Features Oct 1, 2014 at 4:00 am

So let's take a moment to look back at its past, its ghosts, and its men's room. Plus, an interview with a former Egyptian popcorn seller.

The concessions stand will serve beer and wine, but, sadly, it will not open to the street and sell coffee to pedestrians like in the old days. Kelly O

Comments

1
Sorry. I tried to see that 3-D porn movie (was it Disco Dolls in Hot Skin?) and it was sold out with long lines hoping to get in. No one saw it at the Egyptian without being part of a packed house.
2
I am so happy the Egyptian is reopening!! told Jeff Bridges "I loved you in King Kong" there once and he snickered. I have so many good memories there and look forward to making more...RIP Chris Takino who used to work there with that great smile of his!
3
It's an open italics tag, Scotty! Isn't there anything you can do? Try this:

I saw movies there in the 70s and 80s, so I'm pretty sure it's been around longer than 20 years.
4
I've had so much fun at that theater! My first swoon there was Marek Kanievska's Another Country in 1984, a few rows behind Rupert Everett at his lushest. The most recent Egyptian swoon, the one I feared might be the last, was Ewan "I dare you to stop staring at my magnificent hair" McGregor chatting amiably with the queue before a Q&A screening of his Beginners.
5
Some guy named Dan (I think)opened it back in the day. Got a lease from the college. Egerdal and I used to go pick up his check there. Definitely 70's.
6
Hey James! Well, the screening I saw was some sort of 3D porn. There were roughly 10 people there, and we all watched/heard a blowjob happen in one of the back rows. It wasn't a packed house, sorry. It should have been, because it was like the entire Lord of the Rings Trilogy packed into one not-so-well-hidden blowjob.
7
Pretty sure the 3d porn was called Hard Candy, because my guy & I were there. Lot of people there at the beginning. Most of them left well before it ended.
8
@5, looks like Dan Ireland and Darryl MacDonald started SIFF at the Moore in 1976, then in 1980 went uphill, leased the Masonic Lodge, turned it into a theater and renamed it The Egyptian: http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?Dis…
9
@8 beat me to correcting the people who remember the '70s. Yes, it was sometime in Oct or Nov 1980 that it opened as a movie theater. The opening movie was a sweet French film called Charles et Lucie, which they just showed one night--I think a Thursday--with celebratory wine for all, including underaged me. They then opened Kagemusha for their first regular run the next day, hence its presence in the lineup of free films this weekend.
10
Hung around The Egyptian a lot when I was a kid. My friend's dad was Craig Cappuccino, the long-time barista there. We'd help bag trash after showings and he'd give us a big wad of quarters to go play video games at Arnold's. We'd watch the movies for free, and sometimes get free posters too. We saw The Dark Crystal three nights in a row when it came out. Lots of good memories through the years from midnight shows, SIFF, etc.
11
@8&9 Yes. It was Dan and Darryl. The years have taken a toll on the memory but I do remember it took a great deal of time and sweat to get that place renovated and running. So I'll blame the lapse in the exact year on that. We were so excited to see it finally happen. 'Cinema' was so very important to us then....
12
The first 3D porn that showed there was called Disco Dolls in 3D. Landmark showed it on a whim not expecting it to sell out but it sold out both Friday and Saturday the first time it was booked. We ran out of 3D glasses to give out because people were taking handfuls and the movie started 45 minutes late. People were chanting "Porno! Porno!" while waiting for it to start. The 3D was not that great, and the movie was not much better but it was 3D porn, right! Landmark booked another 3D porn which did abysmally, and then tried to rebook Disco Dolls which also did poorly and never booked another 3D porn film again. This is the true story of the 3D porn at the Egyptian.
13
Before they added air conditioning, the balcony would get crazy hot during SIFF. I remember seeing a Secret Festival movie there from England and between the thick accents and all the fans they had running, I could not understand any of the dialogue.

Then there were those couple rows of seats just above the middle crossing aisle that sat in some kind of dip and you couldn't ever read subtitles from those rows. Maddening! But of course, once you knew then you just avoided those rows for foreign films.

The Egyptian is also where I saw Baraka in 70mm at a special screening. I've never seen a movie look as beautiful as that, even at the Cinerama.

I'm so very glad it's coming back.
14
HAUNTED. I like to see the popcorn person keeps saying it's haunted because I now more than ever before believe that my wallet was stolen by a ghost at the Egyptian one night. I forget the movie but I do remember my wallet vanishing into thin air.
15
Why did SIFF have to pay for renovations? It's not like the building can be used for much else. If it could, it would already have that use.



I read that Seattle Central demanded the Upgrades as part of the Lease Agreement. They,SC, definitely Wanted/Needed to rent the building out. As it's making NO MONEY just sitting there.



Now, If I were SIFF, I would've said. If YOU(SC))want us to sign a Long Term Lease. Then YOU need to do certain Upgrades for US.



I mean, what option did/does SC have? Who else was gonna rent it?



To me, SIFF caved BIG TIME.



PS: I'm a SIFF Member,Benefactor Level. And I love SIFF.


16
I had my first trashy-movie-theater-makeout-session at a midnight showing of Alien.
17
Another favorite moment: At a midnight movie (Purple Rain maybe?), someone in the back row dropped a bottle. The whole audience heard it slowly roll under every row to the front, where it shattered. The entire audience sighed in sympathy.

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