The Pasadena Civic pages: history + exterior views | lobby areas | auditorium | booth | attic + organ chambers | stage | basement |
Looking toward the counterweight system T-wall and flyfloor stage right. Photo: Mike
Hume - 2019. He notes that the stage right fly floor is only accessible from the set of stairs upstage right, starting at stage level, which continues up
to the grid. Visit Mike's Historic Theatre Photography site for hundreds of great photos of theatres he's explored. Don't miss his page on the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.
Proscenium: 56' wide x 31' 6" high
Stage depth: 43' from the smoke pocket to the back wall, 46' including the apron.
Last available lineset: 36' from the smoke pocket.
Backwall mysteries: The original design was for doors so the stage could be opened up into the exhibition hall behind. There's a concrete encased truss visible in the back wall that spans the area of the opening. It was evidently changed during construction as the concrete below the opening has different characteristics, including the width of the pilasters and the size of the foundations. There's also a curious horizontal course of bricks between the original pour and the top of the later infill.
Stage right wing space: 23'
Stage left wing space: 25'
Road power: 2 600A 3 phase USR, 1 200A 3 phase USR, 1 400A 3 phase USL
Dimmers: Four 96 way ETC racks wired dimmer-per-circuit located in the basement stage right. What was left of the original Hub board was removed following a 1968 fire.
House mix position: Rear of the main floor at the center.
Grid height: 74' 9"
Rigging: 58 linesets, on 6" centers, 1,000 lb. arbors, 60' truss battens with 4 lift lines per set. It's operated at stage level stage right. High trim is 71' 10". There's 45,000 lbs of counterweight available. The house was re-rigged, perhaps in the 70s, with new arbors, sheaves and ropelocks.
The original equipment was evidently installed by Armstrong Studios. The T-wall originally didn't go all the way upstage as there are trunk doors behind the present installation for access to dressing rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Loading bridge: There are two levels. The upper is original, the lower is hung from it and evidently dates from when the theatre was rerigged. There's an opening in the upper level deck with stairs to get down to the lower level.
Flyfloors: Stage left it's 27' above the stage, stage right it's 21' 6" above the stage. When the theatre was built there were loftwells installed in anticipation of pinrail use but no flyfloors were installed. It's unknown when the flyfloors and pinrails were installed. Stage right is accessed from stairs upstage right. Stage left is accessed via a dressing room corridor.
Paint bridge: It's along the back wall, 33' above the stage. Access is via a trunk door in a dressing room corridor stage left or via the stairs to the flyfloor and grid stage upstage right. The paint frame and any rigging for it have been removed. There's one lineset underhung from the bridge with a chain motor for it at stage level on stage right.
Loading: There's a 10' x 10' rollup door off left.
Stage construction: Wood. It's all trappable but evidently the only areas that have been trapped are upstage.
Stage to auditorium floor: 3' 9"
Orchestra pit lift: It comes up to stage level and can drop to 5' 6" below stage level (9" below auditorium floor level). It does not go to the basement. It's actually two hydraulic lifts with the pit split into left and right sections on either side of the organ lift. It's equipment that was installed c.1979.
Pit width: 16' from lip of apron to the pit rail
Orchestra shell: It's one inherited from the Dorothy Chandler. The towers are stored up left, where a portion of the flyfloor has been chopped away to allow room. The ceiling panels, except for one on chain motors, are on huge winches installed on the stage left end of the grid.
Organ: It's a 5/28 Moller, the former BBC/Reginald Foort touring instrument. It was installed in 1979. The instrument was profiled in the April 1980 issue of the magazine Console. Thanks to Mark Herman of the LATOS it's available as a pdf via Mike Hume's Historic Theatre Photography site.
Organ lift: A hydraulic lift at center drops to the basement or comes up to stage level. The console stores in the basement and is not attached to the lift. The lift was installed c.1979.
Dressing rooms: There's a star room SL, 16 small rooms on 2nd and 3rd floors SL and SR, 2 chorus rooms in the basement.
Projection throw: 120'. The two followspots are Strong Gladiators, converted to Xenon.
Proscenium: 56' wide x 31' 6" high
Stage depth: 43' from the smoke pocket to the back wall, 46' including the apron.
Last available lineset: 36' from the smoke pocket.
Backwall mysteries: The original design was for doors so the stage could be opened up into the exhibition hall behind. There's a concrete encased truss visible in the back wall that spans the area of the opening. It was evidently changed during construction as the concrete below the opening has different characteristics, including the width of the pilasters and the size of the foundations. There's also a curious horizontal course of bricks between the original pour and the top of the later infill.
Stage right wing space: 23'
Stage left wing space: 25'
Road power: 2 600A 3 phase USR, 1 200A 3 phase USR, 1 400A 3 phase USL
Dimmers: Four 96 way ETC racks wired dimmer-per-circuit located in the basement stage right. What was left of the original Hub board was removed following a 1968 fire.
