Dissecting the artistic legacy that belies the true narratives of LA ‘84
Sussman/Prejza is the legendary design firm co-founded by the artists Paul Prejza and Deborah Sussman. The married couple created the overall look of the 1984 Olympic Games, with its emphasis on bright, airbrushed colors and bold geometric shapes. They were influenced by LA’s diverse population of international immigrants, and dubbed the style “Festive Federalism.” They augmented white elephant venues from LA’s 1932 games like the Coliseum with low tech, high impact temporary constructions like an “Olympic tower” made out of scaffolding and jewel-toned fabrics, and Greek columns made of cardboard. The design recalled the postmodern pop style of neighboring Disneyland, especially Mary Blair’s international fantasy of peace ride It’s A Small World, which debuted in the 1964 World’s Fair. (Disney, in fact, had Sussman/Prejza do design for Disney World off their work on the ‘84 Games.)
When people speak fondly of the LA 84 Olympics, they are usually recalling their appreciation of Sussman/Prejza’s new wave design scheme. Sussman and Prejza’s design for the games recalled the postmodern pop of Italian designers The Memphis Group, combined with 1980s Southern California design techniques like airbrushing. They were praised for their inventive use of disposable props like cardboard columns.
While LA 84 presented a technicolor fantasy of eighties Los Angeles for television viewers of the Olympics, the reality was largely hidden from view. Offscreen, the city was experiencing housing inequality and homelessness, as well as racist police violence that was propped up by the city government as they went about “cleaning up” the city for its big TV moment. At the same time LA 84 was presenting LA to the world as a fun, pop fantasy out of a music video, the city was squeezing its most vulnerable residents out of the frame.
Sussman passed away in 2014, and Prejza continues to operate the design firm they started together. We spoke to Prejza about LA 84, optimistic design, the Olympics as patrons, green space in LA, and the housing and homelessness crisis.
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NOlympics LA: We met you at the AIA salon called “Designing An Inclusive Olympics” and some of the points our group was making were about how the marginalized, poor, and Black and brown communities especially suffered in the decade after ‘84. Was that something you were aware of at the time?
Paul Prejza: No. I mean, basically we had the design component of it and we weren’t really involved in the political stuff. I never even met Peter Ueberroth [chairman of the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee]. Deborah did one time. We worked primarily with Harry Usher (vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles Olympic Organization for the 84 games). He was an entertainment lawyer and he was the second in command, and he pretty much gave us free rein after he saw what we were doing. The bits we got from Harry were for instance, they went into the community and started to try to get the people involved. Especially the kids, and to do things that were sports oriented with them. What those programs included, the only one I really know about, is that they went in and they worked with the gang members to patrol the streets around Expo Park once the stuff got put up, so that nothing would get vandalized or be taken down. Evidently that was very successful in terms of our needs, and where that went afterwards I have no idea.
NOlympics LA: They deputized gang members to protect the art?
Prejza: Well you know we put all this stuff up. We had banners we had put in, we had flowers planted in greenhouses in the Olympic colors. So those came out in flats and got put in something you could easily take and walk away with them. There were things like that we had a concern about, and they literally got the kids who were on the street and made deputies out of them. I don’t know if any money changed hands or what happened, but the interesting thing was the only place things got stolen was up around Malibu where the water polo was, where the rich kids live.
NOlympics LA: That’s interesting because one of the things ‘84 is known for is that the police chief starting doing these big gang sweeps around that time for the games.
Prejza: Well I just knew they cleaned streets up. And at the end they talked about this new organization as being for kids in the neighborhood. And now you’re saying that is not exactly what happened.
NOlympics LA: I think they may have used that at first and as they were getting closer to the actual games they started doing a lot of intense crackdowns and sweeps and arresting a lot of homeless people to “clean up” the city for TV cameras which is what the Olympics always do, but that’s interesting that they made it seem like it was gonna be for everyone at first. Who are the Olympics for?
