Legion Stadium in El Monte
Based on Chapter 22 in East of East: The Making of Greater El Monte and South El Monte Arts Posse’s “East of East” archive
Text and archival material curated by Michael Moran
Built in early in the 1930s, the El Monte Legion Stadium was constructed to be a multi-purpose venue for the community and local school district. Often described as a rundown, "boxy" auditorium, the venue hosted major events such as boxing, professional wrestling, and roller derby. Most important, in 1932, Legion Stadium played a specific role in the 10th Olympiad as the site for wrestling.
In the 1950s and 1960s many early rock and roll greats played the El Monte Legion Stadium. Among artists that performed were Chuck Berry, Jackie Wilson, Ritchie Valens, Johnnie Otis and many more.
Starting in 1955, Art Laboe hosted events on the weekends at the venues that drew in huge crowns all over the greater Los Angles area to El Monte. Art Laboe was local Disc Jockey known for playing Doo-Wop, Rhythm & Blues and Rock n’ Roll in the early 1950s. While being a DJ at KPOP, he hosted broadcast shows at Scrivener’s Drive-in in Hollywood that were very popular that it led to huge traffic jam and issues. Wanting to host live shows for his audience, Legion Stadium was the best venue to host shows and dances. Art Laboe was the first DJ to officially broadcast live Rock n Rock across the west coast from the stadium.
Art Laboe created a unique bond with his audience over the airwaves and with youth who attended his shows at the Legion Stadium. When there were big acts at the venue and admission cost was extra, it left those want to see the show short. In an interview with SEMAP, Art Laboe reflects on how he helped mitigate this extra cost:
“ I remember filling both my coat pockets with half dollar-and I went outside where everybody as waiting in line and went up and down the line and I could see who was trying to dig up some money -people were honest about it- and I was handing out these half dollar to some of these kids.”
In his chapter for East of East, Jude Webre goes into detail about the presence of Art Laboe in El Monte. The role of Chicano/a/x identity was able to break through boundaries of social class:
“During the six years when Laboe put on shows in El Monte, he provided the space for a spontaneous community of youth that cut across ethnic, racial, class lines. While the shows drew affluent fans from the Westside who had made up the Scrivener’s crowd, the core audience for the events was drawn from the local Mexican American enclaves in East Los Angeles the San Gabriel Valley, and El Monte, as well as Black and white working class neighborhoods south and east of there.”
While Legion Stadium is often remembered as a place of resistance and cross-racial solidarity, it encountered significant opposition from elected officials. In 1956 El Monte Mayor William Allen, City Councilmembers, and El Monte Police Chief Sherman worked to shut down Legion Stadium. As the clippings illustrated, the city revocked promoter Hal Zieger's permit to throw shows and dances. There is enough evidence to indicate that this effort to ban shows was about policing youth practices as well as motiviated by anti-Black and anti-Mexican racism.
Legoin Stadium was also a venue that gave access to local bands to preform and gain an audience such as the Armenta Brothers from El Monte.
For more oral histories and photographs related to Legion Stadium, please visit the Legion Stadium collection under the "collections" tab (coming soon).