Comments about Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, CA

kencmcintyre on June 5, 2006 at 7:01 pm

Here is an interesting article about the Egyptian:
http://tinyurl.com/ppar7

Chris Utley on May 15, 2006 at 12:39 pm

While I appreciate what the Cinematheque is doing at this theatre to preserve classic cinema, I must say (as I’ve already said in other places around this website) that this theatre has no business hosting a 70MM film festival! I’ve been to a couple of 70MM film screenings here since the Cinematheque took over (My Fair Lady, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia) and was very disappointed. here Only 2 theatres in Hollywood have the skills to run 70MM as it was originally intended: The Dome and the Chinese.

SpikeSpiegel6262044 on April 3, 2006 at 5:13 pm

Pretty theater, I like! I was wondering if the premiere of
Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust was shown here?

bufffilmbuff on January 19, 2006 at 2:59 am

William—-
Curious about the eight channel D-150 sound system. How was that configured? I know Todd-Ao had six channels, five behind the screen and one surround and three projector Cinerama had seven, five behind the screen and two surrounds…. but eight channels? Was this actually part of the soundtrack on the print, a separate interlocked sound system (like Cinerama) or was this just some kind of enhancement that worked only in playback. Thanks.

trooperboots on January 18, 2006 at 9:46 pm

Hi Ken,

To see what the San Diego Egyptian ORIGINALLY looked like when it was first built in 1926 go to…..

View link

The San Diego Egyptian facade (in slightly streamlined form) is being retained for a condominium development being completed on Park Boulevard. There is a clear and large artist’s rendering of the building available on the following link……

View link

Theater lovers were not happy to lose the beautiful theater, but at least we have the facade.. that’s more than most developments are doing.

kencmcintyre on December 18, 2005 at 2:23 pm

Does anyone have any info on the Fox Egyptian in San Diego?

View link

kencmcintyre on December 8, 2005 at 3:38 pm

Here are a few other interesting photos of the Egyptian, from the LA Library. Benny Rubin was a comedian who had a career of almost seventy years in film, radio and television.

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014538.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014536.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014540.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014534.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014532.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014544.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014541.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014848.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014531.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015675.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater3/00015762.jpg

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics16/00007814.jpg

http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014847.jpg

kencmcintyre on December 6, 2005 at 5:49 pm

Here is a picture of the theater and the Pig ‘n Whistle, which has now been restored. The food is good, but a little pricey for me.

http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039150.jpg

lostmemory on October 3, 2005 at 7:25 am

A Wurlitzer organ Opus 505 Style 260 was installed in Grauman’s Egyptian Theater on 12/30/1921.

MrFootprint on September 12, 2005 at 8:24 pm

My grandfather, Jean Klossner was on the original Meyer & Holler construction crew that built the Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan and American theaters (among others) ….. After the opening of the Chinese, he performed the footprint ceremonies for over 40 years. He said Sid Grauman always wanted to open a complete chain, each theater with a different theme …. So different than the “Multiplex Giants” of today ……

William on September 1, 2005 at 5:35 am

No the Egyptian was not equipped for VistaVision horizontal format. I believe only the first two films released from Paramount were available in the horizontal format.

Tom10 on July 13, 2005 at 3:08 pm

William: Kind thanks for this interesting description. Could it handle VistVision in the horizontal format? Did Ampex provide the speakers and amps or just the magnetic reproducer electronics? Altec—of the some era—did a fair amount of work for movie theaters, both speakers and electronics. Both provided expensive, top-of-the-line equipment. A church I attended had an Altec monophonic amp (to drive headsets for the hearing impaired!!),an early solid state unit. It weighed a ton, was rack mounted, and cost a bundle. t.

William on July 13, 2005 at 5:13 am

The D-150 process was used only on two films from Fox “The Bible” & “Patton”. In the exhibition world the Dimension 150 company had an idea to market an All-Purpose projection system to theatres. The system provided aspect ratios suitable for D-150, Todd-AO, Ultra-Panavision, CinemaScope, Widescreen 1.85 and other projection formats. The theatre would be retrofitted with a large curved screen and in most cases an Ampex 8 channel stereo sound system for full magnetic sound. The screen at the Egyptian Theatre was 90 feet wide, when opened to the fullest masking setting. You also had to pay a licensing fee to present your film in the full D-150 screen, like what MGM and a few other studios did with Cinerama.
That is just a few highlights of the system.

