Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Discover LA: Egyptian Theater Tour

Other than being a great foodie town, LA has much to offer and while this blog will still be primarily about my culinary experiences, I also wanted to share with you other things about LA that have definitely made me smile, think, chuckle, appreciate and so much more and hopefully, they'll also help you discover an LA you've never known before and may want to know better.

If you'd like to learn more about old Hollywood, than take a drive to the Egyptian Theater and take one of their monthly tours. Per the website, you will see the old dressing rooms, the singer's boxes and the projection booth, which are all areas normally closed to the general public.

Also, on this tour, you'll really learn more about old Hollywood history. For example, before the Grauman's Chinese theater, came the Egyptian Theater. Yes, Sid Grauman, actually built the Egyptian Theater even before the landmark Grauman's Chinese Theater and even before the Egyptian Theater, he's also responsible for the existence of the Million Dollar Theater, a Spanish-baroque movie palace that's part of the Broadway Historical Theater district, but that's another story.

The significance of the Egyptian Theater is that this is where Sid Grauman fist staged what we refer to now as a red carpet movie premiere. That 1922 movie was Robin Hood starring Douglas Fairbanks and many other red carpet premieres soon followed.

Other than history, you'll also learn more about the architecture and about the detailed renovation that took place to bring the Egyptian Theater back to life. For example, did you know that the courtyard in front of the theater entrance used to be empty to accommodate the temporary installation of the movie props of the movie playing in the theater at the time.

What about the fact that the enormous sunburst of the theater ceiling shielded the location of the organ loft, and that the ceiling was pierced within the sunburst to allow the organ's sound to flow into the auditorium.

As you can see, there's quite a lot of tidbits you can learn while on the tour, so be sure to check it out when you get a chance.

To see photos, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157594167087002/

Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd
Hollywood, CA 90028
(323) 461-2020
Tour Info


1 comment:

pleasurepalate said...

Hi Kaylee. Thanks so much for stopping by! I'm so glad that you enjoy reading my blog. Your kind words are much appreciated. :)