UC Riverside

ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION

Los Angeles and the 1984 Olympic Games: Cultural Commodification, Corporate Sponsorship, and the Cold War

by

Josh R. Lieser

Doctorate of Philosophy, History

University of California, Riverside, December 2014

Dr. Catherine Gudis, Chairperson

The 1984 Olympics offer an unprecedented opportunity to consider the way that sports were used as cultural and ideological warfare or soft power in the late stages of the Cold War era. Despite the Soviet Union's decision to boycott the Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984, the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were a claimed "victory" by President Ronald Reagan in the Cultural Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union. Los Angeles won the right to host the games, and was a politically prudent choice for the United States within the context of the Cultural Cold War. The complicated history of Los Angeles and its constructed post-WWII identity are important elements to the choice of Los Angeles as host city. The Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympic Games by the Soviet Union is central to the buildup to 1984, but due to the financial success of the Games the Soviet absence was not the crisis that many predicted. This fact was largely due to how the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee utilized corporate sponsorship to make the most financially successful Olympic Games of all time while simultaneously creating a "look" for the Games that would present the United States and the city of Los Angeles in an idealized manner that appeared bereft of hyper-nationalism. The economic success of the Games was the greatest weapon the United States had in the cultural battle it fought in 1984. The cultural legacy of the 1984 Games also hinged on the 1984 Olympic Arts Festival which was organized by the LAOOC. The Olympic Arts Festival, like the Games, was an opportunity for the United States to create international influence and legitimacy while simultaneously claiming the position of diplomatic host nation. Through the exploration of these avenues, the 1984 Los Angeles Games are evidence of the significance of sports in the Cultural Cold War, the corporatization of sports, and the commodification of both sports and the Olympics through modern means of spectacle and profit motives.