Grand Olympic Auditorium

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The Grand Olympic Auditorium is a former sports venue in southern

Throughout the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s it was home to some of the biggest boxing, wrestling, and roller derby events.

1932 Olympics

The Auditorium was leased by the 1932 Summer Olympics Organizing Committee for a very nominal sum sufficient to cover expenses, for the purpose of conducting the training and competitions of the boxing, wrestling and weightlifting events of the Games. At the time it was the largest indoor venue in the United States.

Boxing

It has become somewhat of a landmark for boxing history. Charles Bukowski wrote about the Olympic: "even the Hollywood (Legion Stadium) boys knew the action was at the Olympic. Raft came, and the others, and all the starlets, hugging those front row seats. the gallery boys went ape and the fighters fought like fighters and the place was blue with cigar smoke, and how we screamed, baby baby, and threw money and drank our whiskey, and when it was over, there was the drive in, the old lovebed with our dyed and vicious women. you slammed it home, then slept like a drunk angel."^[2]

The 1960s and 1970s were a major boom period for the Olympic, as major boxing and wrestling events were held at the arena every other Friday night, as well as being the home to the Roller Games

Closure

The arena closed its doors in the mid-1980s when promoter Mike Le Bell discontinued his weekly wrestling shows due to low attendance figures when the boom of the professional wrestling era began. This was when the wrestling scene shifted from Los Angeles to Dallas' World Class, Minneapolis' AWA, Jim Crockett Promotions Mid-Atlantic/NWA, and Stamford's WWF, now known as the WWE.

Reopening

It reopened in 1993, but the capacity was reduced from 10,400 to just over 7,300. In the 2000s the Auditorium sat 7,030 for boxing and wrestling, 4,514 for seated concerts, and 7,007 for general admission concerts. Up to 773 seats could be put on the arena floor, which measured 12,100 square feet (110' by 110').^[3]

Throughout the early and mid 1990s, the venue was often the host of many large, all-night

On February 23, 2002, XPW held its Freefall event at the Grand Olympic Auditorium where New Jack tossed Vic Grimes off a 40-foot scaffold.

Wrestling legends such as Jim Londos, Joe Stecher, Ed "Strangler" Lewis, Gus Sonnenberg, Ray Steele, Frank Sexton, Man Mountain Dean, Everett Marshall, Ed Don George, Enrique Torres, Baron Michele Leone,

Music venue

Until 2005, the Olympic Auditorium was host to many music concerts and shows, as well as boxing and wrestling. The arena is famous for its box office number "RI-9-5171" (213) 749-5171 which is no longer in use.

As far back as 1951, there had been

• 1985: Survivor's music video for Burning Heart was shot in the venue in October 1985.
• 1986:
  Livin' On A Prayer" in the auditorium, with Wayne Isham directing them. The music videos for Air Supply's two 1986 hit singles, "Lonely Is the Night
  " and "One More Chance" were filmed in the same venue on the same year.
• 1987: Kiss filmed the music video of the namesake track of their 1987 album Crazy Nights in the same venue. The music video for Janet Jackson's "Control" was recorded here as well in the same year.

Rage Against the Machine played their final show in September 2000 at the Olympic Auditorium before their break-up a month later. The concert was filmed and later released in 2003 as a DVD and CD Live at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

Glory Church of Jesus Christ

In 2005, the Glory Church of Jesus Christ, a Korean-American Christian church, purchased the entire property.^[5] Although the name Grand Olympic Auditorium ceased to exist, many locals and longtime residents of Los Angeles still refer to the property by its former names. In 2007, the arena was given a new facelift back to its original brown coat of paint that was abandoned in 1993 when the arena reopened.

Physical features

• 32-by-40-foot (9.8 by 12.2 m) portable stage.
• 55-foot (17 m) ceiling height
• 2 large loading docks
• 13 dressing rooms
• 8 concession stands
• 5 ticket windows
• 2.8 kilowatt-per-channel stereo PA system with CD and cassette tape player, 2 wireless microphones and 1 wired microphone.
• 7 restrooms, all renovated (3 are handicap accessible)
• 10 C.M. Loadstar motors (4 for flying sound, 4 for stage lighting, 2 for additional lighting) plus 2 aluminum trusses (20.5 inches by 20.5 inches by 40 feet).
• 200 telephone lines, installed by
  AT&T
• Parking lot with 550 spaces; another 2,300 spaces at nearby garage.
• Fully equipped VIP (seating up to 40) and press rooms.
• 2 merchandising stands.
• Three 200 ampere 480/277 volt 3-phase, 4-wire transformers, including an isolated transformer.
• One 400 ampere 480/277 volt 3-phase, 4-wire transformer.
• 40 kW Caterpillar generator for "back-up" emergency lighting.
• 8-zone (dual control) dimming system for house lights by
  Lutron
  .
• 50-by-50-foot (15 m × 15 m) aluminum lighting truss with 72 par fixtures, permanently installed.

Filming location

Films and TV series with scenes shot at the Grand Olympic Auditorium include:

• Battling Butler (1926)^[6]
• The Turning Point (1952)
• The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
• Requiem for a Heavyweight (1962)^[7]
• Mannix (1970) ol
• California Split (1974)
• Rocky (1976)
• The Champ (1979)
• Rocky II (1979)
• Raging Bull (1980)^[8]
• The Incredible Hulk episode "Psychic" (1980)^[9]
• Rocky III (1982)
• The Sting II (1983)
• Ed Wood (1994)
• Virtuosity (1995)
• Exposed! Pro Wrestling's Greatest Secrets (1998)
• BASEketball (1998)
• Man on the Moon (1999)
• Ready to Rumble (2000)
• Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003)
• Heart Like a Hand Grenade
  (2015)

References