Pasadena Civic Auditorium, Pasadena, Bezoekersgids & wat te doen in de buurt

The Pasadena Civic Auditorium is a large performance hall on East Green Street in downtown Pasadena, California, built in the early 1930s as part of the city's civic centre. It seats close to 3,000 people and is best known as the longtime home of the Emmy Awards and the place where Michael Jackson performed his first public moonwalk.

The story behind it

The auditorium was designed by George Edwin Bergstrom, Cyril Bennett and Fitch Haskell, and it was one of the showpieces of Pasadena's ambitious plans for a grand civic district. It was built as a big public hall for concerts, conventions and ceremonies, and it has stayed in that role ever since.

Its name became widely known through television and music. From 1977 to 1997 it hosted the Emmy Awards. In 1951 Louis Armstrong recorded the album Satchmo at Pasadena here. On March 25, 1983, the Motown 25 television special was taped on its stage, and Michael Jackson sang Billie Jean and glided backwards across the floor in the move the world came to call the moonwalk.

What to look for

• Take in the broad, formal front of the building and notice how its scale suits a hall meant for thousands of people.
• Stand near the entrance and picture the crowds arriving for an awards night, a concert or a convention, because the building has hosted all three.
• Look at how the auditorium sits among the neighbouring civic buildings, which were conceived together as one ambitious plan for downtown.
• Check the posters and signs outside, which often show what is on stage that week and remind you this is a working theatre, not a museum.

Tips for your visit

• Ten to fifteen minutes is enough to see the exterior and take photos, longer if you pause to read about its history.
• You can usually go inside only for a ticketed event, so check current opening hours and the event calendar if you want to see the hall.
• Morning and late afternoon give softer light for photographs of the facade.
• Old Pasadena, with its cafes and shops, is a short walk away, so the auditorium fits easily into a wider stroll through downtown.

See it on a quest

Ghost Hunt in Pasadena is a good way to see the auditorium. You reach it on foot as one stop on a longer route through downtown, the app tells you about the place as you arrive, and you solve a puzzle right in front of the building. One ticket covers the whole group, and you can start whenever you like.

Pasadena Detective Mystery: Infiltrate a Secret Society. suits you if you prefer a detective theme. You walk to the auditorium as part of a route through the surrounding streets, hear about each place as you reach it, and solve a puzzle on the spot. One ticket covers the whole group, with no guide and no fixed start time.