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Page 2
Later on, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. told a Hollywood magazine, "(The prologues) were essentially half the evening's entertainment - the film the second half. The prologue took almost as much time as the film! He used them to set the atmosphere for the feature, and they were too lavish to be believed."
Sid Grauman reacted to this mania by building another lavish theatre. In collaboration with Charles E. Toberman, he developed the 1,800 seat Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The theatre featured an open forecourt that boasted both an elephant statue, - dressed in enough finery to transport pharoahs - and a massive statue of a man with a dog's head that guarded the theatre. Against one wall of the court rested two giant heads atop tall pillars that sat on either side of a large door. The door lead nowhere, but was impressive and mysterious all the same. Exotic plants placed in large planters surrounded a large, tiled fountain on another wall. Egyptian style columns held up the roof of a portico where the ticket windows resided. Furnishings in the theme of the feature movie that was showing were usually set out on the portico to entice pedestrians. On the ceiling of the theatre's auditorium was a beautiful sunburst design. This hid the organ loft - parts of the sunburst were pierced so that the feature film's accompanying music would float to the patrons' ears below. On either side of the movie screen rose two faux Egyptian columns decorated in hieroglyphics. Sadly, these were torn down as technology progressed to make way for a larger, curved screen. The Egyptian Theatre was the first major premiere theatre in Hollywood - its first big premiere was for the adventurous Douglas Fairbanks film Robin Hood in October, 1922. The last theatre that Sid Grauman operated was the Chinese Theatre, the most famous of all his theatres. Legend has it that construction was being finished the day of its opening - May 18,1927 - and that evening, actress Norma Talmadge accidentally stepped into wet cement. Sid Grauman then immortalized his footprints, inviting Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks to do the same. Thus a Hollywood tradition was born. Grauman is also credited with the idea of rolling out a red carpet and using spotlights at premieres. He is known as "Hollywood's Master Showman" to this day.
The copyright of the article Grauman's Movie Palaces - Page 2 in Historical Hollywood is owned by . Permission to republish Grauman's Movie Palaces - Page 2 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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