Los Angeles Theatres: Globe Theatre: backstage

Globe Theatre: backstage

A section view of the stagehouse taken from drawing #3770 in the Morgan, Walls & Clements archives at the Huntington Library. Here we see the stage left flyfloor atop the four-floor dressing room stack. There's also a flyfloor stage right and a paint bridge, still extant, along the back wall.

Plans for the building at the Huntington are in two batches. Batch #1 starts on their website with a basement plan, drawing #3760. You can page forward to the end of that group, drawing #3781, ceiling details. Batch #2 starts with drawing #3819 and ends with drawing #3847, a section drawing with a couple of fan details. Thanks to Mike Hume for locating these. Visit the Index to the MW&C Drawings that he's been compiling for his Historic Theatre Photography site. There's also an index by Mike Callahan on Internet Archive.

A section view looking through the proscenium toward the auditorium. It's taken from drawing #3771. Note the flyfloor stage left on top of the dressing rooms. It's stairs up all the way -- note the stair railing seen at flyfloor level. On stage right we can see the guardrail in front of the stage switchboard and the two-story prop room with a scene dock on top and a ladder continuing up to the flyfloor. Or, to get to that one, you can walk across the paint bridge.

That doorway in the basement on the centerline leads forward into the plenum space. The stairs on either side go up into the orchestra pit.

Another look forward toward the proscenium, but this section is back far enough to give us details of the paint bridge and the grid. It's drawing #3832 on the Huntington's website. The date is August 1912. Note that the stage right flyfloor is a bit lower than the one on stage left.

A detail of the stage right end of the grid from drawing #3832.

The stage right end of the paint bridge and the flyfloor, a detail from drawing #3832. Also see flyfloor details on drawing #3831 and paint bridge details on drawing #3830.

A pinrail detail from drawing #3770.

A stage plan. That's the two-story prop room in the lower left, later removed. A spiral staircase downstage right was missing from the plan so it's been added. It went to the top of the prop room as well as down to the basement. The section of it in the basement survives. The recess in the proscenium wall is for the dimmerboard. See the full 1st floor plan. On the Huntington's site that can be seen as drawing #3843. Also see the 2nd floor/1st balcony plan and the 3rd floor/2nd balcony plan.

The stage basement. The two sets of stairs in the middle of the trap room go up into the orchestra pit. The passage on the centerline under the pit allowed access to the plenum space under the auditorium. The chorus girls had two dressing rooms in the upper left, the men's chorus rooms were in the lower left. Also see the full basement drawing. It's a detail from Huntington Library's drawing #3842.

The dimmerboard. It's on the Huntington Library's site as drawing #3841.

A detail of the spiral stair downstage right that went from the basement to the top of the prop room. It's from drawing #3780.

Looking on from down right in 2020. Photo: Bill Counter

Stage depth: 28' 9 1/2" from the smoke pocket to face of the back wall columns.

Proscenium width: 38' 2"

Proscenium height: 34'

Apron: None anymore. The underside of the apron lip can still be viewed in the covered orchestra pit.

Wing space stage left: 11' 8" from the proscenium to the dressing room wall (only 9' 7" from proscenium to a railing in front of the dressing rooms). The railing was added in front of a sloped ramp going down from the raised stage level to original floor height.

Wing space stage right: 20' 6" from proscenium to the face of the side wall columns.

Stagehouse wall to wall: Approximately 80'

Stagehouse construction: Reinforced concrete

Stage floor: Originally wood and trappable. It's been raised about a foot from its 1913 level and 80s vintage corrugated decking is covered with concrete. The stage area is now the same as the lobby level.

Platform onstage: There's a 24' wide, 20' deep and 51" high steel platform currently on the stage.

Loading: Small items can come in an alley door up center. Otherwise it's via the side exit passages to the alley or through the front doors on Broadway.

Crew parking: There's a 240 space structure 150' from the entrance as well as a surface lot a half block away.

Dressing rooms: In the basement and stacked offstage left.

Dressing room access: Stairs downstage left. There used to be a spiral staircase downstage right. It's still there in the basement, but chopped off below stage floor level.

Rigging: It was primarily a hemp house with pinrails on both flyfloors. The standard set used 3 lift lines. Counterweighted wire guide sets (with wire rope lift lines) were used for the 5 electric battens. Several additional counterweighted sets, now removed, were downstage.

F.O.H. rigging points: The theatre notes that there are three rigging points in the house 58' above floor level with a total load rating of 20,000 pounds.

Fire Curtain: The original is still in place. The lattice track and operating line for the system are stage right.

Grid height: 78' above the current stage deck. The stage level was raised a foot or so when the auditorium floor was leveled for swap meet use in the late 80s.

