I remember seeing films at the Pantages in the 1950s. Due to union regulations, they still had a stage hand “on stage” to dim the lights and operate the curtains. One saturday morning, my father took me to see the place before it was open for the day’s showing. I saw the huge switchboard backstage and was shown the several house curtains that included a traveler, a contour curtain that could be “programmed', and my favorite the "oleo” curtain (as they referred to it). The orchestra pit was on an elevator and there was a bandstand that traveled on tracks from the back of the stage and onto the pit when it was raised to stage level. At the Pantages, the large chandelier at the center of the auditorium was not lowered for relamping, the technician actually climbed into it from ladders accessed above the ceiling. The original air condition system worked with water and during the summer the auditorium had a damp smell.
When I was about 9 years old, I was taken to see “The Robe' at the Chinese. Being an organ nut even then, I walked down the aisle to look at the console, which was covered with a dust cloth. It was at the east side of the pit, not in the center. It was ebonized and had dragons painted on either side of the horseshoe.
Probably about the same time, the tall, decorative metal lanterns that used to flank the proscenium were removed, as the bass from the sound system caused them to rattle. Alas, the cable from the console to the organ chamber on the roof ran inside of one of the lanterns, and t was cut when they were removed.
Incidentally, the 32' octave of the Diaphone was not with the organ on the roof, it was behind the decorative "box” seating on the west side of the auditorium. It wasn’t removed with the organ and I wonder if it is still there?
One can still see the organ chamber on the roof, that bumps out from the south side of the stage house. It must have been very hot in there during the summer.
Those who heard the organ when it was played say the sound was a bit distant due to the tone chute arrangement that brought the sound from the chamber to the center of the grille work around the chandelier.
I remember seeing films at the Pantages in the 1950s. Due to union regulations, they still had a stage hand “on stage” to dim the lights and operate the curtains. One saturday morning, my father took me to see the place before it was open for the day’s showing. I saw the huge switchboard backstage and was shown the several house curtains that included a traveler, a contour curtain that could be “programmed', and my favorite the "oleo” curtain (as they referred to it). The orchestra pit was on an elevator and there was a bandstand that traveled on tracks from the back of the stage and onto the pit when it was raised to stage level. At the Pantages, the large chandelier at the center of the auditorium was not lowered for relamping, the technician actually climbed into it from ladders accessed above the ceiling. The original air condition system worked with water and during the summer the auditorium had a damp smell.
When I was about 9 years old, I was taken to see “The Robe' at the Chinese. Being an organ nut even then, I walked down the aisle to look at the console, which was covered with a dust cloth. It was at the east side of the pit, not in the center. It was ebonized and had dragons painted on either side of the horseshoe.
Probably about the same time, the tall, decorative metal lanterns that used to flank the proscenium were removed, as the bass from the sound system caused them to rattle. Alas, the cable from the console to the organ chamber on the roof ran inside of one of the lanterns, and t was cut when they were removed.
Incidentally, the 32' octave of the Diaphone was not with the organ on the roof, it was behind the decorative "box” seating on the west side of the auditorium. It wasn’t removed with the organ and I wonder if it is still there?
One can still see the organ chamber on the roof, that bumps out from the south side of the stage house. It must have been very hot in there during the summer.
Those who heard the organ when it was played say the sound was a bit distant due to the tone chute arrangement that brought the sound from the chamber to the center of the grille work around the chandelier.