. Art Deco began in Paris but the USA took it to hear and created some of the greatest buildings. The Chrysler Building is still my fav.
My friend and I rode our bikes there from Westchester because he really loved Xanadu so of course we had to go see it in person. Is a day I will never forget. We actually Climbed up to one of the upper levels and went in even though we weren’t supposed. I even have Polaroid pictures of the inside that I took that day. Yes I still have them. Thank you so much for sharing this video with us.
Thank you for doing this video highlighting the Pan Pacific Auditorium! I fell in love with the Architecture as a kid watching Zanadu! I still keep a 4X6 black and white postcard of that iconic entrance on my bookshelf to this day. You get a like and subscribe from me for the sensitive way you handled yourself and the subject matter!
Omg you even included Fish Heads! What a beautiful and thorough job you have done with this video and your research.
I was always fascinated with this amazing structure & went with my Dad to several events as a child. It's tragic that it burned down, what a huge loss. Thank you for the awesome video & all your research.
Great production details! The low key voice over is relaxing and informative unlike much of the hysterical energy on this platform. Well done. I subscribed.
Some 90s design of Cinemark Tinseltown theaters have the iconic pan pacific to this day!!
oh wow!
I had just moved to LA in April of 1989 and never had a reason to go over to see the building before it was gone. It’s not hard to imagine a developer seeing to it a fire got started in it. That land is sacred.
Me too! moved to LA Sept 1988 & it was demolished before I got to see it.
sacred?
Los Angeles does not value its own history.
I think the city was in possession of it at the time, hence there being a park there now.
Amazing video! This historic place was on my list already to visit next time. Specially because we are really fans of Xanadu. And at least, there is a little recreation on that spot… Thank you very much for all this videos!
Thank you! I definitely recommend visiting! It's walking distance to several other great places!
I was waiting for the Disney reference. you really did your homework. I rewound so many times to enjoy the pictures. 💕 Subscribed.
A beautiful Art Deco building , such a shame it's not around any more
In 1960, the Los Angeles Sports Arena near USC opened. The Lakers would play there. Pan Pacific Auditorium, as a result, played as lesser role for hosting athletic contests. Bill
The stills you brought together are incredibly fascinating, wish you didn't flip through them so fast. One has to stop (sometimes back up and pause) to drink in all the detail and appreciate all that's there.
None the less, nice video, good research. 👍
Yes, I had barely focused and it was on to the next. Had to go back and stop to take a good look.
Wonderful and informative video. Having never lived in that area, I'd never heard of it. Always nice to learn about these now gone places. You do a great job.
Great video! Thank you for the wealth of information you shared.
i’ve never heard of this building before. that makes me so sad because it was so significant to the city and people. my eyes watered when i saw that fire footage 😢
💔
Honestly, I think it's for the best that it burned down. It was in such disrepair, it was an insult to the building's history to see how bad shape it was in. It's usefulness had mong since gone by. Good that there's so many photos and films of its heyday.
Such an enjoyable post. Thank you!
Great video!
Great video but one nitpick. The pic used for the opening of the convention center is for the opening of a 1993 expansion, not the 1971 building
The only time I saw the Pan Pacific was after the fire in the early ’90s. They left just the damaged iconic front facade standing after the rest of the building was cleared away. I recall the facade was propped up from the rear and it was surrounded by chain link fence. I assumed they were trying to save that historic section perhaps for restoration, but clearly it’s no longer there.
Nothing on May's department store on Wilshire Boulevard?
💐 Beautifully covered, thank u! What an absolute shame, allowing such an LA treasure to hit the skids so profoundly.
Way before my time, yet viewing ur tribute placed me back in the PP' heyday! I don't have the heart to visit this marvel, it would hurt too much. However, i can revel in all it' former glory through ur eyes, thank you for that!💞👏👍
Xanadu was fantastic.
My grandfathers Ford Model A was stolen at the Pan Pacific in 1952.