House mix position: Rear of the main floor at the center.
Grid height: 74' 9"
Rigging: 58 linesets, on 6" centers, 1,000 lb. arbors, 60' truss battens with 4 lift lines per set. It's operated at stage level stage right. High trim is 71' 10". There's 45,000 lbs of counterweight available. The house was re-rigged, perhaps in the 70s, with new arbors, sheaves and ropelocks.
The original equipment was evidently installed by Armstrong Studios. The T-wall originally didn't go all the way upstage as there are trunk doors behind the present installation for access to dressing rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors.
Loading bridge: There are two levels. The upper is original, the lower is hung from it and evidently dates from when the theatre was rerigged. There's an opening in the upper level deck with stairs to get down to the lower level.
Flyfloors: Stage left it's 27' above the stage, stage right it's 21' 6" above the stage. When the theatre was built there were loftwells installed in anticipation of pinrail use but no flyfloors were installed. It's unknown when the flyfloors and pinrails were installed. Stage right is accessed from stairs upstage right. Stage left is accessed via a dressing room corridor.
Paint bridge: It's along the back wall, 33' above the stage. Access is via a trunk door in a dressing room corridor stage left or via the stairs to the flyfloor and grid stage upstage right. The paint frame and any rigging for it have been removed. There's one lineset underhung from the bridge with a chain motor for it at stage level on stage right.
Loading: There's a 10' x 10' rollup door off left.
Stage construction: Wood. It's all trappable but evidently the only areas that have been trapped are upstage.
Stage to auditorium floor: 3' 9"
Orchestra pit lift: It comes up to stage level and can drop to 5' 6" below stage level (9" below auditorium floor level). It does not go to the basement. It's actually two hydraulic lifts with the pit split into left and right sections on either side of the organ lift. It's equipment that was installed c.1979.
Pit width: 16' from lip of apron to the pit rail
Orchestra shell: It's one inherited from the Dorothy Chandler. The towers are stored up left, where a portion of the flyfloor has been chopped away to allow room. The ceiling panels, except for one on chain motors, are on huge winches installed on the stage left end of the grid.
Organ: It's a 5/28 Moller, the former BBC/Reginald Foort touring instrument. It was installed in 1979. The instrument was profiled in the April 1980 issue of the magazine Console. Thanks to Mark Herman of the LATOS it's available as a pdf via Mike Hume's Historic Theatre Photography site.
Organ lift: A hydraulic lift at center drops to the basement or comes up to stage level. The console stores in the basement and is not attached to the lift. The lift was installed c.1979.
Dressing rooms: There's a star room SL, 16 small rooms on 2nd and 3rd floors SL and SR, 2 chorus rooms in the basement.
Projection throw: 120'. The two followspots are Strong Gladiators, converted to Xenon.
Looking across to stage right. It's a July 2022 photo by Mike Hume. This shot and four of his other 2022 views appearing here were taken after the stage had been stripped prior to the load-in of "America's Got Talent." Several additional photos are included in Mike's post on the Archiving Technical Theatre History Facebook page.
The vista without the asbestos. Photo: Mike Hume - 2022. Also see a wider angle version of this included on a post about his visit on his Facebook page.
The view to the T-wall from near the proscenium. Note the stairs to the paint bridge and grid upstage right, enclosed at stage level. Photo: Mike Hume - 2022
A closer look at stage right. In the upper left of the photo it's a lighting platform adjacent to the proscenium. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Downstage right. The original Hub dimmerboard was removed following a 1968 fire. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
On the proscenium lighting platform looking across at the flyfloor. Note the stairs continuing up to the grid. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
A view up to the two-level loading bridge. Photo: Mike
Hume - 2019
The back wall as seen from the lighting platform. The gray enclosures on the wall are company switches. There's more power up left. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
The auditorium from up center. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
A view with all the drapes and lighting stripped. Photo: Mike Hume - 2022
A look to stage left. That's the asbestos on the right. Photo: Mike Hume - 2022
A view left from up center. At the left it's wall sections for the orchestra shell. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Offstage left. That's the loading door on the left. A bit of the downstage end of the SL flyfloor is visible at the top of the image. Photo: Mike Hume - 2017
Mike comments: "The upstage third of the SL fly floor was chopped to
facilitate orchestra shell storage. The chopping is
quite obvious as is the diagonal girder from the wall which supports the
otherwise upstage/onstage floating corner. A thin passage, with pin
rail, was left along the SL wall heading upstage to the rear wall, which
then connects with the paint bridge."
The flyfloor stage left:
In the dressing room corridor about to step through the trunk door. The flyfloor was added later. Doubly protected -- they've got a fire door on both sides of the wall. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Looking upstage. That's a bit of the proscenium on the left. It's the paint bridge on the far right. Photo: Mike Hume - 2020
Up a few steps to the upstage end of the flyfloor. On the right it's the paint bridge. Photo: Mike Hume - 2020
On the modified upstage end of the stage left flyfloor. The diagonal
brace was added when part of the deck was removed to allow storage
of the wall sections of the orchestra shell. On the right it's the paint
bridge along the back wall. The house sound man, Hoover, is down on
stage. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019.
