855 Elm Ave. Long Beach, CA 90813 | map |
Opened: The building was dedicated in September 1926. The c.1927 photo by Winstead is from the Long Beach Public Library collection. See the Long Beach Press-Telegram's September 11 story about the dedication at the bottom of the page.
Architects: Parker O. Wright and Francis H. Gentry of the Long Beach firm Wright and Gentry, "Architects and Engineers." Of course both were 32nd degree Masons. The ornamental terracotta was done by the Los Angeles Pressed Brick Co. The building has been a City of Long Beach landmark since 1980.
There's a ballroom on the ground floor. The theatre, called the Ernest Borgnine Theatre, is on the second and third floors. There are other meeting rooms also available for rent.
Theatre capacity: 800
Online: www.lbscottish-rite.com | photo gallery | on Facebook | Ernest Borgnine Theatre website |
Phone: 562-436-4983
Stage specs:
Proscenium: About 35' wide.
Stage depth: About 30 feet from the smoke pocket to the back wall, plus a thrust with steps across the front down to audience level.
Rigging: About 80 wireguide counterweight sets operated from a low flyfloor off right. Some of the equipment is original, with wood-framed arbors and no rope locks, approximately 5" centers and 1/8" lift lines -- typical of many Masonic installations of this era. Some sets have been upgraded, including the sets for electrics.
Asbestos: Still in place, motorized. The arbor is off left, the motor is on the grid. Of course there's a cut rope on either side of the stage.
House traveler: Motorized for both lift and travel.
Lighting: It's a 5 scene Century system installed in the 60s that uses 30 6Kw SCR dimmers. The board is off right, the dimmers are in the basement.
Loading: The upstage right door is up in the sky on the back of the building.
Pipe Organ: It's a Reuter 3/17. It's their opus 156, with 17 stops, 24 registers.
A 2023 shot by Mike Hume.
Status: Open and available for rentals of all sorts. One interesting perk is that you can chose from about 70 vintage backdrops for your event, some dating from the 1880s. Among other users, the theatre is a home for the
Children's Theatre of Long Beach.
Many thanks to Susan, the theatre's technical director, for enthusiastically providing a tour of all the backstage and support areas of the building.
In the lobby:
The ballroom, with a small stage and a big kitchen, is straight ahead on the main floor. An elevator is through the portal and to the left. The stairs get you to the theatre's main floor. The balcony is on the third floor. Photo:
Long Beach Scottish Rite website
Peeking in to the ballroom. Thanks to Michelle Gerdes for sharing this 2023 photo and her many others appearing on the page. See 69 images from her explorations of the building on a
Facebook post.
The main floor ballroom. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - 2023
Ornament in the center of the ceiling. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - 2023
A look back to the entrance doors. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The 2nd floor lobby. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Auditorium views:
A 40s proscenium view. Thanks to the Ronald W. Mahan Collection for sharing this photo from their archives. Thanks for sharing this, Ron.
A balcony soffit fixture. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
Looking toward house right. That's a bit of the fire curtain visible in the proscenium. The organ console is over near the side wall. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A proscenium detail. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
A look around the corner, at the facet of the proscenium facing directly onstage. To the left, note the smoke pocket for the fire curtain. The edge of the curtain is tracked, unlike the usual system of using a cable guide. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The organ console over in the house right corner. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
A house left grille view. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
The house left side of the proscenium. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
An early look to the rear of the house by Inman that's in the Ronald W. Mahan Collection. Note the 1926 vintage lighting array on the front of the
balcony and the projection ports upstairs, now covered with
soundproofing material.
A lone spectator waiting for the show. Oh, that's Steve Gerdes! Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
A ceiling detail. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
The view from the house mix position. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023. Don't miss the page about the Scottish Rite on his
Historic Theatre Photography site.
