Coliseum turns 100: Timeless Los Angeles cultural centerpiece endures as an icon
LOS ANGELES — Bombers droned across the night sky as soldiers scrambled onto the beachhead, taking cover behind huts and clusters of palm trees. The darkness soon erupted with machine-gun fire, thudding bazookas and something else.
Cheering from the stands.
In the midst of World War II, U.S. military leaders enlisted Hollywood set designers to create a South Pacific island on the field at the Coliseum. Hoping to boost home-front morale, they staged a mock battle for thousands of spectators, many of whom were defense factory workers. A general told the crowd that victory would not be possible "without the great work done in the plants of this Los Angeles area."
It made sense to deliver this message at the city's iconic stadium.
As the Coliseum turns 100 this month, it is natural to think of college football games and the Summer Olympics, but this historic landmark embodies so much more.
Civic leaders built it in the early 1920s as a point of convergence for a burgeoning metropolis. When John
