7/28/1984 Opening Ceremonies of 1984 Summer Olympic Games, Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, Los Angeles, CA


 37 years ago today...

July 28, 1984 - Los Angeles, CA

The Opening Ceremonies for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games were held at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in front of more than 94,000 attendees.
We were fortunate to have the ability to purchase tickets to the Olympics via a lottery system, including the coveted Opening Ceremonies tickets. We drove to L.A. to see this event along with preliminaries in boxing, basketball, swimming and volleyball.
Under every seat in the Coliseum was a vinyl flag in a primary color.
When instructed, patrons held the flag skyward with two hands to create a patchwork scene of flags from all of the participating nations. I taped three instamatic printed pictures together to create this photographic image in a pre-panoramic era.
Rafer Johnson, decathlon gold medalist in the 1960 Games, used the Olympic torch to ignite the cauldron in officially starting the competition.





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