The house left wall. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A booth level view. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Backstage:
The auditorium as seen from stage left. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Downstage left. The controls for the motorized fire curtain on this side of the stage are the three buttons on the little gray box on that brown corner molding. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
On the stage left scene dock looking up at the proscenium wall. That's the arbor for the fire curtain on the left. The motor for it is up on the grid. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Looking across to stage right. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Drops and the back wall as seen from the stage left scene dock. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The flyfloor, off right. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A look up. The trough of galvanized metal is a thundersheet. The back wall, with a layer of medium-density fiberglass, is on the right. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Looking into the house from stage right. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A closer view down right. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A
20s vintage Brenkert plano, onstage as set dressing for the Children's
Theatre of Long Beach production of "Pirates of Penzance." Photo: Mike
Hume - July 2023
The view from up right. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Stairs to the flyfloor back in the up right corner. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The upstage end of the flyfloor. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Looking across the back wall. Note the fiberglass soundproofing. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
Looking upstage. Theatre explorer Ron Mahan is taking a shot of one of the ropelocks for an electric batten. The lines for them are along the offstage wall. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A look to the loading bridge from downstage. The ladder to get you there is back in the corner. On the right note several of the original wood-framed arbors. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Looking downstage. The electric battens are on the sets against the wall. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The ropelock/tension block for the 4th Electric, located on the offstage side of the flyfloor. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Floorblocks below the lockrail. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The downstage end of the flyfloor. The motor on the deck is for the house curtain. Note the stack of retired wood-framed arbors up against the wall. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Downstage checking out the rigging. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Another view of some of the wood-framed arbors. The arbor on the right with the square weights is the motor driven set for the house curtain. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A peek at some of the vintage drops. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023. He calls our attention to the thunder sheet in the upper left.
A downstage look across. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
In the basement:
The Century dimmer rack below the stage. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The stairs back up. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
To the attic, booth and house left organ chamber:
In the unused projection booth. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Another booth view. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
In the low attic at the lobby end of the building. We're looking toward the front wall. In the upper center note a sheave and cable for the chandelier in the entrance lobby. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
On the way around to the house left organ chamber. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
The auditorium is off to the right. The plank walkway takes a turn to the right and heads along the house left side of the auditorium. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
Along the side of the auditorium with the house left organ chamber door straight ahead. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
In the house left organ chamber. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
A look to the rear corner of the chamber. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Surplus counterweights in use. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023
The house right chamber isn't accessed through the attic. For that one there's an access hole in the ceiling of the exit corridor that runs along the house right side of the auditorium at balcony level.
Back in the center of the low attic. The doorway leads to the attic above the auditorium. Up at the top is a door out onto the roof. Photo: Michelle Gerdes - July 2023. Thanks, Michelle!
In the attic above the auditorium. This storage area is at at the rear near the entrance door. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Looking toward the proscenium wall. Yes, that plank on the right is the walkway to get to the ceiling cove lighting position. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
In the balcony plenum. We're looking in from an access door house right. Note the risers for the balcony seating at the top of the image. Photo: Mike Hume - July 2023
Vintage backdrops: Many of the 70 or so drops in the theatre's collection pre-date the building as they were acquired from older facilities. All of the photos in this section come from the
Ernest Borgnine Theatre website.
More exterior views:
1934 - Thanks to the Ronald W. Mahan Collection for sharing this photo from their archives.
c.1934 - Ornament over the entrance arch. Photo: Ronald W. Mahan Collection.
c.1935 - A postcard that popped up on eBay.
2022 - A view from Google Maps. On the right we're looking west toward Long Beach Blvd.
2023 - The bronze plaque next to the entrance. Photo: Michelle Gerdes
2023 - The ornament at the top of the facade. We're looking north. Photo: Mike Hume
2023 - Theatre explorers at work: Steve and Michelle Gerdes, Ron Mahan, Bill Counter. Photo: Mike Hume
2023 - The view southeast across the corner of the Elm Ave. parapet. Photo: Michelle Gerdes
2023 - South toward downtown. Photo: Michelle Gerdes
2023 - Looking west toward the stagehouse. Photo: Michelle Gerdes
2023 - Along the south side of the stagehouse looking toward the back of the building. Photo: Mike Hume. Thanks! Visit Mike's
Historic Theatre Photography site for hundreds of great photos of the theatres he's explored. And don't miss his page about the
Scottish Rite.
2023 - The view to the southwest. Photo: Michelle Gerdes. Thanks for the photos, Michelle! See 69 images from her explorations of the building on a
Facebook post.
The Long Beach Press-Telegram's September 11, 1926 story about the dedication:
Thanks to Mike Hume for locating the story and Ron Mahan for going on the search for a version that was actually readable.
More information: Don't miss the page about the Scottish Rite on Mike Hume's Historic Theatre Photography site.
The Arts Council of Long Beach has a page but there's not much on it. There's an article about the building on Wikipedia. Of course Yelp has a page.
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Why are those backdrops so creepy?
ReplyDeleteCreepy, huh? Well some of them are ancient -- older than the building itself. And, perhaps, we'd also find some of those Masonic rituals they were designed for rather creepy as well. Too bad it's not a set of drops for Broadway musicals!
Delete