As mentioned elsewhere in this site, the Pan Pacific Auditorium has a long-standing history not only with the city of Los Angeles but the Streamline Moderne/Art Deco movement of the 30’s & 40’s. The co-designer of this place, Wilton Beckett, would go on to design other LA landmarks for years to come, including the Cinemrama Theatre in Hollywood and the space age themed Theme Building’ at the Los Angeles International Airport.
Much has been documented about the buildings outer design, but not much for what was inside. The following rare photos were taken from the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection. Go to their web site to see more.
We start off with the auditorium itself. While the interior may
not have been as glamorous as it’s famous shell, the size spoke
for itself. It was believed that the main room was 100,000
square feet big.
Here’s a shot of the mall just outside of the Pan Pacific.
Here’s a rare shot of a café on the second level that over looked the
main hall.
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Here’s another rare shot…from behind the Pan Pacific! What isn’t widely known is
that there was a movie theatre and an ice skating rink behind this place. According to
a 1984 LA Times article, this section was opened during the same time as the
Auditorium and, while the Pan Pacific was closed in 1972, the theatre was closed in
1984. This section was not designed of Mr. Beckett.
Also according to this article, the whole Pan Pacific property was purchased by the
County of Los Angeles for 10.45 million dollars in 1979.
....and just for the hell of it (and I might get in trouble for this), here a 1984 picture of the Pan Pacific Theater. This was taken from the American Classic Images web site. Our apologies to them.
This piece and the one below was a sketch for the renovation plan for the Pan Pacific, circa 1985 with a proposal for a hotel, hi-tech theater and the
American Cinematheque.
The above pictures were taken from the 1979 music video 'Fish Heads' by the musical group Barnes & Barnes and
the way it looks, this was filmed before Xanadu. The song itself is a established classic on the comedy radio show
Dr. Demento Show for decades. The video itself was actually shown on Saturday Night Live. Click HERE to see
the video. Pan Pacific can be seen a the 20 second mark