Grid construction: Steel. The deck is 3' C channels set on edge. The headbeams are stage right with typical hemp style orientation -- the offstage beam higher than the other.

Flyfloors: Both stage left and stage right. The stage right area was the primary one.

Grid access: Downstage ladders from either flyfloor.

Orchestra pit: Still there but covered by the current concrete floor.

Stage Switchboard: Gone. It was downstage right.

Paint bridge: Across the backwall with access from either flyfloor.

Movie Screen: An empty frame is hanging upstage on the lineset that was used for the 4th electric.

Projection booth: It was installed in 1930 at the back of the first balcony. It's now gone.

2009 - The view from upstage right in the Club 740 days. The floor was leveled in 1987 for use as a swapmeet. It's concrete on top of corrugated decking supported by steel trusses. The slab is about a foot above the original stage level. Thanks to Don Solosan for his photo taken for the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation.

The LAHTF is active in promoting awareness of the historic theatres of Los Angeles and works toward their preservation. They frequently offer tours and sponsor other events related to historic preservation. www.lahtf.org | group Facebook page | official Facebook page

c.2009 - A view off right during an event at Club 740. Thanks to Mike Hume for locating the image.

2013 - The auditorium from atop the alley entrance vestibule upstage. Until Erik Chol's renovations of 2014-2015 the alley was used as the entrance. At the time of the photo the building was just getting a basic cleanup before serious work began. Thanks to Hunter Kerhart for this photo and many others that appear on these pages. Keep up with his recent explorations: on Facebook | HunterKerhart.com | on Flickr

2013 - Up across the back of the 1913 asbestos to the grid. Off left we see the pinrail on the flyfloor. The T-track just right of the proscenium is for the fire curtain counterweights. Note the grid access ladders from the flyfloors both stage left and stage right. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2013 - A view from up left as renovations begin. At the center we're looking through to some light from Broadway. That original entrance area had been used as retail space since 1987. Erik Chol reopened it as part of his restoration work. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2013 - The back wall and the grid. That's a movie screen frame hanging downstage of the paint bridge. At the far right the white railing is a walkway going along the top dressing room floor. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2013 - Looking toward stage right. That structure at stage level on the right of the photo is the alley entrance vestibule. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The entrance vestibule upstage center. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The proscenium wall stage right -- originally the location of the stage switchboard. Note the drywall in front of the bottom of the lattice track for the asbestos. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Across the stage from upstage right. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Another view into the house. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Looking up from onstage. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The proscenium wall stage left. The grey-looking bifurcated doorway goes to the stairs. The left side is to the basement. The right goes to the dressing rooms upstairs. Photo: Bill Counter

The red arch at center used to take you into the auditorium, now just to the proscenium boxes. The lower one is now half below floor level. There are stairs from there to the balcony level box. From there, it's a ladder up to the attic.

2014 - Looking toward upstage left. The ramp is necessary as the stage was raised during the floor leveling of the 80s. It gets you down to the original stage/dressing room floor level. The yellow room, formerly a dressing room, was turned into an ADA compliant restroom during the club days. Off to the left beyond it is a walled off room that was a second dressing room. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - Off left post-renovation. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - A look toward the stairs. The 3rd floor is now enclosed as office space. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - Looking onstage from down left. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - A paint bridge view from stage left. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - A look to the grid from stage left. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - The bottom of the paint bridge and the back of the asbestos. Thanks to Mike Hume for his photo. Head to his Historic Theatre Photography site for tech info and many fine photos of the theatres he's explored. And don't miss his page on the Globe Theatre.

2020 - The back of the asbestos and the stage right end of the grid. Just offstage note the lattice track for the asbestos. That's the ladder to the grid over in the corner. Photo: Mike Hume

The dressing rooms stage left:

c.2008 - Looking to stage left in the theatre's Club 740 days. The photo appears courtesy of Ralph Verdugo, operator of the club at the time.

c.2008 - Dressing room levels 2 and 3 plus a bit of the house. Thanks to Ralph Verdugo for the photo.

c.2008 - A view from the paint bridge taken during the Club 740 days. The photo appears through the courtesy of Ralph Verdugo.

2013 - Looking across the dressing room floors to the grid. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The dressing room area as seen from the top of the entrance vestibule. Photo: Cap Equity Locations

2014 - A taller view from the entrance vestibule. That's the paint bridge overhead. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Looking toward the dressing room floors from the paintbridge. Thanks to Sandi Hemmerlein for her photo, one of many appearing in "The Globe Theatre Under Construction," her Avoiding Regret photo essay. Head there for many additional shots of her adventures crawling the theatre during a LAHTF "all-about" tour.

