Secret Bars And Doors In Long Beach And Around Los Angeles

The Queen Mary sent me a note that they've got FOUR new secret bars at the Dark Harbor Haunt this year. They must know.

I like secrets.

Doesn't everyone? Knowing a secret gives you a sense of privilege. It's not that I need to feel all hoity toity. Goodness, no. But don't you like to be in the know? Perhaps I should frame it like this. Not knowing a secret makes you feel a little left out, doesn't it?

I found something secret a few weeks ago when I went up to Hollywood with a visitor. We were doing the tourist dance and it was Hollywood's turn. Not one to pay for parking unless it's absolutely necessary, we parked down a side street. As we walked up towards the famous Hollywood Boulevard, we passed the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel.

It had an air of 'gracefully old' and I noted that I'd visited some friends in an old hotel with an elevator that had to be operated by a person (it was that old). I wanted to see if this was the hotel.

We walked along a long corridor, and found that the elevators were not what I remembered (it must have been another hotel). Then we encountered a bookcase nook. I thought it was a little out of place, so I took a little video of it. As it turns out, the bookcase marked the entry to a now defunct speakeasy. A secret door to a tunnel that led to a secret club. Sadly, we were not able to visit it.

I looked it up on the interwebs, and found this Los Angeles Times article on secret doors and bars. It references a couple of other secret bars, you might want to check out the article.

According to the article, the club was called Beacher's Madhouse. The concierge mentioned that the brothers who ran it moved it to Las Vegas. I found this TripAdvisor review on Beacher's Madhouse at the MGM Grand. I guess the brothers have stepped it up a notch. It looks like fun!

About the Queen Mary's bars. There are many bars at the haunt this year, but to find the secret ones, you will have to interact with monsters and crew members to earn your tokens. You can also 'make the ultimate wish at the new Gallows Wishing Well, and by pulling strings in the Imperium Puppet Theatre. The tokens provide clues to the secret doors of the secret bars. Enter if you dare.