Most photos of the cavernous Pan-Pacific Auditorium on Beverly Blvd focus, understandably, on the wonderful Streamline Morderne entrance with its four flagpoles designed to evoke upswept aircraft fins (see photo below.) But this picture gives us a better idea of the context of the place that hosted political rallies, circuses, car shows, ice skating, and the Harlem Globetrotters. In the foreground we can see the necessarily large parking lot, and in the background, the towers of the Park La Brea housing development. The photo is from 1953, when the Pan-Pacific was still very popular. It closed in 1972 and burned down in 1989.