It wss also featured in the film 'Tuff Turf" starring James Spader
Sadly with most young people, particularly today with social media etc… it is about “NOW”…. Not “THEN”…. Breaks my heart at young people’s indifference
3:01 Quiznos later deployed this kind of toaster for their amazing sandwiches.
Thanks for capturing this building as we’ve lost a lot of buildings from that period.
The Long Beach earthquake of 1933 left many great buildings in ruins.
Some buildings were just not designed to last 100 years. The cost to upgrade and retrofit must have been huge.
The LA Convention Center must be at least 10x as big.
I really love you pointing out how they had “Velcro Neon” that they could highlight the current show on the 2nd line - brilliant actually!
Xanadu. There wasn't a better place to do roller disco to big band music with muses from another dimension.
In Cerritos library, they recreated the pan pacific entrance inside in the library.
Yup, watch "Xanadu" to see this place at it's best!
Downtown Miami Beach FL has the biggest concentration of streamline moderne art deco architecture to be found anywhere in the US.
So awesome
Some scenes from the movie “Xanadu” were filmed there.
I moved to LA in ‘84. I loved the facade. Do you know how the fire started?
It's believed to be caused by arsonists. It seems like it was pretty easy to get inside the building when abandoned.
Homeless
Thank you forthe wonderful video
my favorite park, I learned how to ride a bike there, first time smoking pot, getting to 3rd base with a girl, ditching Fairfax High, first library card, running laps with my dad. I have baby pictures on the wooden playground. soccer on the weekends.
Homeless squatting in the building accidentally (or stupidly, depending on how you look at it) burned it down.
The narrator thinks a mix-master is a can opener, and a toaster is a stove !
Thought it was California Adventure 😅👌
Cool video! By the way, that is a rug, not a carpet.
Is it me or does the entrance to the new building look like the entrance to a public restroom or detention facility.
The Pan Pacific fire was only 20 days after the First Interstate Tower fire downtown. At least the tower was saved in an historic, heroic wee hours defense by the LAFD.
👏👍Just subscribed
Odd how we seemed to have more nice things back then, while now we barely have working society
What a terrible waste of such beautiful architecture. To let it go abandoned and into decay and then burned down. 😢
Xanadu!
Looks like the replacement building is a bit run down.
Universities need courses in re-purposing buildings , restoring whole cities , and how to end the disposable culture, America has devolved into.
Why not rebuild it?
Wow. 💯❤️ From a ,I guess, easier time? Maybe so.
sad what happened
i watched the fire
you dont designate a building as an historical landmark and then allow it to continue to deteriorate
Sorry, but unless the city is willing to keep up the maintenance of a building it should NOT be declared a special building that cannot be demolished. This just leads to wrecks and the owners not being able to do anything with it! It is just a downward spiral to everyone’s detriment.
Attempts to make DTLA a hub, came at a cost to many memorable structures throughout Los Angeles.
Oh yes, fire caused by homeless or greed, an all too often end for buildings that have outlived their usefulness...and DTLA is still a dump.
That place where you locate Pacific Park is totally wrong. Many of the suppositions about the Pan Pacific auditorium occurred after it was gone in 1989. Most of everything said after that is untrue or supposition.
the past was better they had it all, and more.
Not only was it prominently featured in the roller-disco era bomb "Xanadu", but was also the RV Show backdrop in the 1954 Vincent Minelli-directed hit film, "The Long, Long Trailer" starring Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz... 🚗🚃
I would say the building was purposely torched!
It’s too bad people still insist on vandalizing buildings that pay homage to the past.
A beautiful example of Streamline Art Deco! It was an architectural gem!
I moved to LA from Seattle 10/88. I had some friends there and they said “what do you want to see first”? I said Pan Pacific Auditorium. They asked why??? I said I was fascinated by it because of the Xanadu movie (1980). It had the chain link fence around it and was very sad looking but magnificent at the same time. I went one more time 1/89, then heard it burned down. It’s important to see places, nothing lasts forever.
I wish I could "like" this 100x!
I remember driving past it when it was burning to the ground. It was an end to an era.
