The Olympic Goes Back to the Future : Boxing: Owner plans a May show to reopen the venerable downtown Los Angeles auditorium, closed since ’87.

The Olympic Auditorium, thought to be facing an uncertain date with the wrecking ball, will instead reopen for regular boxing shows, its owner says.

The old boxing palace, at 18th and Grand in Los Angeles, has been boarded up since 1987. But owner Jack Needleman, who bought the building in 1980, says major repairs are under way, and he hopes to have a boxing show for a reopening in May.

Ten Goose Boxing of Van Nuys, which promotes boxing shows at the Reseda Country Club, is the leading candidate to promote boxing at a refurbished Olympic, Needleman said.

Needleman, who owns numerous parking lots and buildings in downtown Los Angeles, said he never intended to raze the Olympic.

“Everyone just assumed I was going to turn that property into a parking lot,” he said. “I never wanted to do that. I always wanted to bring the old lady back and turn her into a new lady. If anyone had bothered to ask me, I would have told them that.”

Needleman said 8,900 theater-type seats have been ordered. He also plans to give the exterior a face lift and install a new roof. Plumbing and electrical work also are under way, he said.

The Olympic, believed to be the only surviving major American arena built expressly for boxing, was constructed in 1925 for $500,000. At a groundbreaking ceremony on Jan. 11, 1925, heavyweight champion Jack Dempsey turned over the first spadeful of earth.

The Olympic was the venue for boxing, wrestling and weightlifting at the 1932 Olympic Games and a major professional boxing site in seven decades.

For most of its years, it was the busiest and most profitable boxing venue in America. It was the site of weekly boxing shows from the 1920s to the 1970s.

However, beginning in the 1930s, the Olympic also developed a reputation for rowdy behavior by fans.

Security became especially troublesome in the Olympic’s last years, but Ten Goose chief Dan Goossen said he will provide trouble-free shows.

“We’ll provide a completely different environment than what people remember,” he said.

“There’ll be much more security. We’ll have a VIP ringside area, and people will find a much better parking setup than they remember. There’s now a 4,500-car parking garage only a block away.

“Also, there’s a Blue Line stop one block away.”

In the 1920s and 1930s, film stars such as Mae West, the Marx Brothers, Al Jolson, Clark Gable, Bing Crosby, W.C. Fields and Bob Hope often were seen at Olympic’s ringside.

Goossen said he plans to offer Olympic pro boxing shows on a monthly basis, with an occasional world championship fight.

“We won’t be after the million dollar-fights that Las Vegas gets, but we won’t have club fights, either,” he said. “And we want to develop a lot of talent at the Olympic, too.”

By comparison, Forum boxing averages a show every two weeks and has had a title fight in 24 of the last 32 months. John Jackson, president of Forum boxing, said he would welcome a new Olympic boxing program.

“I don’t see that as competition for us. I think it’s great,” he said.

“You go to other boxing venues today and you see a lot of the same faces. The more live boxing shows you have, the more boxing fans you create and it works out well for all of us.”

Boxing Note

The San Diego Sports Arena will begin monthly boxing shows, promoted by Ten Goose Boxing, beginning Feb. 22, when world junior-middleweight champion Terry Norris of Campo, Calif., defends his title against Carl Daniels.

“We’re going to go monthly after that, on the last Wednesday of every month,” said Richard Esquinas, arena president and general manager for the arena.

“We’re pretty excited about regular boxing here. We’re really driving on this thing. We think there are a lot of boxing fans in the San Diego area and in Tijuana, and we don’t think anyone’s really tried to develop it.”

Last Aug. 17, Norris defended his title against Bret Lalley at the San Diego Sports Arena and drew a paid crowd of 4,200. The 15,000-seat building has been the site of occasional boxing promotions--including the 1973 Muhammad Ali-Ken Norton fight--but none on a regular schedule.