The Egyptian, the first of the grand movie palaces on Hollywood Blvd, premiered Robin Hood in 1922. The theater’s lavish getup – complete with hieroglyphs and sphinx heads – dovetailed nicely with the craze for all things Egyptian sparked by the discoveries of archaeologist Howard Carter. These days it's a shrine to serious cinema thanks to the nonprofit American Cinematheque.
Curiously, the venue claimed live caged monkeys and usherettes dressed like Cleopatra in its heyday.
