Alongside Madison Square Garden in New York City, the Forum was once one of the best-known indoor sports venues in the U.S., largely due to the Lakers' success and the Hollywood celebrities often seen there.

"[citation needed] The round, $16 million[10] building was designed by Los Angeles architect Charles Luckman to be "reminiscent of Roman coliseums.

The 1970 show broke attendance records, with 18,675 paid admissions and a gross income of $105,000 (when the Jackson 5 had released two albums and three singles).

During her set, Streisand asked the audience to choose between "Second Hand Rose" and "Stoney End" for her next song; the latter was the overwhelming choice.

[12] Bob Dylan's live album Before the Flood with The Band was compiled from songs performed at the Forum over the course of three shows on February 13 and 14, 1974.

Alice Cooper brought his big productions of Billion Dollar Babies, Welcome To My Nightmare and Mad House Rock to the Forum.

The Los Angeles Strings of the World Team Tennis league played home matches at the Forum from 1975 to 1978, led on the court by Chris Evert.

Several events featured Latin American fighters like José Nápoles, Chucho Castillo, Rubén Olivares, Carlos Zárate Serna and Alfonso Zamora.

The special began with Ross in a photo session atop the Forum in a silver lamé bodysuit with large, silver-lamé wings.

[14][15] In April 1982, the Forum was the site of the "Miracle on Manchester", in which the Kings overcame a 5–0 deficit in a first-round Stanley Cup playoff game against the Edmonton Oilers to win 6–5 in overtime.

With additional upset wins in Games 1 and 5 of the five-game series, the Kings eliminated the heavily favored Oilers to reach the second round.

[17] The arena hosted Amnesty International's June 6, 1986 A Conspiracy of Hope benefit concert, headlined by U2 and Sting and featuring Bryan Adams, Jackson Browne, Peter Gabriel, Lou Reed, Joan Baez and the Neville Brothers.

Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez fought at the venue against Ruben Castillo in 1995, Vernon Buchanan in 1988 and Roger Mayweather in 1989.

[19] On December 5, 1988, it was announced that Jerry Buss sold the arena's naming rights to Great Western Savings & Loan,[20] coinciding with the arrival in Los Angeles of hockey star Wayne Gretzky.

Although naming-rights agreements are now commonplace in major American sports, they were rare at the time of Buss's deal with Great Western.

By the middle of the decade, the Great Western Forum was considered too small; it lacked luxury boxes and had insufficient retail and commercial space.

Los Angeles officials, seeking to redevelop the city center, began planning a new downtown sports arena and entertainment complex and hoped to attract the Lakers and Kings from Inglewood.

The new Staples Center (now Crypto.com Arena) opened on October 17, 1999; as part of the deal, Buss sold the Great Western Forum to the L. A.

The Lakers' 118–107 playoff loss to the NBA champion San Antonio Spurs on May 23, 1999, was their last postseason game played at the Forum.

The Great Western Forum hosted live events, offices and training facilities for the 2000–2001 Women of Wrestling season.

Iron Maiden appeared during their Somewhere Back in Time World Tour on February 19, 2008, with Lauren Harris their opening act.

Mexican Juan Manuel Márquez defeated Mike Alvarado for the WBO international welterweight championship, for the right to challenge world champion Manny Pacquiao.

Paul Stanley from Kiss, Tenacious D, Slash, Alice Cooper, Zakk Wylde, Perry Farrell, Trombone Shorty, David Lee Roth, and Motörhead's Lemmy all got up and performed with the band.

On March 27, 2016, former Pink Floyd member David Gilmour played his first ever concert at the Forum as the third show on the US leg of his Rattle That Lock Tour.

[49] Kanye West performed six sold out shows on October 25, 26, 27th and November 1, 2, 3rd 2016 as a part of his Saint Pablo Tour It hosted the 2017 MTV Video Music Awards on August 27, 2017.

[50] On February 24, 2018, the Forum hosted the world championship Super Flyweight boxing match between Juan Francisco Estrada and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

On December 29, 2018, the UFC 232 mixed martial arts event was held at the Forum as part of a short notice decision.

Forum management mentioned this performance as one of the venue's most memorable, and prepared a cake with Homayoun's image to commemorate the event.

A concert by the Foo Fighters on July 17, 2021, was originally scheduled to be its first event, but it was postponed due to COVID-19 cases within the band's staff.

[67] K-pop singer-songwriter IU performed a sold-out show at The Forum on August 2, 2024, as part of her HEREH World Tour.