6712 Hollywood Blvd. 

Los Angeles, CA  90028   | map |

(323) 466-3456  

Website: www.american cinematheque.com

|  film schedule  | film & tour calendar  | the Egyptian on Facebook  |

Opened: October 18, 1922 by Sid Grauman with Douglas Fairbanks as "Robin Hood" on the screen. This was Grauman's first venture outside downtown Los Angeles and was made possible by developer C.E. Toberman. The structure reportedly cost $800,000.

The opening night was the first real Hollywood premiere. Prices after the opening night were 50 cents to $1.00 for the matinees and 75 cents to $1.50 in the evenings. All seats were reserved for every performance.

Architects: Meyer & Holler.  The original plan was for a Spanish style theatre.  That was quickly changed to an Egyptian motif  before construction to exploit the public's fascination with the Egyptian archeological discoveries being made at the time. A USC photo lists some of the subcontractors for the project.  Raymond Kennedy, who would later work on the Chinese, was responsible for the decorative aspects of the building.

Hodgetts & Fung (Craig Hodgetts, Ming Fung) were the architects for the American Cinematheque renovation.

Seating: Originally 1,771 on one level, reseated in late 40's for a capacity of 1,538.

The recent renovation by American Cinematheque resulted in a substantial downsizing to 616 seats plus the addition of a second 78 seat screening room in space excavated at the rear of the main floor. The building is now fully handicap accessible according to Margot Gerber, the theatre's director of marketing and promotion.

Stage specs: Originally 30' deep and 75' wall to wall. The proscenium was approximately 40' wide.

Status:  American Cinematheque acquired the building in 1996 and opened the renovated theatre in 1998. The auditorium now is a smaller box enclosed by the shell of the original theatre. The programming is a mix of revivals, foreign films, indies and various festivals in all formats including 70mm. The current screen size is 27' x 53'.

Grauman's Egyptian was the first real movie palace in Hollywood. His close connections with studio heads allowed him to succeed as an independent exhibitor. It also didn't hurt that he did a great job of creating a romantic atmosphere with decor, costumed staff and elaborate prologues along with the feature picture.  Among the dancers in the prologues who went on to bigger things was Myrna Loy.

The films were accompanied by Jan Sofer conducting the "Hollywood Symphony Orchestra" with, in addition, numbers performed on the Mighty Wurlitzer.

A nursery was provided for parents to leave their children. The opening program noted that "kiddies may be parked there with safety and convenience."  On the staff, in addition to a nurse and storyteller in the nursery, were "Twenty-eight Egyptian Ladies in Waiting, Four Lobbymen, Three Porters, Footmen, etc." -- all costumed by Western Costume Co.

The opening program noted that "nothing but masterpieces of the cinema art" would be shown at the Egyptian where each "would have its world premiere months before being shown at any of the downtown theatres."

At the beginning, the Egyptian was running only 2 shows a day at legit prices and getting long profitable runs from its pictures. In the first 3 years of operation, the Egyptian Theatre ran only 4 movies. "Robin Hood" ran until April 1923. It was followed by "The Covered Wagon,"  "Ten Commandments" and "Thief of Bagdad."

The program for "The Big Parade" (1925) from the Silent Film Still Archive: 

[ click on either of these for larger views ]

A 1925 ad, courtesy of Ken McIntyre.
larger view

Vitaphone at the Egyptian: The Egyptian was one of the first Los Angeles theatres to be wired for sound and hosted the west coast premiere of Warner's "Don Juan" in 1926.

A great 1926 view of the dignitaries in front of the railroad
car carrying the Vitaphone equipment west for
"Don Juan" at Grauman's Egyptian.
full size view

The photo is from the site George Groves -- the story
of Oscar winning sound pioneer George R. Groves (1901-1976).
The photo above was once on the site's "Don Juan" page. 

The Warner studios on Sunset advertising "Don Juan"
at the Egyptian. It's a photo from the Cezar Del Valle
 Theatre Talks collection on Flickr.
full size view

The program for "Don Juan."
It's one of many interesting items on the
Cinema Treasures page on the Egyptian. 
full size view  |  program inside

Also on the site:
| "Robin Hood" - final week ad  |
 |  "Covered Wagon" -- premiere ad  |

The inside of the Egyptian's "Don Juan" program
from the University of Exeter's Douglas collection.
full size view  | more data

For a period after the "Don Juan" engagement, Grauman dropped his famous prologues in favor of recorded Vitaphone short subjects. These were cranked out by the Warner Bros Vitaphone division in large numbers in the mid and late 20's and largely consisted of musical performances and recorded vaudeville routines. Eventually the prologues were reinstated. 

For more about Vitaphone, see the page on the Warner Hollywood.  Wikipedia has a nice article covering early sound film technology.

Opening of the Chinese:  When Sid moved up the street to the Chinese in 1927, the Egyptian became a move-over house operated by Fox West Coast.  His name stayed with the building for a number of years although he was no longer involved in the operation.

