During the 100-year tenure of performance arts in Park City, Utah, no venue has a longer history than the Egyptian Theatre on Old Main Street in the Historic District of downtown. Today, traveling bands, comedians, skit comedy acts, movies, local performances, and films during the Sundance Film Festival are all featured at the Egyptian Theatre. But for the venue to claim its right as a staple of historic Park City, the structure has undergone fire, collapse under heavy snow, and the transition of a mining town turned ski haven. Behind the brilliant red doors and classic box office is over 100 years of rich history and local heritage.
In the second half of the 19th century, silver was discovered in Park City. Soon after George Hearst’s investment in purchasing the Ontario mine in the valley, the region quickly became one of the wealthiest silver deposits in the world. Mining houses sprang up all over the valley and Main Street emerged as a tightly-knit series of row house architecture. One of those plots was the location of the Park City Opera House—prime entertainment for miners and visitors alike. But one night in June, 1898, a fire roared down the snug structures and burnt the Opera House to the ground. Desperate to keep theater and entertainment alive in the community, the very next year, the Dewey Theatre was erected, and here is where, some years later, the Egyptian Theatre would emerge.
The Dewey Theatre was open for only a short time, seventeen years, before it succumbed to heavy snows in the winter of 1916. The year held a record-breaking fall that proved to be too much for the Theatre’s center roof. Although it would be another ten years until the doors opened again, it would be with a renewed enthusiasm for community and art. Thus, the Egyptian was born.
The Egyptian Theatre opened its doors on Christmas Day, 1926. Influenced by the recent discovery of King Tut’s tomb, and with an Egyptologist on site, the Theatre was adorned with lotus leaf motifs, Tut’s head crown, scarabs, and hieroglyphics translating into life and happiness. The floor seats over 300 with a center aisle leading to the main stage adorned in flowing silk and satin, a square arch and crown molding of stone. It’s clear from the architecture and design that the history of the Egyptian Theatre is one dedicated to style, art, and theatrics. Although the initial design of the theater was impressive, and local miners and tourists loved the shows, the theater underwent a rough patch when the silver mines dried up and Park City began to look ghostly.
For a time, during the 1950s, after the venue was used for both live performances and cinema, the space was also used as a saloon to aid in keeping the doors open. While Park City underwent an identity crisis, the Egyptian Theatre closed for a time and eventually reopened as the Silver Wheel Theatre in 1963. This was a new time for Park City, an emerging ski and tourist town, a destination location. Live performances continued in the Silver Wheel as “meller dramas” were the most consistent fare of the time. Eventually, and once again, the structural integrity of the Theatre came into question and it was unclear as to whether the building could survive.
Through much local effort, fundraising, and petitioning over the next 30 years, the Theatre was able to remain open and undergo a complete renovation. The Save our Stage community group was able to raise enough funds to preserve the original Egyptian and on February 14, 1998 the theatre re-opened as the Mary G. Steiner Egyptian Theatre where multiple live performances, comedy shows, and community functions and fundraisers are still held year round—not to mention this is the original theater where the first Sundance Film Festival was held.
Come to Park City. Get tickets. See a show. Sit in an homage to the discovery King Tut’s tomb, some 2,700 years ago. But know that the history of the miners who worked there and the actors who performed there runs even deeper than the pharaohs of old.
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