Los Angeles Theatres: Million Dollar Theatre: orchestra pit

In its original configuration the orchestra pit was hardly a pit. It wasn't much below auditorium level. But the interesting thing was that it didn't stop at the proscenium line -- it extended about 12' upstage of the proscenium. The idea was, of course, to show off the expensive orchestra by making them part of the stage picture instead of hiding them below stage level in the style of a legit theatre.

This 1918 view gives us a look at the pit's configuration. There's no question where the screen is with that Austrian drape in place. It's a photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection. The photo also appeared in the August 1918 issue The Architect, viewable on Internet Archive.

A detail from the Los Angeles Public Library photo.

Another early photo appearing in the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. It was also on view in a special Architectural Digest Southern California buildings survey published in 1922. It's on Google Books.

Here we get to see the whole set after the screen and the Austrian drape have been flown. Note the organ console on the left. Charles Beardsley in "Hollywood's Master Showman" (Cornwall Books, 1983), a biography of Sid Grauman, mentions that the original temple set was designed by the theatre's architect, William Woollett. It was backed by a giant curved cyclorama, perhaps the largest in the west, measuring 90' in width and 50' in height.

Part of the construction of the "on-stage" portion of the pit, including the two sets of stairs leading from the pit up to stage level, is still visible underneath the stage today. If you look at the haphazard structure supporting this it would lead you to believe that it was a last minute design change. Yet it's on the plans, or at least one version of them.

Further investigation of the concrete structures downstage of the proscenium firewall would also lead you to believe the theatre was built with the idea of a conventional pit -- and perhaps even for an orchestra platform on a lift.

After a stage fire July 3, 1922, the front of the stage was filled in and the pit was reconfigured in a more conventional fashion. There seem to be no photos of the post-1922 pit layout. It's unknown what caused the fire (which happened during a prologue) or how the fire curtain functioned during that event. It did come down and there were no injuries.

But take a look at the situation and note that the stage could be sealed off only if there were a zone maintained across the pit with no music stands or chairs in the way -- and the curtain would also have to drop down to auditorium floor level. Hillsman Wright, of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation, notes that as of 2013 the fire curtain was still coming down too far and bunching up when lowered -- due to the extra length designed to drop down into the pit.

The stage layout on the original plans. It's a detail from plans that appeared in the August 1918 issue of The Architect. It's available on Internet Archive.

Grauman and Chaplin in the pit playing around at the console. It's a photo taken by Stagg Photo Service in 1920. Thanks to Kurt Wahlner for sharing this from his collection. Pay a visit to his site about that other Grauman theatre, the Chinese: www.GraumansChinese.org

Some approximate elevations:

Auditorium floor level at front row: 45 1/4" below stage level.

Original pit level: 57" below stage level. Perhaps.

Post-1922 pit floor: 7'6" below stage level - based on the slab construction in the pit area downstage of the proscenium.

Bottom of waffle deck under pit: 8'2" below stage level. Again talking about the "conventional" pit downstage of the proscenium.

Basement floor in trap room: 12'2" below stage level.

Basement floor slab under pit: 14'7" below stage level -- in the pit area downstage of the proscenium.

The Million Dollar wasn't the only theatre to experiment with a more visible orchestra. Here's a view of the Rialto in New York City, which opened in 1916. The photo appears on the Cinema Treasures page about the Rialto.

Looking at the stage right ends of the beams that supported the floor of the 1918 "on-stage" pit. Ignore the several generations of electrical miscellany and look toward the ends of the beams and beyond. We're about 8' upstage of the proscenium and looking toward stage center. You can see the plaster wall that was the curving stage right side of the orchestra pit. In the 1918 configuration it was recessed into the front 12' of the stage. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

We're in the trap room, looking up at the stage left side of the upstage wall of the 1918 orchestra pit. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Another view of the pit construction seen looking up from the under the stage. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The underside of a set of stairs that went from pit level up onto the stage. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Below the later orchestra pit, downstage of the proscenium firewall. We're looking toward stage left. Through the doorway there's a staircase leading up to the pit -- and beyond that is the other half of the area we see here. This structure is rather conventional -- that is, it's what you'd expect to find if the theatre had opened with a regular orchestra pit in front of the stage but not extending onto it.

The floor level you see here is deep enough to have had a pit lift installed -- although there's no evidence that one ever was. The waffle ceiling above is substantially below auditorium floor level and is evidently the floor of the pit as reconfigured after the 1922 stage fire. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The stairs heading up to the center of the pit. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Out under the auditorium, forward of the orchestra pit. At the left we're looking at the downstage (audience) side of the curved wall at the front of the pit. The door at right gets you into the air handling plenum beneath the rest of the auditorium floor. See the auditorium basement page for more basement views heading deeper toward the lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Los Angeles Theatres

Million Dollar Theatre: orchestra pit

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