The Egyptian in the '40's:

  "The EGYPTIAN was in excellent condition then.
They had just taken the monkeys out when I got there."    

The forecourt used to have cages with various animals and men in exotic garb walking the parapets. See the forecourt page for many vintage photos.

In 1944 the Egyptian again became a first run venue as a showcase for MGM product. Long a favorite house for Hollywood premieres, the Egyptian has had an amazing number of great runs of important pictures.

The Consent Decree:  In 1949 management of the Egyptian was taken over by United Artists Theatre Circuit as a result of consent decree rulings forcing Fox West Coast to cede control of a number of prime Los Angeles venues. The Egyptian was one of them. Loew's State downtown (which Fox had been managing for Loew's) also ended up under United Artists management.

Until this time United Artists had not actually been operating theatres themselves. The corporation had existed (separate from the UA distribution company, but with some overlap in management and shareholders0 since the 20s.

Any theatres in which United Artists had had an interest were being managed for them by Fox West Coast.  Included in this group were the Four Star and the United Artists theatres in Inglewood, in Pasadena, in East Los Angeles and downtown. These and others now became managed directly by the newly active United Artists Theatre Circuit.  What's left of this company is now a part of Regal Entertainment Group.

TODD-AO at the Egyptian:  The Egyptian was equipped for the 70mm TODD-AO process for a long roadshow run of "Oklahoma" (on a 75 foot screen). It was the second TODD-AO installation in the country (the Rivoli in New York was house #1).  The premiere of "Oklahoma" was November 17, 1955 with public performances starting November 18.

Tickets for the show at the Egyptian. The illustration
is from page 7 of the TODD-AO section on
American Widescreen Museum.

The first print of "Oklahoma" at the Egyptian was without sound. It was synced to separate 35mm mag reproducers for the 6 channel stereo. Later "Oklahoma" opened at the United Artists downtown while continuing at the Egyptian. It got a 51 week run at the Egyptian.

Full size frames from a 65mm print of "Oklahoma" on
page 4 of the TODD-AO section on the American Widescreen
Museum website.  Also see the "Oklahoma" page.  Later prints
were on 70mm stock with 6 channel sound on magnetic stripes.

During the 1955 work for TODD-AO the theatre suffered a substantial loss of decoration at the proscenium. Much of the rest of the auditorium was covered in yellow draperies from the 50's onward.  The 3 manual 15 rank Wurlitzer organ was removed from the theatre.

Here's a Los Angeles Public Library photo of ladies up
admiring the neon on the Egyptian marquee for the 1955
 roadshow presentation of "Oklahoma" in TODD-AO.
full size view

"South Pacific," the third TODD-AO film, opened at the Egyptian May 22, 1958 for a 44 week run. (The Carthay Circle Theatre got the second film, "Around The World in 80 days.")

The TODD-AO process was born out of Mike Todd's frustrations with the expense and inherent problems with Cinerama. Wide film was nothing new. There was a flurry of activity in the late 20s and early 30s and it might have become the new standard except the depression doomed further experiments. The Warner Hollywood ran several films in the 65mm Vitascope process and both the Chinese and the Carthay Circle had projectors to run the 70mm Fox Grandeur process.  

TODD-AO was noteworthy because its film format became the 7omm industry standard and the projector designed for it won an Academy Award. The aspect ratio is 2.21 to 1.  Some later processes used anamorphic lenses to get a wider aspect ratio.

TODD-AO was similar to previous wide film efforts only in that it was shot on 65mm film stock like Vitascope and other efforts. Release prints were 70mm to allow soundtrack room outside the sprocket holes.  TODD-AO used a wide aspect ratio like several of the late 20s processes.

It used 5 perforations per frame and was originally envisioned to run at 30 fps for improved picture quality.  Only the first two features were shot at 30 fps -- for "South Pacific" and later it was 24 fps.  The screen was deeply curved, similar in size and curvature to a Cinerama installation. TODD-AO, however, used a single sheet rather than the narrow vertical strips favored by Cinerama.

The process borrowed the technique of mag striping on the film for stereo sound that was pioneered by Fox's Cinemascope. Where the 35mm Cinemascope had 4 tracks, TODD-AO had 6. There were two tracks outside and one inside the sprocket holes on each side. 5 channels were for behind the screen and one for surround speakers.

See the right column for more on TODD-AO

TODD-AO, continued: 

Phillips of Holland was commissioned to design a new projector for the process that would also run 35mm with either optical sound tracks or 4 channel magnetic.   Originally the projector heads were made in Holland with the bases and magazines manufactured by American Optical in the United States.

The projectors currently in the Egyptian booth (from a theatre in New Orleans)  are a later version of the original TODD-AO machines.

A look at one of the early TODD-AO projectors from
 "The Story of the DP70 projector" on the wonderful
website In70mm.com.  Note the two motors --- one
for 24 fps, one for 30 fps. Later models just had one
 motor and a clutch.  full size view

Large screens, big arc lamps and short projection throws resulted in lots of focus drift from the beginning of a reel to its end. Some of the projectors were equipped were equipped with motor driven "focus drift compensators" that reset at the end of each reel. Note also that the top motor in the photo above has a pulley so it could be synched via Selsyn motors to a separate sound reproducer.

