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The Egyptian Theatre is
surrounded by urban legends and history that makes this
building a tour of Boise history and a cornerstone of the
society scene.
In the early 1920's Leo Falk
was worried about getting customers downtown to his upscale
department store, Falk's ID. The neighborhood was surrounded
by rowdy bars and brothels and the upscale customers he
wanted were afraid or ashamed to come downtown to shop at
his store. Mr. Falk decided to build a theatre near his
store to try to "upscale" the neighborhood and thus allowing
(hopefully) the customers he wanted to come downtown to
shop.
Frederick "Fritz" Hummel,
prominent architect in Boise, was hired to design a "Movie Palace" in
downtown Boise. Luck had it that in the 1920's the tomb of "King Tut"
was discovered and the Egypt craze spread to the elite as a
form of architecture. This was the start of what became the
Egyptian Theatre. Mr. Hummel was not impressed with the
Egyptian style and wanted a formal Spanish style for his
building, but Mr. Falk demanded that the "new" Egyptian
style be realized. Mr. Falk won out (but Fritz put Spanish
design in various places) and the Egyptian Theatre was born.
Mr. Hummel traveled and studied the Egyptian Theatre in
Hollywood and other large movie palaces to develop his
style. With construction starting in 1926, the building was
ready for opening in April 1927, one year of hard labor
ensued. On April 19, 1927 the fantastic Egyptian Theatre
opened to the public with pomp and ceremony. With over 1600
seats the crowd was huge and the theatre not quite ready
yet. After a long wait, the Egyptian was open to the public
and instantly became a favorite in the minds of her guests!
The Fox Theatre Chain took
over operation of the Egyptian a couple of years after
the Theatre opened until the early 1940's. At this
time the Egyptian was renamed the FOX. The grand theatre
continued to fill with eager guests, ready to be transferred
into the world of their imagination. In the early 1940's the
Paramount Theatre chain purchased most of the Fox chain in
the NW area. This accounted for the second name change.
Since a rival theatre chain did not want their competition
on the marquee, a contest was held for a new three letter
name for the theatre. The winner was ADA (which happened to
be the name of the governors wife) and the theatre continued
as a showplace in downtown Boise.
A trivia note: During the
1940's Jimmy Stewart was stationed at the air force base
here and regularly played the organ at the Egyptian while he
was in town. In the 1950's the theatre went through it's
first renovation with the ladies restroom being moved to the
main level and new seats in the auditorium, a concession
stand added and the lobby paint and lighting changed. The
seating at this point went down to a little over 1400. In
the 50's ABC Inc. bought the Paramount chain in this area
and took over operation. In the 60's, a delirious interior
decorator wanted to "white wash" all the paintings and clean
up and modernize the look of the theatre. Luckily, the
theatre manager threatened her with touching the proscenium
arch (he said he actually used a shot gun to protect the
arch). Everything in the theatre was painted white except
for the proscenium arch and columns with the beautiful
paintings.
Approaching the 1970's brought
what most thought was the end of the Egyptian, URBAN
RENEWAL. The mentality of the late 60's was to tear-down old
buildings and replace with new upscale ones. The Egyptian
fell into the redevelopment zone and was scheduled for closure.
Again luck was on her side when a young organist came in and
played some noon time concerts for the Junior League. The
fine ladies then talked strongly to their husbands and the
Egyptian was spared by brute force of these wives!
A very prominate business man came into
the Egyptian history at this time. His name was Earl Hardy.
The preservation committee convinced him that he needed a
theatre and talked him into buying the Egyptian from the
Urban Renewal Committee. Since Earl fell in love with the
theatre, after the buy and being a preservationist himself,
the future of the Egyptian was finally solid and fear of
destruction gone. In cooperation with the new operators, Plitt theatre chain bought ABC, Earl did the first major
restoration in 1979. New luxury seats and more leg room was
installed (bringing the seating down to 850), the proscenium
arch was cleaned of most coal dirt that accumulated over the
years bringing out the bright colors and patterns, a new
concession area and women's restroom in the south store
fronts, a new men's restroom where the ladies used to be and
major clean-up. The Egyptian had been transformed back into
it's glory. On the grand reopening, "Fritz" Hummel and his
son Charles (original architect and son), Earl Hardy and
about 30 guest that were at the original opening in 1927
were trilled by the original movie "Don Juan" with Gaylord
Carter at the mighty Robert Morton Theatre Organ. The
Egyptian continued to be the showplace in downtown Boise
with all the "new" devices to make movies fun and
entertaining (sound, projection & screen). The Egyptian
continued to do quite good business even with the opening of
Towne Square Mall and other theatre expansions. The early
80's brought Cineplex Odeon as new operators and the "high"
standards the Egyptian demanded continued but the building
was starting to show wear and Earl and Cineplex did not get
along with each other, so repairs were few and far between.
In the mid 90's Loew's Theatres took over operation from
Plitt. With Loew's going only for the bottom line, the
decision to drop the lease of the Egyptian in the late 90's
brought the future of the Egyptian again in the air.
A very sad and monumental
event occurred. The Egyptian's patron saint, Earl Hardy,
became ill. Because of his commitment to the Egyptian and
for his preservation efforts, he set up the Hardy Foundation
to carry on when he couldn't. At the head of the foundation
was his fiery daughter, Anita Kay and her equally fighting
husband, Gregory Kaslo. With the foundation in place,
Cineplex dropping lease and these two in charge of the
foundation, the true work and mission of the Egyptian could
be achieved. Gregory, having a historic building
architecture license, the total Egyptian restoration became
a reality. The theatre stayed open for all but 3 months of
the restoration and all the guests could see the progress
from start to finish. The entire theatre was brought up to
code with the following as just an example:
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160,000 foot of wire to
rewire building
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Complete rebuild of
heating & air conditioning system bringing it back to
the best it could be
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Completely cleaned,
touched up and restored proscenium arch to it's original
glory including re-gilding all gold leaf
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Restore lobby to original
colors and patterns (17 coats of paint stripped to
reveal original)
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Outside was completely
repaired and repainted to the original color
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A new "inner tube" roof
was installed eliminating all leaks
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Auditorium ceiling
repaired and painted
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New luxury seats and
painted auditorium floor
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The best and latest
projection and sound system available
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All new state-of-the-art
lighting and dimming system
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A new security system and
box office system and much, much, more.
The Egyptian now runs 1st run
movies, only the finest concerts, fine opera performances,
speakers, plays and many other activities to make this one
of the best places to go in Boise. The foundation runs the
theatre with no help from the corporations so the theatre
can go places corporations cannot.
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Additional Information:
Theatre Event Calendar and Showtimes
Event Picture and Video Gallery
Movie Trailers and Previews
The Robert
Morton Theatre Pipe Organ
Driving Directions
/ Map
Admission Prices
Seating Chart
Contact Us
Links
Related:
Conservation of Historic Towns and Urban Areas
Historic Building Survey of 1974
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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