Part of a recent post I made:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal
FEBRUARY 24th: Earl Carroll Theatre Tour!
For the first time the LAHTF (Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation) will present their "ALL ABOUT" - behind-the-scenes tour of the Earl Carroll Theatre in Hollywood.
"Join us as we explore this legendary theatre with the doors open to the public for the first time in over three decades. We don't want to give too much away quite yet,
but this is one you do not want to miss!"
http://www.lahtf.org/event/all-about...rroll-theatre/
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I AM DEFINITELY GOING!
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I did go on this tour last Saturday morning! The LAHTF said it was the first time there had ever been a tour of this facility!
There was a line down the block to get in and it was nice to see so many people interested in things like this! (I was with a couple members so we got preferential treatment.) The Sunset Blvd. entrance is blocked off now because of the construction, so we entered through the back of the building which is on a short and narrow street called Leland Way. The sidewalk on the north side is in rough, cracked and bumpy condition and there were several homeless people sleeping along the uneven pavement. The other side of the street, however, is beautiful. There are an impressive row of bungalows nestled in a couple dense rows of poplars and pine trees.
(I took the Googlemobile along Leland Way down El Centro and then turned down De Longpre trying to find the name of this complex. There were so many trees I couldn't read the name on what looked like the main building. But looking up some street addresses I found that this complex is called The Hollywood El Centro and Yelp says it was established in 1974.)
The tour of the Earl Carroll Theatre first encompassed a gathering in the old nightclub and theatre area space. We were introduced to an Earl Carroll showgirl who is, or about to be, 90 years old and she started working at the original club when she was 17. Her name is Shirley Claire. She has a website dedicated to the club and if you Google her name you'll find a whole lot of things about her.
The tour was divided into three parts...the stage area, backstage areas (including underneath the revolving stage) and the lobby/entrance/office areas.
The entrance and lobby areas were the best part because the 1938 art deco designs and motifs have largely remained intact and the same color scheme through each successive tenants of the building after Earl Carroll.
Originally, you would enter the club from Sunset Blvd. You'd be faced with a hat/coat check area
(*) to the left and in the center a circular area where I guess you'd wait ask to be seated. It was a supper club, so you weren't actually buying tickets to a show and would probably pay when you were through somehow.
Then you'd walk up the staircase and pass the statue called "The Goddess of Neon" (I tickled her toes) into the lobby area where there was a bar, lounge, phone booth, a staircase leading up to the restrooms, and you were surrounded by columns of light. And once you were up in that area you were actually in the nightclub and could see the stage show going on. There was no walled entrance where you passed through doors to get into the club. Once you were up the stairs, you were inside.
At some point, there was a wall, with door entrances, installed in the place to separate the stage area from the lobby and it was all designed in the same way as the lobby. It does look great. The tour guide said that they don't know exactly when this "renovation" was done because they do not find any building permits for the property for the construction of it. (Any of you that know how to look up these building permits might want to sleuth this out and maybe you could find out something!)
They did not offer any idea as to when this wall was built, but, for reasons I'll explain a bit further on, it might've been 1985 or later. (See the segment on the Moonlighting youtube video in the next post.) A friend of mine posits it may have been built when Fox used it for Chevy Chase's talk show which began in 1993, but only lasted a month or two.
The famous double (inner and outer) turntables of the nightclub are still in existence and still work, but they have been covered by another stage layer. The Heritage Foundation, however, taped out where the turntables and stage areas precisely were so we could visualize it. It is said that the last time the turntables were actually used was by Nickelodeon for a production in 1998. (What production that was, wasn't noted.) Part of the tour showed us the mechanism by which the tables turned (by hand cranks!) along the side backstage and also we saw the workings of it from underneath the floor in the basement. Also in the basement were the mechanisms that could lift hosts, announcers, showgirls, or microphones up through the stage floor so they'd suddenly appear right in front of you. The columns that would turn and reveal showgirls playing instruments or such were also shown to us and how they operated.
Foundation members were allowed to go to the second floor offices where the business aspects of the theatre have been performed. There was a nice viewing area of the stage up there where I'm sure Mr. Carroll invited a few guests from time to time. The rooms are all empty at present. Some of the offices have nice art deco shelving and drawer areas.
Because the place has not been a supper club since the early 60's or so, the kitchen areas are no longer kitchens and so that's the one aspect you might be left to wonder how it worked. The place could hold 1,000 guests and looking at photos, you will wonder just how they were all fed and served drinks and accommodated and from exactly where and how many waiters and busboys must've been involved. It was quite the operation. The stage and backstage area must be 2/3 to 3/4 of the building while the other 1/3 or 1/4 was for the audience!
I could show many photos we took while there, but, frankly, I believe if one is interested there are several sites that would give you a thorough look at this place from past to present and also show many of these behind the scenes workings of the nightclub, with pertinent info included.
(SEE NEXT POST.)
(*)There are also many photos of the place already posted on NLA, including a newspaper story and up dates about a hat check girl (Beverly Rush) who worked there and claimed she'd been assaulted. I thought of this when I saw the hat check area! See these links:
Photo and newspaper press release:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=38744
Newspaper article:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=38757
An update:
http://forum.skyscraperpage.com/show...ostcount=38763
Quote:
Originally Posted by Martin Pal
The Essex Property Trust project and The Earl Carroll Theatre
Construction begins: November 28, 2017
Chuck Weiss
Chuck Weiss writes on his Facebook page: "Sad to see the destruction of the parking lot and portico of the Earl Carroll Theater this week. I know that a developer recently purchased the property [...]. Luckily the theater itself is protected, but I was hoping that the adjacent architecture of the wrap-around marquis would have been protected as well."
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I did want to mention something concerning the portico written about above. You cannot tell from that photo Chuck Weiss took above, but during the tour we could look out of the front entrance and see that about 100 (?) feet of this is still intact and was not destroyed when construction began. You cannot tell this by the photo above.
These following two photos taken this month by Bill Counter show this.