Egyptian Theatre
116 W. 10th Street,
Sioux Falls,
SD
57104
116 W. 10th Street,
Sioux Falls,
SD
57104
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A Kimball theater organ was installed in the Colonial Theater in 1926.
Check out
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for a halfway decent account of the life of the Egyptian/Colonial Theater.
The Colonial closed in 1926 and reopened later that same year as the Egyptian. The 1938 renovation brought a larger, more impressive marquee by Liebenberg, but the Egyptian was there before that remodel.
According to Building South Dakota: A Historical Survey of the State’s Architecture to 1945 by David Erpestad and David Wood, the Egyptian was designed by Henry J. Schwarz in 1913 as a Senior project at the University of Pennsylvania. The Marquee was designed by J.J. Liebenberg in 1938. It does not mention anything about further renovation by Liebenberg. I have pictures of the Egyptian as early as 1927. If it was ever known as the Colonial, I don’t yet know.
I saw the 3D movie “The Maze” at the Egyptian in 1953. This was not a picture that was seen by many.and seeing “Them” and “The Great
Caruso” at the Egyptian.
What a wonderful childhood I had at the movies in Sioux Falls
Cosmo
A correction to my posting on Dec 21, 2004.
Jack Liebenberg was not the original architect of the Egyptian, he was responsible (with his partner Seeman Kaplan) for the 1938 re-modelling of the theatre.
prior to the remodeling as the Egyptian, the theater was known as the Colonial Theater. Also after the theater became the Egyptian the local projectionists of Local 556 of the IATSE had a meeting and recreation room under the balcony of the theater. The theater was demolished in the early 60’s (to make way for a parking lot, of course) and sadly was no longer around when I moved to Sioux Falls in 1965.
The address listed for the Egyptian Theatre is:
116 W 10th St
Sioux Falls, SD 57104
Jack Liebenberg was the architect of the Egyptian Theatre and it had a seating capacity of 825.