Sorry it’s been so long since I responded about the theater. I just never thought anyone was reading these.
Turns out I was wrong!
As far as tearing out the seats, don’t get mad at me. The theater was going through the club renovation by The White Lotus, which should have been no secret as they posted their liquor license request publicly last summer. If it wasn’t going to be us tearing them out, it was someone else. Also, the seats that were there were not the original seats. They were put there sometime in the 70’s I believe and they were in horrible shape and not very collectible. I’m no expert, but they didn’t appear to be anything really special. Most of them were tossed. (I believe some of them were stored in this really weird space adjacent to Musso and Franks, which looked to be part of the restaurant a very long time ago – it had this really beautiful artwork that lined the top of the walls.)
As a matter of fact, the theater interior was not really much to write home about. The walls were a drab and rundown red. The ceiling had this large set back oval shape, but was painted in a single color – there was no contrast nor any kind of artwork. (Maybe something underneath that you could have restored, but there were no photos to confirm that.) The lobby had this horribly ugly carpeting and the snack counter was updated sometime in the 80’s. The only place that had some real coolness in it was the projection booth, which I noted in my post last year.
I am actually very happy to have been able to spend some time in there. It was a lot of fun and I was glad that the theater got some use. Currently, you can still see our MDN promo ads on the marquee, which makes me laugh. I really wish it would get reworked and finished soon. Anyone who lives in Hollywood knows the frustration of old buildings just sitting there collecting dust.
I had rented The Vogue for a TV show I ran for SPIKE TV and Mountain Dew. You may see the MDN signs still up. Either way, we came in, tore out the seats and turned the inside into a TV set. I would never have wanted to tear it up if it was ever going to be restored into a theater again, but the current owners are the same ones that own the White Lotus on Cahuenga. They are waiting on a liquor license for when they reopen the place as a new club, so they rented it to me for a song which allowed me to produce my show there.
It was really neat to get to go inside and see every little part of the theater. The projection room (same one used in Fight Club) still had the triple platter machine and there were all sorts of old film cans and split reels. I did take some marquee letters for my apartment.
Sad to see it go as a theater, but I had a great time working there. BTW, I never ran into Fritz or any of the other spirits, but a few on my crew felt the presence of the children. And one of the men who came in to take out the seats never came back again after one night.
Sorry it’s been so long since I responded about the theater. I just never thought anyone was reading these.
Turns out I was wrong!
As far as tearing out the seats, don’t get mad at me. The theater was going through the club renovation by The White Lotus, which should have been no secret as they posted their liquor license request publicly last summer. If it wasn’t going to be us tearing them out, it was someone else. Also, the seats that were there were not the original seats. They were put there sometime in the 70’s I believe and they were in horrible shape and not very collectible. I’m no expert, but they didn’t appear to be anything really special. Most of them were tossed. (I believe some of them were stored in this really weird space adjacent to Musso and Franks, which looked to be part of the restaurant a very long time ago – it had this really beautiful artwork that lined the top of the walls.)
As a matter of fact, the theater interior was not really much to write home about. The walls were a drab and rundown red. The ceiling had this large set back oval shape, but was painted in a single color – there was no contrast nor any kind of artwork. (Maybe something underneath that you could have restored, but there were no photos to confirm that.) The lobby had this horribly ugly carpeting and the snack counter was updated sometime in the 80’s. The only place that had some real coolness in it was the projection booth, which I noted in my post last year.
I am actually very happy to have been able to spend some time in there. It was a lot of fun and I was glad that the theater got some use. Currently, you can still see our MDN promo ads on the marquee, which makes me laugh. I really wish it would get reworked and finished soon. Anyone who lives in Hollywood knows the frustration of old buildings just sitting there collecting dust.
I had rented The Vogue for a TV show I ran for SPIKE TV and Mountain Dew. You may see the MDN signs still up. Either way, we came in, tore out the seats and turned the inside into a TV set. I would never have wanted to tear it up if it was ever going to be restored into a theater again, but the current owners are the same ones that own the White Lotus on Cahuenga. They are waiting on a liquor license for when they reopen the place as a new club, so they rented it to me for a song which allowed me to produce my show there.
It was really neat to get to go inside and see every little part of the theater. The projection room (same one used in Fight Club) still had the triple platter machine and there were all sorts of old film cans and split reels. I did take some marquee letters for my apartment.
Sad to see it go as a theater, but I had a great time working there. BTW, I never ran into Fritz or any of the other spirits, but a few on my crew felt the presence of the children. And one of the men who came in to take out the seats never came back again after one night.