See the American Widescreen Museum's TODD-AO section for a great history of the process. The other wonderful reference on 70mm is the site In70mm.com which is all about the TODD-AO projector and later 70mm processes.  See the DP70 Projector section for as much detail as you can absorb.  And check out the separate TODD-AO section.

For information on 70mm runs and theatres equipped for the processs in the Los Angeles area, see the From Script To DVD section "70mm in Los Angeles."  See our Movie Links page for information on other projection technology.

More 70mm at the Egyptian: Other 70mm reserved seat runs included:

"Ben Hur" - MGM, MGM Camera 65

"Funny Girl" - Columbia, blow up from 35mm scope - opened October 9, 1968 

-- after the D-150 remodel - a 61 week run

Dimension 150 at the Egyptian: A 1968 remodeling increased the screen size to 90 feet for a D-150 system installation.  The 1955 TODD-AO installation had left much (but not all) of the sides of the proscenium and the stage in place. 

In the new round of renovations the remains of the proscenium as well as the stage were removed and the orchestra pit was covered. The new screen went almost to the theatre's back wall.  A new projection booth was installed on the main floor. The remodel was accomplished in six weeks.

The D-150 screen being installed. It's one of many
interesting photos on the website From Script To DVD.
Visit their Egyptian Theatre page.
 slightly larger view

Dimension 150 was a process developed by Dr. Richard Vetter and United Artists Theatre Circuit. It involved extreme wide angle camera lenses, a screen and masking system and projection lenses designed to give a sharp image on a deeply curved screen.

It was installed in many UA roadshow houses (such as Cinema 150 in Seattle) as well as venues operated by other circuits.  The Rosemary Theatre in Ocean Park was used as a test house for the process.

"The Bible" (1966) and "Patton" (1970) were the only features actually filmed in the Dimension 150 process. See the American Widescreen Museum's extensive coverage of the process and a few more resources on our Movie Links page. Also see the Egyptian page on Roland Lataille's comprehensive Cinerama website.

Adding Egyptian 2 and 3:  In 1972 United Artists Theatre Circuit added 2 smaller theatres, the Egyptian 2 & 3, in a store building to the east of the theatre. The original theatre remained a single auditorium.  That building is now a little black box theatre and is not part of the American Cinematheque campus.

Later Years at the Egyptian: The Egyptian enjoyed long runs of major films such as "Marooned" (Columbia, world premiere December 13, 1969 - a 23 week 70mm reserved seat run), "Alien" (Fox, 1979), "The Empire Strikes Back" (Fox, 1980) and "Return of the Jedi" (Fox, 1983).

Until the theatre's closure, the Egyptian was operated by United Artists Theatre Circuit playing lots of Fox product -- especially after the 1977 "Star Wars" snafu at the Chinese. Frequently the Egyptian played day-and-date with the United Artists downtown.

In its last days prior to closure in 1992 United Artists was running the Egyptian as a $1.50 admission grind house.  Through the efforts of the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation and other organizations, the Egyptian was designated a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument on September 23, 1993.

The Egyptian in the Movies:

We get a brief look at the Egyptian's boxoffice as
Richard Gere cruises down Hollywood Blvd.
in "American Gigolo" (Paramount, 1980).

In Barry Levinson's "Jimmy Hollywood"
(Paramount, 1994) with Joe Pesci and Christian
Slater we end up at the abandoned Egyptian Theatre.  
larger view

More Egyptian Theatre information:  Parts of the opening night program are on a Cinelog post by Christopher Crouch: "Hollywood's Egyptian Theatre." There's also a link to the full 52 page brochure in PDF format via the OC Cinema website.

See the page on Cinema Treasures for a nice history of the Egyptian by Howard B. Haas and Ken Roe plus miles and miles of  additional comments.  And now lots of photos as well.

Information on 70mm roadshow runs at the Egyptian is on Michael Coate's terrific site fromscripttodvd.com.

Go to the Cinema Tour page for more photos of the Egyptian Theatre. Seeing Stars has a page on the Egyptian as does Wikipedia.

See Vanity Fair's 2008 article by Bruce Handy on Egyptomania as decor in movie theatres: "Watch Like an Egyptian." Also view the 2008 photographs of various Egyptian Theatres by Tim Street-Porter.  There are oodles of Egyptian photos on Flickr.

The Egyptian Theatre section of the Historic Resources Group website has some interesting views of the theatre and a detailed history. Also see their Hollywood Blvd. tour.   

The Volume 5 site has a nicely detailed History of the Egyptian with great research and stunning pictures.  Jennifer Minasian did the survey work for the American Cinematheque.

EC & M has a 1998 article about the electrical portion of the Egyptian renovation.  CNN.com has a 1998 article about the reopening.