Egyptian Theatre
242 E. 4th Street,
Long Beach,
CA
90802
242 E. 4th Street,
Long Beach,
CA
90802
3 people
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This Egyptian Theatre was opened in 1923 with “Little Old New York”, and in 1925 it became a Fox house. It was later redesigned by S. Charles Lee.
It was demolished in October 1959.
Contributed by
William Gabel
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
I took a walk over to 4th Street today to see what was at 242 and 226, depending on where you place the theater. That entire area has been redeveloped into an outdoor shopping mall. As you would expect, there is no way to surmise that a theater once stood at that location.
On a side note, I noticed an interesting mural painted on the side wall of Acres of Books on Long Beach Blvd. The book store’s adjacent neighbor was recently demolished, revealing an advertisement for Harbor U-Drive. One part of the sign states that the business has relocated to Ocean and American, which gives you an idea how old the signage is. I suppose this will be painted over in due course or obscured by new construction. Check it out if you’re in the LBO area.
Here are interior and exterior photos from the 1920s:
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014848.jpg
http://jpg2.lapl.org/theater1/00014847.jpg
A.F. Cheroske opened the Egyptian in 1923. LA Times reported sale to West Coast Theaters in November 1925. For the first two years of its life, the theater was known as Cheroske’s Egyptian Theater.
This photo of the demolition was in the LB Press-Telegram on 10/13/59:
http://tinyurl.com/2xgdu9
I came across this photo in the CA state library, but unfortunately I don’t have an identifying caption. It’s too small to be either Egyptian in So Cal, but the mummies on the screen indicate that it may have been some kind of Egyptian-themed theater. If anyone recognizes this, let me know:
http://tinyurl.com/2d7b94
Wow! The photo in the previous posting by ken mc is something I’ve never seen before! Looks like it might even be a private screening room from some palatial estate. If it’s really a public movie theatre, is has to be a nickelodeon that was given an Egyptian remodeling. You’ll notice that most of the plasterwork is Renaissance in style. The Egyptian detailing is confined to cavetto moldings in the bays closest to the screen, along with a sunburst ceiling ornament like Grauman’s Egyptian has (and was then copied in many Egyptian style theatres from Boise to Ogden to Oakland). Some Egyptian cavetto moldings can also be seen along the top of the walls closest to the viewer. So, either this is a little theatre which went through a remodel, or someone changed the design direction during construction.
Aha! Closer examination reveals another possibility for this photo (ken mc’s post of Sept. 7th). I notice that each bay between the pilasters as you go down the sidewalls is done in a completely different ornamental style. Not only that, but each ceiling section has a different ornamental plaster design. I think what we have here is a photo of a “display” theatre for either a decorative plaster studio, a decorative painting studio, theatre architect, or all of the above. It’s like a “sampler” of theatre design. This sort of thing was done for tradeshows for theatre seat companies, box office designs, and later on, concession stand designs. Certainly designers and decorators themselves would have wanted to do the same.
I counted the seats as best as I could (hard to do in the front rows) and the seating capacity is under 200.
According to the June 8, 1923 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor, the Egyptian Theatre was remodeled from an existing building which had been a garage. The conversion was designed by Long Beach architects Hugh R. Davies and Edward S. Baume, associated.
In 1936, S. Charles Lee prepared this concept rendering for a facade remodeling of the theatre, which appears not to have been carried out.
The S. Charles Lee rendering in Joe Vogel’s immediate preceeding post is of a proposed remodel of the entrance of the Egyptian in Hollywood. You can even see the facade and marquee of the Pig & Whistle to the right of it—a facade which still exists today.
To bad Fox West Coast Theatres did not do the proposed remodel of the Egyptian Theatre’s facade in Hollywood.