The Pan Pacific Auditorium on Beverly Blvd was, for over 35 years one of Los Angeles’s main venues for large-scale events like ice-skating shows, automobile exhibits, concerts, sporting matches, and radio broadcasts. Nearly all the photos of it just show the main entrance. And why not? The four stylized flagpole towers in a Streamline Moderne style were very photogenic. But this aerial view from 1936 shows us how there was an expansive plaza out the front with lots of room for people to gather before and after the show. I have a collection of photos of the Pan Pacific on my website if you’d like to see more: http://bit.ly/panpacauditorium

The Pan Pacific closed down in the 1970s. These days there is a token reconstruction of one of the iconic flagpoles. (This image is from February 2021.) Would it be nice if more people built reminders of what was once there?