Los Angeles istheOlympic City: Legacies of the 1932 and 1984 Olympic Games

In no other city but Los Angeles have the Olympics so completely shaped metropolitan identity – not even in modern Athens. Los Angeles used the 1932 games to put itself on the global map. The city used the 1984 games to redefine its image to the world. The Olympics helped Los Angeles to make itself the capital of the world's popular culture industry. The Los Angeles' Olympic productions have provided enduring lessons in how to use the games to market nations to the world. Los Angeles has shaped every aspect of the modern Olympic movement, from the bidding process, to the staging of spectacles, to the management of legacies. The 1932 Los Angeles Olympics provided the basic template for modern Olympic mega-productions. The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics redesigned and revitalized that template, re-energizing the games at a crucial time. In the twenty-first century, Los Angeles seeks a third Olympic chapter.