Los Angeles Theatres: Million Dollar Theatre: basement areas

See the pages on the stage and the orchestra pit for additional basement views. Here it's a tour of the areas under the auditorium and lobby. We'll start the tour going through a firedoor downstage right. It gets you to the switchboard area and the orchestra pit. From there, we head toward Broadway through some mechanical areas, end up under the lobby and circle back around on the 3rd St. side of the building toward underneath stage left.

In the basement downstage stage right. The stage right stairs up to stage level are just out of the frame to the right. You're looking straight at the proscenium firewall. For theatre explorers who don't speak Spanish, "ALTO VOLTAGE" translates as "PLEASE COME EXPLORING." Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Through the door gets you to the pit area on the left and the theatre's main electrical gear on the right -- and onward through the fan area toward the lobby.

A look at the theatre's main switchboard. We've just come through the fire door (marked "Alto Voltage") from the stage basement downstage stage right. Look to your right you get this, look to the left and you're headed for the orchestra pit. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Up the steps is the clapper board -- relays associated with the stage dimmer board. And how about those steps? Quite an interesting location. There's no indication that the steps ever went anywhere, except to get to whatever board was there in 1918. Service was originally both AC and DC. The board still has switched marked as serving DC loads.

Another look at the main switchboard for the theatre. Notice that the top breaker is open -- we're evidently backfeeding this from the newer service behind us. The main feed for both theatre and apartments now comes from a DWP vault at the other end of the building on Broadway. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Deep in the nook in front of the clapper board. We're looking back out toward the orchestra pit. Note the newer electrical service at the right. The greenish door at the center gets you through the firewall and into the stage basement. Take a sharp right instead and you are into immediately into HVAC territory, specifically the main auditorium supply fan. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The main supply fan and motor. The motor is a newer retrofit as is the multiple V-belt drive -- it would have been a flat belt originally. Supply air goes into the plenum space below the main floor slab and comes up (or should) via mushrooms under the seats. Exhaust was originally around the edges of the dome and up into the attic. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Looking at steam valves associated with the supply fan. The sump below was for the original air washer -- cool water coming out of nozzles for cooling and cleaning the air. That system (still in use in many theatres) was later abandoned here in favor of cooling coils. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The cooling coil retrofit. The air washer nozzles are long gone. The insulated refrigerant lines come down from five AC units on top of the third floor dressing rooms. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Louvers ahead of the steam coils. The chair? Well, it might have been a good place to hide if you were the building engineer. Cool in the summer anyway. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The building's boilers. Photo: Wendell Benedetti - LAHTF Facebook page - 2013

Another look at the boilers. Thanks to Sandi Hemmerlein for her photo, one appearing with her Avoiding Regret photo essay Million Dollar Theatre. It details her adventures at the 2013 LAHTF "all-about" tour where she explored all the interesting corners of the theatre.

Basement electrical items associated with the mechanical equipment. Photo: Sandi Hemmerlein - Avoiding Regret - 2013

Another fan encountered on our way toward the lobby on the stage right side of the basement. Balcony supply air was originally distributed via mushrooms under the seats with the inside of the balcony structure acting as a plenum.

This was later messed with and newer units added on the theatre roof. Look at the dome and you'll see modern diffusers poking through. Ductwork runs across the roof. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Still on our way forward to the lobby end of the building. Looking back toward that bit of a red "theatre disconnect" sign is a clue in case you want to head back toward the stage. The round object is the cover from a sump. The photo is one of 54 from "Million Dollar Theatre Tour," Star Foreman's 2013 L.A. Weekly article written to publicize an LAHTF "all-about" tour of the building.

Another look in the same area under the rear of the auditorium house left, just forward of the men's room. Another "theatre disconnect" arrow points to the route back through the mechanical areas on the basement's south side to the switchboard back near the stage. Photo: Star Foreman - L.A. Weekly - 2013

A strange corridor near the men's room at the lobby end of the building. What's with this decor? Evidently it dates from a time when the basement was used as a nightclub. Was this area part of the men's lounge at one time? Somewhere in the labyrinth around here is a secret door that lets you exit into the area outside the men's room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Through the doorway straight ahead note the "theatre disconnect" sign seen more closely in the L.A. Weekly photo.

New electrical work along the Broadway side of the basement. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Yes, the floor near the street has an opening that's the remnant of a utility tunnel over to the Bradbury. Originally this building got their heat from the boilers across the street. The story is that there was a speakeasy in the Million Dollar basement during prohibition and some policemen used the utility tunnel as access from their offices in the Bradbury. See more comments about the speakeasy on the history page.

Along the Broadway edge of the building -- exciting new electrical feeders heading over to apartments. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The large open area under the lobby. Here we're looking north to a storage area for leftover signage from the Grand Central Market. Broadway is to the right, the stage is about a hundred feet away to the left. Heading straight ahead (if you could) would get you to the basement apartment building elevators near 3rd St. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

In the same area as the photo above but looking southeast. It appears we have ductwork heading to a pressurized stairway for the apartment building. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Near Broadway in the NE corner of the building. Under the corner retail space we have a corridor leading to the electrical vault. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The stairs out from the basement into the south end of the street level elevator lobby fronting on 3rd St. The fancy work on the doors (and the quality of the staircase) leads one to believe the basement area near the front of the building has had a variety of uses since 1918. Currently it's mostly empty. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Turning around and looking down the stairs. At the bottom, theatre explorers Michelle and Steve Gerdes are wondering what could possibly be of interest up here. It's time to start the show! Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The area underneath the exit stairs up to 3rd St. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

The basement elevator lobby for the apartment building. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Under the rear of the auditorium -- note the mushroom openings in the sloping slab above. We're looking south toward the Market. We get a much higher ceiling this far back toward Broadway due to the rising slope of the auditorium floor. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

It's not known how much the construction work involved in the apartment conversion has impacted the usefulness of this area as an air handling plenum. At the time of the photo there seemed to be partitions and doors missing.

About halfway back under the auditorium -- looking down a corridor that runs across to the south side of the basement. A shortcut! The area above this ceiling is (or was) the supply air plenum. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

All the way backstage on the north side of the basement -- out under the 3rd St. sidewalk. It's a mechanical room that has had all of its original gear removed. The story is that the added plumbing in this area was for restrooms used during the basement's speakeasy days. Stairs up to stage left are off to the right of the photo. Photo: Bill Counter - 2012

Los Angeles Theatres

Million Dollar Theatre: basement areas

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