Until I started diving into the history of Hollywood for this blog, I didn't realize that Hollywood Boulevard was originally set up as a theater district. Originally the dream of 1920's era developer Charles E. Toberman, he wanted to build a theater district in Hollywood that would rival those in Europe. Toberman pushed Sid Grauman to build and Egyptian-styled theater, at a time when Egypt was big news around the world, as archeologists dug into the thousands of years of ruins.
The Grauman's Egyptian Theater with its long courtyard, opened in October of 1922, ushering in the era of elaborate theaters in Hollywood. It held 1770 people, and was designed and built with a grandeur that spawned other Egyptian-styled theaters across the United States.
In an odd quirk of fate, King Tut's tomb, (PharohTutankhamun) still the most famous Egyptian tomb in the modern era, because it was found undisturbed, with all the treasures, was opened a few weeks after this theater opened. That sent the interest in all things Egyptian through the roof in the United States. The Egpytian started the Hollywood Theater district, and opened 4 1/2 years before the much more famous (because of the hand and foot prints) Grauman's Chinese Theater.
The courtyard style entrance to Grauman's Egyptian Theater, 2021.
Though closed due to the Covid pandemic at the time I took this photo, the Egyptian is back to its former glory, after years of abandonment in the 1990's, and will open again soon in 2021. #steveemigphotos
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