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EGYPTIAN THEATRE TOUR IN HOLLYWOOD
By Abby Abanes
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Just recently, I went on a private docent-led tour of the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. This tour started in the theater courtyard and eventually took us into the theater itself followed by a visit to the old dressing rooms and finally ended at their state-of-the-art projection booth. Along the way, we learned a lot of history about this Sid Grauman creation that came long before his more well known Graumans Chinese theater down the street.
In 1922 Sid Grauman tried to shift the entertainment center away from the Broadway movie palaces in downtown LA to Hollywood Boulevard when he built the Egyptian Theater. Originally, this theater was slated to follow a more Spanish architectural style, but shifted to Egyptian revival after the discovery of King Tut's tomb by Howard Carter.
 As you can see, this Egyptian influence is seen as soon as you enter the courtyard of the theater. Hieroglyphics decorate the walls and according to our docent, those hieroglyphics mean absolutely nothing. They're just there to add ambiance. To the left of the box office, you'll see massive doors in between two large pillars with a bust atop each one. If you use your imagination, perhaps you can envision a chariot bursting through carrying Cleopatra, but actually, the doors lead nowhere. They're just there for show, which is so Hollywood.
Presently, in the courtyard, you will see large palm trees, with each tree being surrounded by a cement rectangular seating area; however, when the Egyptian Theater first opened, this courtyard was pretty much bare and served as the "entrance hall" to the theater itself. The doors of the theater originally used to open directly to the auditorium. In this entrance hall, a piece of important Hollywood history occurred.
 It was on October 18, 1922 that the very first red carpet Hollywood premiere happened and it was for the movie "Robin Hood", starring Douglas Fairbanks. This entrance hall also served as an area where Sid Grauman would have large movie props displayed for whichever particular movie was being shown in the theater at the time.
The theater inside used to seat over 1700 people a time, dwarfing many modern theaters today and it was a very popular place to catch a movie. Movies like "Ben Hur" ran for 2 years straight while other movies "My Fair Lady" and "South Pacific" graced the theater for up to a year.
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