The Mayan Theatre pages: history | vintage exterior views | recent exterior views | ticket lobby | main lobby | mezzanine lobby | vintage auditorium views | recent auditorium views | booth and attic | stage | basement |
The downstage right stairs to the basement. There's also a set on the other side of the stage. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A basement detail from a section drawing in the Morgan, Walls & Clements Archive in the Huntington Library collection. You can click on this for a larger view. Also see the full plan. On the Huntington site it's their drawing #9286. Note the air handling plenum situated below the trap room, pit, musicians'
room and other basement areas. The area under the lobby and rear of the
auditorium is unexcavated.
Thanks to Mike Hume
for locating plans for the project in the Huntington's collection. What they have for the Mayan starts
with drawing #9275 and runs through drawing #9329. Also see poster case details, drawing #9938 and marquee reinforcements, drawing #9968. Visit the Index to the MW&C Drawings that Mike has compiled for his Historic Theatre Photography site. There's also a 22 page index by Mike Callahan on Internet Archive. And don't miss his page on the Mayan.
Looking back up the stage right stairs and out to the south exit passageway. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
Kitchen and a walk-in in a room at the bottom of the stairs. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Looking toward the trap room. Out of the frame to the right is a room with drink boxes. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Bar stuff in the room on the downstage side of the corridor. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Going behind the gate seen in the previous shot and around the corner to the right it's the water heaters. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
In the trap room, looking back down the short hall to the stairs. Beverage boxes and water heaters on the left, kitchen and walk-in on the right. Take a left at the exit sign for the stairs. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Looking across to the stage left side of the trap room. There were nine small dressing rooms off the trap room. Two were stage right, doorways to four of the five along the upstage wall are seen at the left in this photo. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Stairs up to the stage left side of the stage are straight ahead. To the left of that corridor, the door to dressing room B2 has been sealed but there's another going to the hall beyond. The door to the right with the gate, formerly dressing room B1, is now a carpenter's shop. Musicians rooms,
pit access, and chorus rooms are off to the right,
under the auditorium. The trap room ceiling is now finished but
originally the entire stage area was trappable.
An elevation of the stage left wall that's seen in the photo above. It's a detail from from drawing #9310. The center door with the exit sign leads to the stairs up to the stage.
The bar on the upstage wall of the trap room. The opening behind it, originally to dressing room B5, was widened at some point. To the sides are dressing rooms B6 and B4. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A half elevation of the trap room's upstage wall from the plans in the Huntington Library collection. In this, from drawing #9310, we get the stage right half with two and a half of the five dressing room doors shown. Also on the drawing are some stage framing details.
Dressing room B4, on the south side of the bar. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
A 2024 look at B4. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Behind the bar, looking through what had been B5, and over to B6. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
The stage right end of the trap room. The stairs up are down the little hall through the doorway with the exit sign. Dressing room B8 is to the right of the corridor, B9 to the left. These two rooms are seen in the next two photos. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
Dressing room B8, off the upstage right corner of the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Former dressing room B9, off the downstage right corner of the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Another view to the stage right end of the room. That door on the left wall goes forward through the proscenium wall into the larger dressing rooms. The second doorway is the dressing room B9 seen in the previous photo. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
An elevation of one of the two doors on the trap room's west side going through the proscenium wall. It's from drawing #9310 on the Huntington's site.
A plan view of the trap room from drawing #9310. The top half is a floorplan of the stage right end. The proscenium wall is on the left. The doorway through it at the top leads to musicians' rooms and chorus rooms under the front of the auditorium. The center door at the top goes to the stairs. The others on the top and down the right go to dressing rooms. The stage left layout is identical. The lower half of the drawing gives us a ceiling plan.
