Exposition Park International Community Center - Los Angeles, CA
Posted by: 
bluesnote
N 34° 00.749 W 118° 17.401
11S E 380883 N 3764290
An interpretive sign highlighting some of the main events that took place here in 1932 and 1984.
Waymark Code: WMTWV5
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 01/15/2017
Views: 2
The plaque says, "In California, the old saying goes, whisky is for drinking, and water is for fighting over. At the Los Angeles Swim Stadium, it's for competing in, too.
The 1932 Games of the X Olympiad put Los Angeles on the world's sports map-and in the swimming events, a future movie star Clarence "Buster" Crabbe took home the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle, and a teenager named Eleanor Holm won the 100-meter backstroke.
Behind the historic 1932 facade, freshly polished and restored, is a $30 million complex, the Exposition Park Intergenerational Community Center (EPICC), a blend of 1930s style with 21st century state-of-the-art glass and steel architecture constructed within the shell of the original building.
The 1932 Swim Stadium was built as the world tumbled deeper into the Depression, and into political tension. Before Los Angeles stepped in to host the games, the event itself was in jeopardy. The city turned a likely smallish gathering to athletes into a festive summer respite from the day's harsh headlines-and a reminder to the world why the games were important.
The Olympics were still an amateurs-only event, and as the official book of that tenth Olympiad noted, athlete were giving every effort "without hop of reward, other then the honor which they may bring to their country, to their sport and to themselves".
On opening day, a 300-peice band marched into the new Coliseum and struck up The Stars and Strips Forever." The nation's vice president, Charles Curtis, was delegated to open the games. A ten-shot cannon salute was followed by the bleat of a half dozen trumpets; let the game begin.
At the Swim Stadium next door to the Coliseum, Japan won five of six men's swimming gold medals, one of its swimmers eclipsed the 100-meter freestyle record set in the 1928 Olympics by Johnny Weissmuller, who like Buster Crabbe, would go on to play Tarzan in films.
The Olympics seemed to create Tarzan stars; Elanor Holm appeared as Jane in the 1938 film "Tarzan's Revenge," opposite 1936 decathlon gold medalist Glenn Morris. Neither went on to stardom"
Group that erected the marker: Exposition Park
Address of where the marker is located. Approximate if necessary:
Los Angeles, CA
URL of a web site with more information about the history mentioned on the sign: Not listed
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