"Urban Explorers" Egyptian Theater Tour May 28, 2006

COST:

$7 needs to be Pre-Paid by May 24th to reserve your spot. The $7 will cover the whole tour. Once you RSVP, you can either send $8 ($7 + $1 Pay Pal Fee) to my Pay Pal account at [email protected] or you can send me a check for $7. Just email me for an address to send the check to. IMPORTANT: You can not just show up for this tour. To guarantee your spot for this Private Tour, I need to collect all the money and send it to the Egyptian Theater in one lump sum by May 25.

EVENT DETAILS:
Join the "Urban Explorers" as we embark on an exploration of our city and of city life. We'll focus on various aspects ranging from architectural to cultural, historical to quirky and/or a combination of any of the above and by doing that, you will certainly see the many wonderful facets of our urban jungle and hopefully gain a better appreciation of the city you live in. So put on that explorer's hat and let's go! Today, we will be exploring the beautifully restored and historic Egyptian Theater



The Egyptian Theatre is one of the most historic buildings in Hollywood. And perhaps more than any other structure on Hollywood Boulevard, its history can be seen as a symbol for the rise & fall - and resurrection - of Tinseltown's 'Main Street'.



In 1922, showman Sid Grauman helped shift the entertainment center from downtown to Hollywood Blvd. when he built the Egyptian Theatre - five years before Grauman built his famous Chinese Theatre down the street. The Egyptian theme was inspired by the discovery of King Tut's tomb in that very same year and was quite ornate in the beginning.



Inside, the auditorium seated 1,760 people, dwarfing most modern theatres. And it was a popular place to catch a movie. "Ben-Hur" ran at the Egyptian for a record two years straight, while "My Fair Lady" and "South Pacific" both ran for an entire year.



Alas, with the decline of Hollywood, the Egyptian also began a slow fall from grace. The theatre's stage and the dramatic columns that framed its screen were torn down in 1970 to permit showing of wide-screen epics. Finally, in 1992, after suffering extensive earthquake damage, the Egyptian closed its doors - seemingly forever.



Despite the fact that it had been declared Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument No. 584, the theatre sat empty and neglected for the last six years on Hollywood Blvd., an apt symbol of the decay of the surrounding neighborhood. But if the empty Egyptian represented the rundown state of Hollywood Boulevard just a few years ago, then the theatre's preservation and present rebirth must be seen as one unmistakable sign of Hollywood's current renaissance-in-progress.



The landmark building has now been fully restored, right down to the Sphinx heads and hieroglyphics in the forecourt, and the decorative starburst which hid the organ loft inside the theatre's bright blue ceiling. More than $14 million was poured into the restoration effort, as workers stripped away the gaudy additions of recent years and returned the Egyptian to the way it looked back when it first opened in 1922.



For our private tour, we will get to see what it would have been like to be in a Grauman stage show with a visit to the dressing rooms and singers' boxes. We'll be checking out their state-of-the-art projection booth as well as discovering the painstaking restoration work and the marriage of modern technology with this landmark of Hollywood history.



An afternoon exploring a historic theater and spending time with other hollywood history lovers is a great way to spend a Saturday, so please come and join us!



If you'd like to join us for dinner at Miceli's after the tour, RSVP here!



For more info and to RSVP, please join MEETinLA!

Official Website: http://www.meetin.org/city/MEETinLA/EventsDetails.cfm?EventsID=30547