2014 - Dressing room level 2. This used to be several small rooms plus a toilet area -- the walls had been removed. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - A view onstage from level 2. That's the DJ booth above the alley entrance vestibule. Thanks to Rebecca Reynoso of Cap Equity Locations [323-375-4192] for this photo as well as the others appearing on these pages. The firm brokers deals between property owners and those looking for filming locations or other special uses.

2014 - Looking downstage from level 2. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The view downstage on dressing room level 3, now enclosed as office space. The stairs are behind the red wall. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Out toward the auditorium from level 3. Photo: Cap Equity Locations

2014 - The vista upstage toward the fire escape door on level 3. Photo: Cap Equity Locations

2014 - The panoramic version from level 3. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Looking onstage from the dressing room stairs. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Dressing room level 4. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Toward the back wall from level 4. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The proscenium wall at level 4. The bricked in opening gets you to the area above the top proscenium box -- presumably for easier attic access only used during construction. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2017 - Looking out from level 2 with the DJ booth in action during the January "Night on Broadway" event. Photo: Mike Hume

2020 - A panoramic view from level 2. Photo: Mike Hume

2020 - Looking upstage on level 2. Photo: Bill Counter

The stage left flyfloor:

2013 - The ladder to the grid from the flyfloor. Thanks to Erik Chol, the proprietor of the Globe Theatre from 2013 until 2024, for the photo. That's Erik going up through the hole onto the grid. He says after going up that he realized how difficult and dangerous the work was in these old theatres. At the right of the photo we see the smoke pocket for the fire curtain.

2014 - Looking out from the flyfloor, one level above above dressing room level 4. The stairs to the left of the fire escape exit get you down to the paint bridge and over to the stage right flyfloor. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The rear of the fire curtain from the flyfloor. We're looking through an old screen frame that's hung upstage. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Up toward the grid from the stage left flyfloor. This little walkway and the striplight above it are a curious relic. The plank only extends onstage a couple more feet from what we see here. There's no place to go from there -- except to see a very angled view of the front of the fire curtain. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - A fuse panel on the proscenium wall at the stage left flyfloor level. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - The flyfloor and stage left end of the grid. Photo: Mike Hume

The stage right flyfloor:

2014 - The view up underneath the paint bridge toward the stage right flyfloor. Photo: Sandi Hemmerlein

2014 - Looking downstage. Those snorkel-like pieces of conduit once held the cables dropping down to the borderlights. The ladder at right gets you up to the grid. In addition to the main pinrail we see here, there's another wooden one over on the stage right wall for the counterweighted sets that were once for the electric battens. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - A view from the paint bridge of the pinrail along the offstage wall. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The downstage corner. Don't go down that ladder to the stage -- it's been chopped off quite a bit above the stage floor. That blower doesn't belong up here, of course. It was part of an improvised ventilation system. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The proscenium wall. Note that Up/Down signal box hanging out of the wall. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Up/Down signaling from the booth to the stagehand operating the curtain. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The view onstage. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - An electric batten arbor. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The arbor for one of the electric battens that's now carrying the screen frame. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Cast iron counterweights from one of the electric linesets. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - A winch adjacent to the ladder up to the paint bridge from the flyfloor. The stage right flyfloor is lower than the one stage left. The one on that side is on top of four floors of dressing rooms. There you take a few steps down to get to the bridge. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - Looking to stage right from the top of the DJ booth. Photo: Mike Hume

On the grid:

2014 - The stage right edge. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Upstage along the stage right wall. These sheaves at the wall in the angle-iron brackets are for the five electric battens. At the upper right of the photo we get the upstage end of the hemp headbeam. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - A closer look at a headblock for one of the electric battens. Most of the rigging was hemp but these sets used wire rope for the lift lines. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Looking upstage at the rear of the hemp headblocks. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Underneath several of the hemp headblocks. This loftwell below the hemp headbeams offers a nice view down to the stage. One must cross it while ducking under the upper hemp headbeam to get onstage to the rest of the grid. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The view onstage through a gap between hemp headblocks. Of course there were no lights up here that worked at the time of the visit. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The onstage side of the hemp headbeams. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Along the proscenium wall. The large multigrooved sheave is the headblock for the fire curtain. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The fire curtain beadblock. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Along the proscenium wall looking toward centerstage. The large sheaves that still have cables on them are for the fire curtain lift lines. Someone left us a can of WD-40, perhaps not the optimum lubricant for this equipment. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Across the grid to stage left. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - One of the hangers for the grid. The roof structure for this very solid building is concrete encased steel. Photo: Bill Counter

Down in the basement:

2014 - The downstage left stairs to the basement. Photo: Sandi Hemmerlein

2014 - At the bottom of the stairs stage left. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Looking across the trap room from downstage left. Heed the sign. And a clean basement it is. Behind us are the stairs up to the stage left dressing room area. Those stairs on the left of the photo get up into the orchestra pit -- there's another set down toward stage right. In the middle is the musicians' room. To our right are more dressing rooms. There's also a whole slew of them down under stage right. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The trap room from upstage left. Thanks to Cap Equity Locations for the photo.