The doorway through the proscenium wall at the stage right end of the trap room. To the left we get a dressing room and the ladies room. On the right side of the corridor is the room with the theatre's main electrical service. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Down the purple hall to the chorus rooms under the auditorium. To the right it's electrical. To the left it's the former musicians' room, rebuilt as a dressing room, and a ladies restroom. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Just inside the dressing room that had been the musician's room there's a room that once had a ship ladder going up into the orchestra pit. Note the angle of it still showing on the wall. There's a similar
pit entry over on stage left. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
The pit access for this side. It's now a bring-your-own-ladder situation. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Looking deeper into this dressing room that had been part of the area for musicians just
downstage of the proscenium wall. Note the curve of the front wall of
the orchestra pit up on the ceiling. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A rebuilt ladies room on the left side of the corridor going forward to the chorus rooms. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Another shot in the ladies room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A chorus dressing room underneath the front of the auditorium. This is the stage right end of a three segmented space. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The
theatre originally had a star dressing room on stage level stage
left and several rooms above that. Everything else was in the basement.
The basement dressing room space encompassed the area under the stage,
of course, but also forward under the pit and a portion of the
auditorium as well.
Looking back out to the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A view down the countertop to the center and stage left portions of the dressing room suite. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
In the center area looking back to the stage right end. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A view through to the stage left area of the suite. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
In the stage left end of the dressing room suite, looking back to the center and stage right areas. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The mirror wall in the stage left end of the suite. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The end wall of the stage left area of the suite. It's a shower room to the left. The center door goes to the corridor leading to the stage left end of the trap room. The open black door on the right is to a private toilet room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The toilet room off the dressing room area. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
The shower room off the stage left end of the dressing room suite. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The corridor leading from this end of the dressing room suite back out to the stage left end of the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Behind us is the men's room. To the left it's another entrance to the shower room. Beyond it is a door to the area that had once been part of the musicians' space with access up to this end of the orchestra pit. The lit doorway on the right is a mechanical room.
A former dressing room turned into a men's room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
Another view of the men's room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
Looking into the mechanical room off the stage left hall. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The sign in the corner is directing you to a list of early shows at the theatre written on the wall. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
A few more shows. "Marianne," #15 on the list, was a sound film starring Marion Davies. #18 was "Journey's End," another "talking picture." Production #23 on the list was Sid Grauman's presentation of the west coast company of the Kaufman & Hart Hollywood satire "Once in a Lifetime." Photo: Don Solosan - LAHTF- 2009. The group is actively involved in the study and preservation of the
vintage theatres in the Los Angeles area. www.lahtf.org | group Facebook page | official FB page
Back in the trap room for a look down the stage left corridor. The open door on the left is the mechanical room. The men's room is down at the end toward the left, this end of the dressing room suite is down there toward the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
A slightly wider view in the stage left end of the trap room. The center doorway with the gate goes to a shop. On the right it's a look back down down the stage left corridor. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Looking into the carpenter's shop. The door on the left goes out to the hall near the bottom of the stairs going up to stage left. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Around the corner, deeper into the shop. The door at the far end goes to a storage room under the stairs. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
The short hall to the stage left stairs. In the foreground to the left just beyond the double doors it's the edge of a door to dressing room B2. Down near the stairs it's the carpenter's shop on the right and a fan room on the left. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
The fan room upstage left. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
A look to the right to see the motor. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Storage in the fan area. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016
Cleaned up in 2026. Photo: Bill Counter
Farther around the fan room. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
The supply fan. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026
Looking into the tunnel below the fan that goes forward under the auditorium. Photo: Bill Counter - 2026. See a section view of that plenum tunnel from the plans.
The stairs to downstage left or out to the exit passage along the south side of the building. Photo: Bill Counter - 2024
Thanks to Chris, the theatre's new tech supervisor, for his courtesy when we were exploring the building in April 2026.
The Mayan Theatre pages: history | vintage exterior views | recent exterior views | ticket lobby | main lobby | mezzanine lobby | vintage auditorium views | recent auditorium views | booth and attic | stage | back to top - basement |
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