Prejza: It’s youth, it’s internationalism and it’s sports. And supposedly wholesomeness, all wrapped up into one package. It appeals to a lot of people for a lot of different reasons. Now professional athletes can be involved as well, and I think that ruins it. That’s not who it’s for. And you know, it’s basically a great big international get-together. And people come from all over the world. Anyone who has a son or a daughter in the Olympics will try to get here to support them. And I think that’s one of my things about what’s coming up, is we could instigate more things to interact with different countries.
NOlympics LA: Knowing more about the policing and other injustices of ‘84, was it worth it?
Prejza: Well for us it was, because it was a big hit what we did – us and a hundred of our closest design friends. It was sort of groundbreaking and it was never done before. It was all cardboard tubes and rented tents, scaffolding and things that were really festival oriented rather than these humongous things that get built and they’re not used after that. Everyone says, well we have to have Dodger Stadium. We have Dodger Stadium. It’s used, what, fifteen times a year maybe for baseball and then we have this thing that has to be maintained? And it displaced people and all that. So, I think if you don’t build anything. If you use what’s there and also improve it while you’re using it, somehow. I think that it could make sense. There were three things that made ‘84 a success. Basically, they decided they were not gonna build anything big. They built a velodrome somewhere down in Cerritos which I never laid eyes on. And they built the swimming pool over on USC campus, which was really just that – a swimming pool and diving towers with concrete around it. They didn’t make the big expenditure.
NOlympics LA: Just seeing how much the city can do when it wants to, doesn’t it seem kind of crazy that the city doesn’t spring into action to build housing and stuff that the city really does need, instead of throwing a party?
Prejza: Well in our case, the city’s involvement was only in sprucing themselves up. I don’t think a dollar came, between the city, county, state or anything, to the Olympic committee. The Olympic Committee raised its own money. And they raised it in an interesting way, because they decided they weren’t going to nickel and dime. They decided they were going to go after the biggest corporations in the country. And that they were going to demand, let’s say at that time, it was ten million dollars from each one. It’s probably more. And they had to pay that out over a period of five years. And that was an interesting idea, and the sponsors got more recognition and they were happy with that. They got working capital right away, and they were fortunate enough – and this is the other big “if” – they were fortunate enough that this was a period of high inflation. If you went to the bank, you had to pay almost 18% [for the interest on a loan]. So the millions that they were getting and putting in the bank just kept growing and growing over this five year period. That was the other thing. The way they set it up, and that we had this inflationary period. Things supposedly went up in value too, your raw materials for doing things. But that’s what’s allowed them to accumulate so much money. The third thing was Russia didn’t come, and they pulled the rug out very late in the game, so that freed up thousands more tickets that they could sell. That was the other thing that led to the surplus.
NOlympics LA: It seems like a lot of money flows in for the Olympics, but to my mind that money could really be used for other things besides sort of an event that’s really to promote tourism.
Prejza: I think that first of all, there is another thing and I don’t know how much you know about it. But there was an arts festival, and the Arts festival happens two weeks before the games start. And Bob Fitzpatrick, I don’t know if you know him, but at that time he was the president of Cal Arts. He got the job [to run the festival] and he brought really top quality people from Europe and all over. It was a real international program. And he walked into the shop where we were doing everything on 8th Street, and he said, “I want you to decorate my venues.” And we said how many venues do you have and he said, “57.” So we had to do those also, and that was also a source of income. Even just forget about the dollars, there is so much effort expended that we should broaden it and make it an Olympic year, instead of Olympic support for four weeks out of one year. And not like an everyday thing.
As a matter of fact, the way we got the job was that Harry Usher decided to do a thing at the beginning of the year prior, they had playoffs for the various teams to see who will go on to the Olympic games, in water polo and gymnastics or whatever. And he said, “We’re gonna try out the look, we’re gonna try out security, we’re gonna try out the traffic.” So we started with doing swim, and what we did for swim clinched the deal for us because it was so much better than our competitors. There were very few people at those events. So that’s a way of bringing in more stuff, and the profits might go to some sports thing. Some of these [athletes] come, they stay in these funky little places. We used dormitory rooms at USC and UCLA and [UC] Santa Barbara. They don’t get to see anything else. They get swished away when their activity is over, they can fly them back wherever they’re supposed to go.