Mike comments: "There’s a bunch of metalwork at fly floor level embedded in the upstage wall which makes it obvious the fly floor got chopped down and didn’t start out with the diagonal retaining beam."
On the paint bridge:
Mike comments: "There’s a bunch of metalwork at fly floor level embedded in the upstage wall which makes it obvious the fly floor got chopped down and didn’t start out with the diagonal retaining beam."
On the paint bridge:
On the stage left end of the paint bridge looking across to stage right.
At the far end note the ship ladder continuing on up to grid level.
Photo: Mike Hume - 2019. He comments: "Proof that it was a paint bridge,
if proof were needed, is the sink! I was pleased to see paint spatters
and drips along the railings so although there’s no mechanism there now
we can tell it was definitely used as a paint bridge at some stage."
On the bridge, looking back toward the stage left flyfloor. The brown modules on the flyfloor are chorus risers with rolled up carpet beyond that's used for covering the orchestra pit floor. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019.
Mike comments: "My vantage point for this photo was standing in front of the sink on the paint bridge. This lets you see the fly floor with its upstage end chopped-off and a diagonal beam coming down from the wall (they hacked into the concrete to bolt the diagonal beam onto the vertical wall beam). On the left note the beige fire door to the SL dressing room stack and the thin sliver of pinrail in front of the door."
The stage right flyfloor:
Looking downstage. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Arbors upstage. Behind the concrete wall to the right it's the chimney for the building's furnaces. Photo: Mike Hume - 2020
The view upstage. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
A mini-pinrail upstage -- and the stairs on up to the grid: Photo: Mike Hume - 2020
A mini-pinrail upstage -- and the stairs on up to the grid: Photo: Mike Hume - 2020
Up to the grid:
On the stairs, looking back down onto the paint bridge. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
The view down to offstage right. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
The view down to offstage right. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
On the grid upstage right. Upstage of the last lineset it's just spare
equipment. The sheaves on the loftwell nearest us are for hemp lines down to
the flyfloor. The horse sticking up from the grid is to support the
SR chain hoist for one section of the orchestra shell. The other two
hoists for the piece, formerly on motorized hoist #5 off left, are
supported directly by the grid itself. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Down the stairs it's the paint bridge, which Mike notes has some battens lying on it. There's a lineset underhung from the bridge, with lift lines going down to a chain hoist at stage level stage right.
A closer look at the equipment stage left. There are 7 motorized hoists
for sections of the orchestra shell, one inherited from the Dorothy
Chandler Pavilion. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Mike comments: "Unit #5 is out of commission with no lift lines. That
section of the shell is now flown on three chain hoists, the SR of which
is hung on a chain from the girder horse that's seen in the previous
photo. The CS and SL chain hoists are just suspended from short lengths
of pipe resting on the grid. The final piece of the band shell
originally went in below the
proscenium sounding board, downstage of the plaster line into the
auditorium. In the space above the proscenium there are
remnants of a motor, lift lines, and holes where sheaves were bolted to
the floor. The lift lines ran down through the floor and through the
sounding board."
A look downstage along the orchestra shell hoists. The windows have louvers and are part of the smoke vent system. To the left of the window seen here is the headblock for the asbestos, an Armstrong studios installation. All of the sheaves for the asbestos are mounted on that beam rather than down on the grid itself. Photo: Bill Counter - 2020
The stage right end of the grid. The row of sheaves in the foreground are for hemp lines and are positioned over the edge of the flyfloor. The two hemp loftwells appear to be original construction even though the flyfloors were installed later. Note the finished ceiling and the portion that was removed near the headblocks. The guess is that the original headblocks were underhung in some way. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Looking down onto the upper loading bridge. This level is original, a lower level was later hung from it. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Thanks to Don Hibben for the tour!
A look downstage along the orchestra shell hoists. The windows have louvers and are part of the smoke vent system. To the left of the window seen here is the headblock for the asbestos, an Armstrong studios installation. All of the sheaves for the asbestos are mounted on that beam rather than down on the grid itself. Photo: Bill Counter - 2020
The view back across to stage right. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
The stage right end of the grid. The row of sheaves in the foreground are for hemp lines and are positioned over the edge of the flyfloor. The two hemp loftwells appear to be original construction even though the flyfloors were installed later. Note the finished ceiling and the portion that was removed near the headblocks. The guess is that the original headblocks were underhung in some way. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
Looking down onto the upper loading bridge. This level is original, a lower level was later hung from it. Photo: Mike Hume - 2019
The view upstage on the lower loading bridge. The curved pieces seen in the right side of the photo are ceiling panels for the orchestra shell. Photo: Mike Hume - 2020
Thanks to Don Hibben for the tour!
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