Comments about Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles, CA

William on July 5, 2006 at 2:01 pm

The Norelco’s are still there at the Panatages.

HowardBHaas on July 4, 2006 at 4:34 am

This really belongs on the Pantages page, but I will note that theater was further restored a few years back. Merely because William says that in the early 1990’s it was re-equipped to run 70 mm doesn’t mean the projectors are still there.

I wander if they were thinking premieres or 1st run films? Even if only once a year for Last Remaining Seats, it would be wonderful to have the chance to see a film (35 or 70) in the Pantages. The Egyptian seems to have an excellent film program, but it isn’t the movie palace history tells us it was. The Pantages is still a movie palace with lots of glamour.

JSA on July 3, 2006 at 9:47 pm

Thanks William! It’s good to know that the theater has 70 mm capability. One can only hope that someday the general public may enjoy a few 70 mm presentations at the theatre.

Regards,
JSA

William on July 3, 2006 at 2:40 pm

Michael’s right to a point. Yes that was the last legit 70MM engagement open to the public at that theatre. But the 70MM equipment was removed when the theatre went to stage only shows in the late 70’s. During the early 90’s the theatre was re-equipped to run 70MM again. During that time of the reinstall we ran a few titles after hours. The reinstall was to re-equip the theatre only for future use. The after hours screenings were for tech work and not open to the public. But it was fun to run that booth one last time.

JSA on July 3, 2006 at 2:15 pm

Thank you Michael. Shortly after I posted my question, I searched in the “from script to dvd” site, and found my answer!

It is interesting to note that the Egyptian ran a 70 mm engagement of “Tora! Tora! Tora!” the following year (1971) as well.

JSA

Coate on July 2, 2006 at 3:01 pm

“Tora! Tora! Tora!” (late 1970/early 1971).

JSA on June 28, 2006 at 12:57 pm

William: When was the last time 70 mm was run at the Pantages?

William on June 28, 2006 at 7:57 am

Chris don’t forget the Pantages Theatre.

segask on June 11, 2006 at 6:26 pm

does anyone know how wide the original screen was back before those columns of the proscenium were demolished to make way for the D-150 screen?

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

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.