Is Xanadu a real place?

What is the Place Where Nobody Dared to Go? That takes your breath and will leave you blind?

This website has often spotlighted fictional places from film and TV, but it has rarely ventured into those from song. That changes today as we dive into the world of "Xanadu." 

"Xanadu" is also the name of the movie from which this Olivia Newton-John song came, but the soundtrack ended up outshining its source. While "Xanadu" bombed at the box office, the titular song smashed charts around the world. 

"Xanadu" is about a roller-disco nightclub inspired by a literal Muse from Greek Mythology, played by Olivia. The movie was filmed in LA, with the old Pan-Pacific Auditorium playing the part of the nightclub, at least on the outside. The release of the movie momentarily stoked interest in saving the then-crumbling building, but it ultimately burned down in 1989.

There is, however, a Xanadu in the real world. Or was—Xanadu, also known as Shangdu, was the capital of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty under Kublai Khan. Its ruins have since been unearthed in China and declared a UN World Heritage site. 

A monument of Emperor Kublai Khan at the site of the real Xanadu in Inner Mongolia, China. Photo via Rita Willaert Belgium

Screenwriters Richard Christian Danus and Marc Reid Rubel had Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem "Kubla Khan" for inspiration when penning the movie. In writing "Kubla Khan," Coleridge had an opium-induced vision of Xanadu and its "stately pleasure dome," which he learned about from cleric Samuel Purchas' accounts of travelers to the court of Kublai Khan. The 1816 poem is quoted more than once in the movie, which features Gene Kelly in his last acting role. 

The story is also designed to be a retread of the 1947 movie "Down to Earth." This starred Gene's friend Rita Hayworth, the "Love Goddess of Hollywood" and a muse in her own right to many works of art and music. ("Vogue," anyone?)

Even though "Xanadu" was a commercial and critical misfire, the soundtrack yielded hit after hit besides the title cut, including radio classics such as "Magic" and "Suddenly." You couldn't say this movie didn't find its muse.