2014 - An upstage left dressing room. This area was previously being used for chilled beverage storage Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - In the musicians' room, downstage center. The doorway off to the left is a corridor leading under the pit to the plenum area under the main floor, used as a club area. See the basement page for photos of that area. There used to be a fire door here but it's now a second exit from the basement dressing rooms. The door at right is one of two leading from this area back out into the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - In the trap room looking over toward stage right. The door with the exit sign goes to the musicians' room. Take a left at the end of the trap room and you go downstage and around to a corridor farther offstage with more dressing rooms behind the ones we see here. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Stage construction viewed from underneath. The stage floor was raised about a foot when the new level auditorium deck was installed. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - A dressing room off the trap room upstage right. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Another stage right room off the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Looking back across the trap room from stage right. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - A restroom off the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The stage right stairs to the pit. The doorway at the left goes into the musicians' room. At the right side of the photo you jog farther right for more dressing rooms and, through the proscenium wall, the electric room under the house left proscenium boxes. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Looking back toward the trap room from downstage right. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Fire curtain rigging in the basement downstage right. We're looking at a tension block for the curtain's operating line -- under the stage. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - The downstage right corner of the basement. We're under the stage right wing space looking north. That's the proscenium wall at the left. Through the arch there and you're in the original theatre electric service room. The spiral staircase at the center once got you up to downstage right near the switchboard. The corridor at the right leads upstage to several more dressing rooms. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - A stair detail. It was chopped off below stage level when the auditorium floor was leveled. There's now no route from the basement to get to stage right. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - The stage right corridor. We're looking upstage into an area of more dressing rooms. The proscenium wall is behind us, the trap room off to the right. Behind the right wall of the corridor are those dressing rooms opening onto the stage right side of the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Looking into the old electric service room downstage right on the audience side of the proscenium wall. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - Abandoned service gear on the north wall. The current electrical service equipment is above, out in the north exit passage alongside the theatre. We're on the house side of the proscenium, in the triangular area just below the proscenium boxes. The doorway at the left leads into the former plenum space under the auditorium floor. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Looking back upstage. The door back through the proscenium wall is just out of the frame to the right. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - Downstage right. The red door on the left goes to the electric room. The skinny door goes to a toilet. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - The post-renovation look of the trap room. We're looking toward stage right. The spiral staircase, the electric room, and the off-right dressing room corridor are around the corner to the left. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - A peek into one of the open dressing room doors stage right seen in the previous photo. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - Looking across the trap room to stage left. The musicians' room is behind the wall on the right. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - In the musicians' room, downstage center. We're looking toward stage right. The door at the end leads back into the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - The tunnel under the pit into the club space in the former plenum under the auditorium floor. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - In the trap room looking toward the downstage left stairs. The stairs in the foreground are one of two sets leading into the orchestra pit. Photo: Bill Counter

2020 - Looking back toward the trap room from the bottom of the stairs up to the stage. Photo: Bill Counter

In the orchestra pit:

1976 - In the pit (still uncovered in 1976!) with Michael Caine and a burlesque show drummer in Peter Hyams 20th Century Fox film "Peeper."

1976 - A look toward Michael Caine and Natalie Wood in the pit in "Peeper." The other gentleman is the manager, who has been chasing Caine around the theatre telling him he needs to buy a ticket. In the film the Globe is a burlesque theatre where Michael Caine goes to look for runaway Natalie Wood. See the Historic L.A. Theatres in Movies post for more shots at the Globe from the film.

2014 - The stage left stairs up into the orchestra pit from the trap room. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - In the pit looking toward stage right. Photo: Bill Counter

2014 - A look at the plaster molding on the lip of the stage. Photo: Sandi Hemmerlein

2014 - The pit from stage right. That hole on the forward wall allows a look under the current floor. That's the original auditorium floor level where the concrete stops. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Looking forward from the pit front wall into the space between the current auditorium floor and the original one. Photo: Hunter Kerhart

2014 - Boxes for low level lighting on the upstage pit wall. Photo: Sandi Hemmerlein

Los Angeles Theatres

Globe Theatre: backstage

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