Recall it well. Went there in the late 40s into the mid 50s as a small child and for a time lived about a mile from it. Attended the Ice Capade shows with my grandmother and much later went to a couple of the car shows there. The other part of the complex I recall from regular visits, but I don't think you mentioned,
was the Pan Pacific Drive In Theater. That whole Fairfax and West Los Angeles area - then really a L.A. suburb had so many iconic places -- Farmer's Market (that actually was), Kiddie Land etc. Thanks for bringing it back.
Hi James. If I recall correctly the "Pan Pacific Drive In Theatre" was actually "The Gilmore Drive In" and not related.
I instantly recognised it as the building from Xanadu. Wow, Los Angeles was quite the place in the old days.
Still pretty fantastic. Different, but not too shabby
It’s clear you gave this video so much time and love to research every single detail about this landmark! I walk by the pan pacific park every day and wondered where exactly was the theater before it’s destruction. Thank you for another amazing video!
While the opening of the L.A. Convention Center in 1970 may have taken away the expositions, arena-type events would have left earlier with the L.A. Memorial Sports Arena opening in 1959, the Forum in 1967, plus Pauley Pavilion, Long Beach Arena and the Anaheim Convention Center. The Pan-Pacific might have endured longer had it not been built of wood, but as we all know facilities can become obsolete fairly quickly (witness the Sports Arena).
Excellent video!!! I love all the history you conveyed in your documentary video. I’m a native son of Los Angeles and so I did get to go to the Pan Pacific Auditorium a few times as a kid. My favorite visit was to see the circus. I remember the day it burned down. It was on every newscast and there was a feeling of sadness for all of us that enjoyed that venue.
Wow wow wow. What an amazing structure. Excellent work Barkev!
I hope no one called that fire accidental.🔥
yup same as Notre Dame, California wildfires, Lahaina Hawaii
I was there for that fire. I never saw the theater when it was open, but even as a kid I was sad it was going to be lost. One small correction is the park that was also a flood control basin was always called the Pan Pacific Park, even before the theater burned down. The community center in the spot of the old theater was dedicated in 2002.
I happened to see the theater burn because I was riding my bike around the park that day when the flames erupted.
In the 70s and 80s LA wasn't much into preservation so many wonderful old buildings were lost to neglect.
Even when in use in the 1960s the Pan Pacific Auditorium was a dump. It was an unsafe structure .
It looked cool.
Unfortunately, exhibition and hall type buildings are often built quite inexpensively in the first place and are generally regarded to have a life span of 40 years. By then the spaces no longer suit modern requirements or safety standards.
XANADU ... "your neon lights will shine"
There in`66 for an art show....depressing...
Thank you for this video l. I grew up attending events at this location. I witnessed Jet Pack. Man at the Air Show. So I am probably in that clip you featured. The Pan Pacific was an icon, and still is today in the memories of us who experienced it in person. Now, here is a suggestion for your next video, Pacific Ocean Park.
Sad that such an amazing building met with such a tragic end, after years of decay and abandonment. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an act of arson. The owner probably wanted to get rid of the building, but they couldn't demolish it because it was declared a historic landmark, and they either didn't have the funds to restore it, or didn't want to bother with it, so maybe they figured that burning it down and making it look like an accident was the easiest way to get rid of the building! Whatever the case, it's sad that this building is no longer around today!
Born & raised in L.A. never saw this building😢
This is what occurs when the public is fascinated with a new destination. If one looks at the demise of the Crystal Palace in Britain. At first it was the most dazzling place of the Victorian era. Then it was moved and remained in use but as that fell due to progress elsewhere , it became a firetrap, until it finally also burned down. Unless there us continuing public interest, even landmarks will die.
My father took us to the boat shows!
It’s amazing how often buildings landmarked for preservation “accidentally” burn to the ground allowing property investors to redevelop the sites.
XANADU
The facade of the the Pan Pacific was beautiful. Inside it was just a cavernous space. I worked for Barker Brothers Furniture in the early 1970's. We would hold warehouse sales there. The only memorable thing I remember about the inside was the snack bar had lovely blue mirrors behind it with ice skaters etched into the corners.