6126 Hollywood Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90028 | map |
More Music Box/Fonda pages: history | street views | lobby areas | auditorium | backstage |
The second floor of the facade featured a rooftop loggia along Hollywood Blvd. Originally roofed but otherwise open, the Hollywood Blvd. side of the loggia was soon enclosed. This detail of the east half of the facade is from drawing #1009 in the Morgan, Walls & Clements archives at the Huntington Library. You can click on these images for a larger view or head to the Huntington's site for jumbo versions.
Thanks
to Mike Hume for locating the plans. The first set of 23 begins with drawing #996 and goes to drawing #1018. A set of 8 structural drawings begins with drawing #1776 and goes through drawing #1783. Visit the Index to the MW&C Drawings that Mike has been compiling for his Historic Theatre Photography site. There's also an index by Mike Callahan on Internet Archive.
A late 1926 Mott Studios photo offering a peek through to the patio. They had already installed readerboards and some sort of shades in the openings. The image appeared in the January 1928 issue of Architect and Engineer, available on Internet Archive.
A section view of the loggia with Hollywood Blvd. on the left. This is another image from drawing #1009 on the Huntington's site.
The layout of the patio or, as it's called on the plans, the "roof garden." Also see the full level balcony plan. It's from drawing #1002 on the Huntington Library site.
"Omit Fountain." There was originally going to be one in the center of the patio with piping going down inside the center column above those doors we see in the middle of the outer lobby. At patio level this section view looks toward the back wall of the auditorium. That's the fan room sticking up on the left. The two sets of stairs leading up to the patio from the mezzanine level lobby are shown with dashed lines. This is from drawing #1007 on the Huntington's site, a sheet with a number of other interesting views. Several detail views of the omitted fountain can be seen on drawing #10100.
The roof level, with the fan room near the southeast corner of the patio. On the Huntington site it's drawing #1004.
A c.2009 look west. We're above the theatre's outer lobby. On the right
it's the loggia overlooking Hollywood Blvd. Down the street it's the Pantages Theatre and, on the extreme left, the blue signage is lit on the rooftop towers of the Warner/Hollywood Pacific. Thanks to Thaddeus Smith for the photo. It's one that once appeared on his Music Box website.
The view west in 2012. Thanks to Albert Domasin for his photo on Flickr.
A 2016 Steve Raymond photo looking west toward
the W Hotel. That's a bit of the upper part of the auditorium
on the left. The photo is one of seven in Steve's set appearing on the SoCal Historic Architecture Facebook page.
The view in 2019, showing the effects of new development including the El Centro apartment complex in the next block to the west. Photo: Bill Counter
Looking southwest toward the back of the auditorium. The upper door goes in the back of the projection booth. At the far left it's one of the two sets of stairs from the upstairs lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
Looking southeast. The tall structure on the left houses a fan room. Thanks to Steve Raymond for sharing his 2016 photo with the SoCal Historic Architecture private Facebook group.
Another view to the southeast. The pigeons seem enamored with the top of the fan room. In the lower left are David Saffer and Escott O. Norton of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation at the Friends Of The Fonda event. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
The
openings at the left looked out onto Hollywood Blvd. They've been filled in
on the inside and are obscured on the outside by metal cladding on the
facade. The colonnade down the center of the image separating this
pavilion from the patio at the right has also been filled in -- with a wall
having doors that open to the patio. At the time of the photo it looks
looks like the patio area was tented. Head to the Historic Hollywood Photographs website to browse over 800 more Hollywood theatre photos.
The view in 2019, showing the effects of new development including the El Centro apartment complex in the next block to the west. Photo: Bill Counter
Another view west. It was a gathering of the short-lived Friends of the
Fonda group to discuss issues about getting an easement to maintain
access to the back of the theatre in the face of new development planned
to the east. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
Looking southwest toward the back of the auditorium. The upper door goes in the back of the projection booth. At the far left it's one of the two sets of stairs from the upstairs lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
Stairs from the upstairs lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
A look west out the back door of the booth. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019. See the page about the Fonda on his Historic Theatre Photography site for many more of his great photos.
Looking southeast. The tall structure on the left houses a fan room. Thanks to Steve Raymond for sharing his 2016 photo with the SoCal Historic Architecture private Facebook group.
Another view to the southeast. The pigeons seem enamored with the top of the fan room. In the lower left are David Saffer and Escott O. Norton of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation at the Friends Of The Fonda event. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
Looking east out the back of the projection booth. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
The Pavilion:
Looking east in the rooftop loggia. It's a rare vintage photo from the McAvoy/Bruce Torrence Historic Hollywood Photographs collection. Thanks to Martin Pal for finding this one in the collection and including it in his Noirish Los Angeles post #28606.
Looking east c. 2010. On the left the once-open spaces overlooking the
street have been filled in. Even by the 40s windows had been installed.
The doors in the filled-in wall at the
right go to the patio. Thanks to Don Solosan of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation
for his photo.
Looking west c.2009. The doors in the left wall go to the patio. Thanks to Thaddeus Smith for the photo. It was once on his Music Box website.
A 2019 view east. Photo: Bill Counter
Looking west c.2009. The doors in the left wall go to the patio. Thanks to Thaddeus Smith for the photo. It was once on his Music Box website.
The Loggia in the movies:
The pavilion is seen in the final scene of "Nina" (RLJ Entertainment, 2016). This area as well as the auditorium are used as a club in the south of France. The Nina Simone biopic, directed by Cynthia Mort, stars Zoe Saldana as Nina and David Oyelolo as Clifton, the nurse who becomes her friend and manager. See the Historic L.A. Theatres In Movies post for several more shots.
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