Pan Pacific Theatre
7554 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90036
7554 Beverly Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90036
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In some of the below comments, people have mixed up the Pan Pacific Auditorium with the Pan Pacific Theatre. The Pan Pacific Theatre was located at 7554 Beverly Blvd. and the Pan Pacific Auditorium was located around the corner on the West side of the building going towards CBS building. The Pan Pacific Theatre was not part of the Laemmle theatres chain. The closes Laemmle to this location was located on Melrose and Van Ness Blvds. The Continental Theatre & on the west the Westland Twin. (They played the reissue of “Rear Window”. The last time I was in the Pan Pacific Theatre it was a VERY run down location. So there has been a lot of confusion about both the theatre and the Auditorium.
The Auditorium can be seen in the movie “Xanadu”.
Many vintage theaters and auditoriums with distinctive architectural features have been closed down and the property put up for sale, and for some unknown reason, in many cases this attracts the attention of unscrupulous real estate developers, who would either acquire the property for ten cents on the dollar through land auctions only developers and real estate people are informed of, and either demolish, deface, destroy, or remodel the building so that its original style and design are either lost forever, or greatly obscured. This usually happens due to neglect of the property and changes in architectural trends and business over the years, and illegal, criminal vandalism or suspiciously-set arson fires are often the unhappy result.
Perhaps the most famous incident was the Art Deco Pan Pacific Auditorium on Beverly Blvd. in Los Angeles, which had achieved historical preservation status with the city and county, but a Los Angeles Times Newspaper reporter discovered that the developer hired someone under the table to torch the structure and an arsonist burnt the building down in April 1989.
There were two theatrical buildings in this general location with similar names – one exclusively a large public auditorium, the other expressly a movie theater a block away.
In 1935, the Pan Pacific Auditorium was designed according to conceptual drawings by Norman Bel Geddes, famous Art Deco Designer and Architect, and built in 1936 for the Pan Pacific Exhibition in Los Angeles. It was an awesome display of futuristic Art Deco Moderne architecture, with four massive masts for flags above the front main entrance which gave the place a totally unique style and a grandiose look. The Art Deco influence could be seen all the way to the parking lot lamp posts with a stylish flair.
My family often went to the Pan Pacific Auditorium during the mid-1950s. It was the home of the Los Angeles Home Show, held every year there since 1938. It was also the site of the celebrated GM Motorama held every year there from 1949 to 1961.
In the 1960s, it was a popular venue for everything from boxing and wrestling matches to a live concert by Elvis Presley.
And of course, its last fling in the eye of the media was as the classic disco nightclub “XANADU” in 1980.
The last time I was there to see and photograph the Pan Pacific Auditorium was in the spring of 1987, and there was only one of the original parking lot lamp posts still standing over a weed-infested field, where the asphalt parking lot had long before been broken up by bulldozers.
It was sad to see it looking so forlorn and forgotten with derelicts hanging around it, pigeons roosting on its parapets, and unsightly graffiti and “KEEP OUT” signs on the front auditorium doors which were originally glass and gleaming metal bustling with visitors from all over America.
I worked at the Pan Pacific theatre in the mid 70s as a projectionist. One film I remembered running there in 1975 was The Sunshine Boys. The theatre was on Beverly Blvd. just east of CBS Television City. A U.S. post office now sits on the site.
I used to frequent this theater a lot during the early, early 80’s. My best friend’s sister was the manager and it was very run down and so dark. I remember a man caught masturbating during “The Seduction of Joe Tynan”.
There may be some confusion between the world-famous Pan Pacific Auditorium, a live venue where Elvis, among many others, performed, and the Pan Pacific Theatre, which sat nearby on Melrose Ave. I believe the latter closed down and was demolished in the mid-‘80s—not to be confused with the fire that destroyed the auditorium on the eve of its planned restoration. The last film I ever saw at the Pan Pacific Theatre was the re-release of “Rear Window” in the '80s; I believe it was a Laemmle house then.
This theater can be seen in the film “Xanadu”. It burned to the ground some years ago.