RobertR on July 13, 2005 at 3:25 am

“And just think – it would play the Egyptian for a total of 68 weeks!”

We are lucky now if a film can play 68 days.

Tom10 on July 13, 2005 at 3:14 am

What is a “D-150” screen?

Bill Huelbig on July 12, 2005 at 11:41 am

And just think – it would play the Egyptian for a total of 68 weeks!

View link

teecee on July 12, 2005 at 9:44 am

View link

Source: MPTV
Caption: Hollywood and Los Angeles Landmarks Egyptian Theater Marquee: “My Fair Lady” 1964

William on June 3, 2005 at 12:07 pm

I have some shots of the auditorium with the D-150 installed in one of my files on the theatre.

markinthedark on May 5, 2005 at 2:50 pm

Does anyone have pictures of this theatre when it had its D-150 screen installed?

Tom10 on April 15, 2005 at 5:37 am

G.A.DeL.: Terrific post card. It’s an amazing building.

Gerald A. DeLuca on April 14, 2005 at 11:28 am

Here is an old postcard showing the entrance area of the Egyptian.

trooperboots on January 11, 2005 at 12:46 am

Thanks so much Don, for the kind words about the theater! I will look further into the group. It’s funny that I remember some of the old theaters had a strange echo-like sound to them… but it’s one of the things that I miss the most in today’s theaters. I wonder if Cinemathque has considered that the classic films just sound all the more authentic with the accoustics the way they were? At least I think so.

The Egyptian has special meaning to me. I was only a few months old early in 1951, when my mom took me there. She went to see a film premier. She has always been a big movie fan. She arrived and realized she HAD to use the ladies room. She found a beautifully dressed red head with another lady sitting in the waiting room outside the door (I wonder if it is still there?). Mom asked the lady if she could me for a few minutes. She knew it would be alright because the lady was a pregnant Lucille Ball. Lucy said “of course” and when my mom came back, chatted with her about her own condition. Lucy said she was so excited about the baby. The baby turned out to be Lucille Arnaz, born later that year… and I wrote to her about 3 years ago. She sent me a reply and said it was a great story and published my letter on her website. Of course, later around the age of 5, 6 and 7… I remember sitting in the theater and looking up at the beautiful sun ornament fully lit and glowing above the curtain. It all stays with you.

The Egyptian is definitely on my list when I visit Hollywood next month. Thank God for this group. At least they are on the right track and have not destroyed anything and the theater may one day be fully restored. Thanks again.

DonSolosan on January 10, 2005 at 11:51 pm

Christian,

The Cinematheque is generally only open in the evenings on weekdays. On weekends they offer tours, a special documentary “Forever Hollywood” and then normally two movies. Their programs are usually themed (Film Noir, etc.), and whenever possible they get people involved in those movies to come by for a Q&A session. These can be classic old movies or stuff that has recently been released. They seem to rely heavily on volunteers; if you spoke to someone and didn’t get a clear answer about the Cinematheque’s mission, it’s possible they’re just helping out to get access to the cool movies.

As for the Egyptian itself, edward1 is correct that it’s a disappointment. Partly because it has been greatly reduced in size, but also because of improvements to correct acoustic problems. The beautiful walls and ceiling, for the most part, have been covered with panels that leave the place feeling like a black box in one of them newfangled multiplexes. But it appears that they have been preserved, which is good.

If you can get past that, then the Egyptian is still a good place to see movies because of their programming. They’ve also just reopened the Aero in Santa Monica, which is closer to where I live, so I give the Cinematheque a thumbs up.

trooperboots on January 10, 2005 at 9:59 pm

There have been a number of marquees above the entrance to the Egyptian…. here are some great photos to show how dramatically those signs altered the entrance ….

1924 – small vertical sign on right wall…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014533.jpg

1930 – larger vertical on left wall and broad electric marquee over entrance to courtyard…
http://jpg1.lapl.org/pics39/00039150.jpg

1955 – larger curved neon “wall” in the art-moderne style….
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014528.jpg

1969 – the horizontal neon stripe tubes were removed after the 60s…
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014548.jpg

1989 – the theater had turned into a tri-plex at this time…
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics18/00028678.jpg

pianoman on January 10, 2005 at 4:30 pm

Geez! I mean, they could’ve saved the huge wall in front, but …….

Egyptian Theatre

6712 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, Los Angeles, CA 90028

6712 Hollywood Boulevard,

Hollywood,
Los Angeles, CA 90028