Also I think that yes, if they’re not going to use dormitories I think it’s an ideal thing to spend money on, where you do a very simple building and you use this as dormitories and then after that they become low-cost housing or homeless housing or both. That is a place where you can spend and make sense. It’s ridiculous I think, as gorgeous as that big structure was in Beijing where they did most of the track and field, but it just sits there now. Nobody barely uses it. So I think if people look at it with that kind of eye, it makes sense. That’s where the big money is, the big money for these things and why people get into problems is rebuilding those things.
NOlympics LA: Do you think the fact that so much big money is involved is the reason why people don’t feel motivated to do things like build things that will become sustainable housing?
Prejza: I think because we know that we have a serious homeless, and not only homeless but also low-cost housing issue in this city. As we’re seeing, it’s not being satisfied at a quick enough pace. So I think this is something that’s timely right now, we could go out and say let’s raise this money and let AT&T or whoever you’re gonna get big bucks from, let them know their thing could go beyond that. Or maybe they want to make another thing after the Olympics is over to refurbish it. And if people have to fly, they have to buy their own airline tickets. United [Airlines] was a thing during at least one Olympics I saw where they advertised the whole team being on the airplane. So there could be something that could be worked out that way. There are a lot of things that could happen, a lot of different programs where people could get involved. In ancient Greece nobody had any clothes, they just laid on the grass. So we don’t need luxury.
NOlympics LA: Are you aware that the Olympics does not plan to fly athletes out?
Prejza: You mean the International Committee? Well they have to take care of themselves. I was just in Lausanne [Switzerland, headquarters of the International Olympic Committee] where the headquarters is. They have a beautiful museum, and they have an archive there. We gave some of our stuff to the archive. They bought a big estate that overlooks Geneva. I don’t want to go into it too much but they’ve done a nice job on the museum and they get a lot of people visiting. And they serve a brunch that you can’t believe. And there has to be 60 items on the brunch. It’s very low cost for the people who are coming in. But they travel first class and have limos and all that stuff. That’s another issue that’s difficult to deal with.
NOlympics LA: Given how lavish it is for the people in charge, you would think they would give more money to athletes, especially athletes from impoverished countries who need to get to the games. Because the IOC obviously has a lot of money.
Prejza: Well I think this is another one of the things that really should be addressed in this Olympics, because to the extent that we came in and innovated in the way that we did it, and the fact that we made money and we made big money, and set up this thing that was supposedly going to do good. The agency that’s now down on Adams Boulevard.
NOlympics LA: Is that the LA 84 Foundation?
Prejza: Yes. That was the way we saw it, that’s the way we left the party was, “Okay, we’re going to keep giving this money to help the athletes, to get them on the right track.” And if it’s not doing that, then I’m sorry about that but I had nothing to do with it. But I think that one of the ideas I have is about coming early and staying over. The idea being that the athletes, it’s not good for the athletes because before they perform they don’t get to see the city. But staying over, there could be places like hotels that could offer a two week stay for athletes at a low cost or for free, and it would let them see some of the cultural things that are still on. And a lot of the things happening in ‘84 were museum shows, there were a lot of museums involved. It wasn’t just performance. So there would be a way of letting those people stay on. Or could there be a program with AirBnb where people would stay with a family and get special preference in some way, and get to see more of the city. If the people have to fly, they have to buy their own airline tickets, then, I mean, you know, United advertised flying whole teams, but there could be something worked out that way. There are a lot of things that could happen. A lot of different programs.
NOlympics LA: You hear a lot that LA 84 was a big success and that LA is sort of exceptional, but having seen what happens to other cities that host the Olympics, especially in the last decade – Rio and Sochi, these huge disasters. It feels very dangerous to push this idea that LA won’t have any of those problems.
