This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The Roman-inspired stadium was built in 1923, and over the last century, has hosted important moments in U.S. history, including two (soon to be three) Olympic games, plus visits from international luminaries and U.S. presidents such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald Reagan. It is also home to the USC Trojans.
The stadium was commissioned during the prohibition era of 1921 — in the aftermath of World War I — as the city was evolving and gaining its national profile that’s seen today, says historian and LA Times columnist Patt Morrison.
Central to its creation, as Morrison explains, was a group of powerful investors — not politicians — who had a hold on the agenda of Los Angeles.
“Los Angeles was supposed to be a pure city, a moral city, a politically ethical city. And so on that city, the city fathers were building this new Los Angeles and the Coliseum was part of it. They envisioned a city that would welcome and fill 100,000 seats in a sports arena at a time when the city itself was maybe a half million people. The Rose Bowl had just been built also with nearly 100,000 seats. They thought big about Los Angeles and the Coliseum was one of the results.”
The structure was designed by architect John Parkinson, who worked on other projects including LA City Hall, Union Station, and the Bullocks Wilshire building.
Because of its size, the Coliseum hosted the 1932 Olympic Games. On top of the stadium sits the Olympic Cauldron, which was lit from flames brought from Greece that year.
Morrison says the Coliseum was envisioned as “the people’s playground.”
“It was to be open to all sorts of events and has hosted everything from rodeos and Evel Knievel, and motocross, and they had an ice ski jump — they had to manufacture ice in the late 30s — for it to happen. So there was a sense that nothing was going to be impossible for this,” Morrison explains.
Today, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission encourages visitors to the stadium and learn about its history.
“They [can] come in and see the historic Coliseum bowl and remember about the games that were played here and the concerts and the speeches,” says Al Naipo, chief administrative officer for the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum Commission. “What we want people to know is that this is part of your place, too. And you can come here, free of charge, during the day and look at all of these things. Just come and wander, bring your friends.”
Morrison says the Coliseum continues to represent the history of Los Angeles and the future to come.
“It should also be a reminder of the city. There's so many things to preserve that we're so eager to knock down and build over that we lose our sense of ourselves as a city. … The continuity of the story of Los Angeles gets lost and this is one place that helps to tell that story,” she says.
