Odd-looking Door at Majestic Halls in Los Angeles

wylk

In Los Angeles there’s an event venue called Majestic Halls (http://www.majestichalls.com/) in a former Bank of America from 1930 to 1972. There is a vault on the first level (most likely safe deposit) and another elsewhere in the building (possibly the basement). The door, however, does not look “right.” It looks more like a movie prop. One guess I have is that the original door was scavenged/damaged and somebody rebuilt it for aesthetics. Or, it’s a design/manufacturer never before seen.

Specific notes: The pressure bar pins are missing, probably a good idea so people cannot get locked inside by that method. There is only one combination lock. The pressure-bar wheel does not appear to be connected to the bars. The boltwork wheel is in a strange place. The two wheels have differing appearance. On the inside face there are eight “spokes” on the inner portion along with the usual 24 bolts.

The boltwork reminds me of a Mosler design.

Any comments?

Doug MacQueen

Movie prop, as the crane hinge is edge hung only and not center pivoted. Not impossible but even the hinge barrels on the wall are quite a bit smaller than I would expect for a door of that thickness. I don’t think there is a real door under there, after all it is L.A. Doug

Paul Prescott

I concur with doug, there is no way that crane hinge would ever work. It was clearly built by someone that sort of knew what such a hinge looked like but had no clue as to how it worked.

Prop for sure. Be interesting to know when built and for what.

wylk

That makes a lot of sense to me, that it is not real. Just for reference here is another image from reel-scouts.com that does look better, but rusty, elsewhere in the building:

Notice the retractable floor segment in the lowered position for example.

Dean Nickel

Wasn’t that used in the movie the Mask?

wylk

There is a series of commercials for Farmers Insurance set in their “Hall of Claims” which commemorates strange insurance claims. These are shot at Majestic Halls. Compare the following image (from the “Stag Party” commercial) with an earlier image of Majestic (borrowed from http://rs.locationshub.com/Slideshow.aspx?lid=050-2302).

Brian Smith

If these were ever functioning doors, they were low security, & for those who were easily duped. Door #2 looks like those that BVS in Florida are selling… to the same crowd.

Brian Smith

Update. The name was changed from Bank Vault Structures to Vault Structures… still junk.

wylk

I’m pretty certain the upstairs door (the original subject of this thread) is a prop built for the movie “The Mask”. It doesn’t look like a Vault Structures door or any other real door. After the movie was done the door was left in place and it does add a little something to the space.

Some of the movie Marathon Man may have been shot downstairs but I’m not certain. That movie did at least use exterior shots of the building, plus scenes in a vault so it might be safe to assume.

Downstairs there is a real Mosler vault door. That space is now The Reserve Cocktail Club:

I’m not familiar enough with Vault Structures to declare their doors junk or not. They recently built a non-operating door for the Smithsonian’s Gallery of Numismatics, if anybody wants to examine one up close.

Brian Smith

My mistake. I thought I saw in your photo, the bottom of the (Mosler) door & frame cut off .. like VSI doors. “junk” was not a quality judgement, rather my opinion of VSI value. I’m sure they are neither inexpensive, nor short their particular rating, but in comparison to that Mosler for instance, whose close fit between the door and jamb (explosive resistance), and general heft (burglary resistance) give the old style doors a higher value. Its simply my opinion from a mechanic / machinist point of view, of course.