Prejza: Well, I don’t want to kill myself here. This should be handled delicately. I’m not young enough to do it again but I think I have enough memory and ideas to help guide it, and I wouldn’t want to get into saying something that might not let me do that. Which meeting were you at, the one at the architects’ office? Yeah well I think it’s one concern about it. There was one at the LA Olympic foundation on Adams and a lady from KCRW came, the architecture lady, and they were already talking about what was already happening (with architects and developers trying to make deals for the 2028 Olympics). Some of the things, the biggest architecture firm in the city. Anyway those people are already working with a committee. They’re talking already about raising the floor of the Coliseum, and doing things that sounds like it has dollars attached. Ours didn’t cost so much because we had a limited time to spend the money.
NOlympics LA: Do you know that ‘84 was sort of a perfect storm of things like Russia dropping out and McDonald’s coming in, which won’t happen this time? McDonald’s isn’t going to be involved with the Olympics anymore. People are sort of still pointing to that as though it will just happen again, and it definitely won’t.
Prejza: I didn’t know that McDonald’s won’t be involved. You mean as a sponsor?
NOlympics LA: Yeah, they helped bail out the debt the Olympics were going into in ‘84 when they stepped in.
Prejza: Harry Usher told me with all this money they got from their sponsors, they didn’t touch the principal until April of ‘84. And at the end of this, say a month before, he said, “I want the street banners.” We put up street banners. They were gonna be made out of nylon and different colors. And we tested them down at 8th Street to see how long they’d last. We put the colors up. And we found out that they lasted for four weeks, five weeks, something like that. And when the Arts Festival opened, we had a special banner for the Arts Festival street banner program to go up at the same time. And we said, “Well by the time the Olympics get here, it’s gonna be faded.” And they said, “We’ve got the money.” And he was the biggest tightwad there – whenever we asked for anything he’d say, “Why? Where?” So I didn’t know but the scuttlebutt was that people in the Olympics, not us, but people in the local committee each got a million dollars. And other people down the line got money. Those guys worked day and night, 24/7.
NOlympics LA: Don’t you think it would be possible to have a sports event in Los Angeles that didn’t involve this international coalition of money, and people that aren’t really involved in Los Angeles?
Prejza: It’s the tradition. We lose so much of everything. I know that it morphs, but this tradition, and especially today when we’re so global that we have this moment of global connectedness. I don’t know if you were old enough in 2000 to see the PBS broadcast about the coming of the new millennium? I was transfixed. It started out in New Zealand. It gave you this great sense of being involved in the world. And that’s what the Olympics does.
NOlympics LA: When you talk about tradition though, it is a big spectacle but some of the traditions like the torch relay were invented by the Nazis for the 1936 Olympics.
Prejza: Well, you know, I think you can look at things positively or you can look at things negatively. It’s a good idea. It’s an interesting idea. And it’s unfortunate that it was a Nazi idea. But the Volkswagen was invented for Hitler.
NOlympics LA: Do you see how there’s a parallel between things like big fascist rallies and the Olympics, which are supposedly inclusive and international but are actually about clearing the streets of people they don’t want to be shown on television? It’s an illusion of togetherness, when there are real ways we could build international togetherness and connect besides the Olympics.
Prejza: Certainly we should look at everything we have as a tradition. The biggest problem I have with this is all of sports and all of media. There needs to be a star. Everybody knows who the gold medalists are. People fade afterwards, and some of these people make big names for themselves like Mark Spitz and all these people who become these heroes. But that’s another thing I think would be good to do. There was a woman who was #4, probably lost the race by a second and a half. And these people should also be celebrated in some way. You know, right after the Olympics we were called by Hasbro, the toy company, and they wanted us to help them with their toy fair. They were building new buildings, and they had a very enlightened guy who’d taken it over. We started working on toy fair events. There was a guy with an Olympic gold medal around who was pushing volleyballs, he had a volleyball. We started talking to him and he said, “It was so great to walk into the Olympics and see all that color. Usually we’re in dirty, dingy places.” So that was the biggest compliment that I ever had about it, because the athletes themselves felt alive in the space. The thing is, it’s the big-ness. The big money, you have to get. And maybe you can get them to do something great, but in terms of our portion of it, of what we had to give out – and we had a lot to give out. Everyone was so happy to work on the Olympics and be making money at the same time. So that is good, the problem is what happens mainly is a big firm gets it and they want to keep it all in house to make as much money as they can.
NOlympics LA: Do you think if there wasn’t such a focus on making it profitable there would be more space for creative stuff?
Prejza: You have to remember that 98% of the people who came before lost money, and a lot of it. I think you have to be tight with it. My late wife and I, who were the partners in the business, spent 98% of our time working on it. Luckily it was a slightly down period in the office. We didn’t have many other things to pull us away, but it was day and night. We got paid by Harry Usher, the one who said, “I want Sussman/Prejza” paid for everything we produced. And it’s the only time we ever made any real money as a company. We got paid for every hour we put in, basically. So we got, for us, a lot of money.
NOlympics LA: What if the city could say, instead of saying, “We made a billion dollars,” they could say, “We held the Olympics and we housed everybody in Los Angeles. We used the money to deal with our homelessness issue.”?
Prejza: It’s always great if you can do that. In the [1976] Montreal Olympics they made this building that was reinforced concrete, and I think that afterwards they made it into housing whether it was low-cost or whatever. I think it was where the athletes stayed. I think something like that, yes it’s worth it to do that. I think it’s a good thing to discuss. Because the other thing I think about a product – that you have a memorable thing people can buy, like a t-shirt. If there are ways, other ways of financing a program that would be for the community. So if you made a product, a good product that everyone wants to have, not Sam The Eagle everywhere, maybe half the profits could go to flying in the athletes.
It would be another interesting thing to do to say how the money is going to be spent. Peter Ueberroth was a travel agent. They have no idea about what it takes to build a project. And within those groups you have people who are looking to forward their careers, and that in itself is not bad. Maybe they can decide where the profits are gonna go in advance, so everyone can know. If they know they’re going to get a bad reputation for doing that later, maybe you can do that. I think you’re a good group to have there to push some of these ideas going forward. If they build something … they’re building a swimming pool with bleachers and stuff. Hancock Park at one time was a park, there was nothing else there but the tar pits. Now it’s all museums, there’s not much green space left. And this is what’s happening with Expo Park too. In New York they’ve stopped the Metropolitan Museum [of Art] from any other expansions into the park. In line with staying green, we could plant trees. Green up some of the spaces. A lot of the palm trees in Los Angeles were put in in 1932, not that they’re the greatest thing for creating more oxygen but that would be another thing.
I think it would behoove your group to say, “What kinds of things make sense for Los Angeles right now, or in the next ten years”, that could be started now? Like the tree thing. The housing thing you could start on right now. You’d have to time it – you don’t want to move people in now and then have to move them out for the Olympics. But you could start deciding where housing should go and who will get it. There may be other things that one thinks about that we don’t have and we need. And if you spread this over a year period of thinking about how you can make money and how you can tie all these things together. All that stuff could tie together, so that the Olympics start being seen as a force for good for every city that they come into, that they leave behind this really great trail. Where do you think the money is going now from this if it’s not going to the community?
NOlympics LA: It’s basically a real estate investment company. They spend like 3% on youth sports, and the rest of it goes to companies like Blackstone, who are a giant corporate landlord. Not a good partner for helping Los Angeles, which is having a huge housing crisis.
Prejza: I think that’s an important thing. A lot of people start out as nonprofits and then become a business. The big-ness thing is the bane of our country now. If things get too big, they get all their ideas from people they buy up. All their new-ness comes from other people.
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Further reading on militarization, displacement and privatization of LA 1984:
- NOlympics LA Analysis of LA ’84
- Want to Understand the 1992 LA Riots? Start with the 1984 LA Olympics by Dave Zirin
- LA84 Foundation: Public Good or Private Grift?
- LA ‘sterilized’ its streets for the ’84 Olympics—how will it treat the homeless in 2028? by Jenna Chandler
- Further Research Materials on LA ’84