While attending CAB-sponsored events, many students file through the Egyptian Theatre, an art deco movie palace built in 1929.

It is easy to marvel at the pseudo-Egyptian motif ornamentation, including the scarab stain glass window, 10 murals of Egypt depicting pyramids, 10 huge terra cotta columns, an azure blue sky with twinkling stars and two huge golden seated statues of Ramses II.

If some students are surprised to learn major musical acts like Lawrence Welk and R.E.M. performed there, they also would be astounded to learn U.S. Sen. John Fitzgerald Kennedy spoke there while running for president in 1960.

Over the years, the theater, located at 135 N. Second St., has been used as a venue for movies, vaudeville, rock concerts, professional and amateur theatrical productions and dance recitals.

The theater was built by Dale A. Leifheit, president of the DeKalb Theatre, a space currently occupied by Otto’s.

Both Egyptian Revival architecture and movie palaces were popular at the time.

The former because King Tut’s tomb had been opened just six years earlier in 1923, and the latter because the masses were pouring into theaters to see the new “talkies.”

However, there were only six such movie palaces left in the country at the time the Egyptian was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.

If individual details are inaccurate, this is in part because the architect Elmer Berhns was trying to capture the wide sweep of Egyptian art and architecture over millennia. He wrote that the murals depict “the transition of Egyptian architecture from 3400 to 1110 B.C.”

Egyptian History

The theater was built at a cost of $300,000, but compromises had to be made toward the end of construction because of the stock market crash in October of 1929.

The plans for marble floors were scrapped and tiles were used instead. Also, instead of bringing in new seats, seats were re-used from the DeKalb Theatre.

Of the original 1,600 wooden seats, 1,478 remain – 911 seats on the main floor for the groundlings and an additional 564 available in the balcony.

Despite the bad weather, 2,000 people showed up at the theater’s opening night on Dec. 10, 1929, to see The Hottentots, a “talkie” about horse racing starring Edward Everett Horton and Ruther Miller.

General admission for adults was $.50 and $.25 for children. Matinee prices were $.35 and $.10, respectively.

By the ’70s, both the downtown DeKalb area and the theater were suffering hard times.

The Egyptian was not making enough money as a venue for B-movies for the owners to pay a $3,800 water bill to the city, much less repair the roof before it closed in November of 1977.

“A friend passed away a few weeks ago,” wrote Northern Star movie critic Douglas Van Dorn when the Egyptian closed.

On March 1, 1978, then Mayor Judy King convened a public meeting to see if there was enough community interest to save the theater.

Journalism professor Irv Kummerfeldt and his wife, Barbara, later organized a party at the Egyptian called “First Night at the Egyptian” to draw attention to the cause of restoring the theater.

The couple became leaders of a 35-person group which organized under the name Preservation of the Egyptian Theatre Inc. or PET, a not-for-profit organization with the goal of purchasing and restoring the Egyptian.

Patricia D. Cannon of the DeKalb County Historical Society was convinced to fill out the 1978 National Register of Historic Places nomination form. In it, she wrote that the Behrns design compared favorably with more modern venues.

As an example, Behrns used a “peristyle” design with engaged columns, arches and cornices that interrupt flat wall spaces creating a non-reverberating auditorium where the voices and musical instruments can be heard naturally.

The Kummerfeldts were able to raise $100,000 to buy the theater in 1979 after signing two successive six-month leases with options to buy the building. The money came from donations and a $75,000 federal grant that was allocated through the city government.

Barbara made the announcement by changing the sign on the marquee from “Save the Egyptian Theatre” to “You saved the Egyptian Theatre.”

At the Grand Re-Opening Weekend on Sept. 17 and 18, 1983, PET showed one of the original films to play at the theater, the romantic musical Rio Rita (1929).

Local historian Steve Bigolin recalled that Kummerfeldt suffered a fatal heart attack in 1988 while cleaning up the theater after a performance of “West Side Story.”

The part Irv personally played in the restoration of the theater often is overshadowed by Barbara, but they worked together on the project and they each served terms as president of PET.

By 1988 when Irv died, $2.1 million in public and private funds already had been spent on renovating the theatre, but in 1990, the City of DeKalb made a $115,000 tax increment financing grant to make additional repairs.

Roland Killian, the architect who oversaw the restoration, finally found a material that resembled the theater’s terra cotta exterior and restoration of the facade could begin.

He found the terra cotta-resembling polymer in St. Louis, but the material was discovered to be produced near DeKalb in Elburn.

Carrie Brantley succeeded Barbara as the Executive Director of the organization in 1998 when Kummerfeldt moved to New Glarus, Wis. There she opened a bed and breakfast named Hoch House, Hoch being her maiden name, Bigolin said.

Brantley had been volunteering at the theater for 15 years and also had played there with the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra in the early ’80s.

The theater group still receives a subsidy from the city government to pay for marketing, but is basically self-supporting.

PET has made it a priority to keep prices low, making just enough money to keep operating the facilities.

Nowadays, when the theater shows movies on the weekends, the cost of admission for adults is $5, and $3 for seniors and children 12 and under.

“Only showing movies on the weekends, the Egyptian is proud to bring the art, foreign and independent film titles which otherwise would never be seen in this far west area,” according to the PET Web site.

The Oscar-nominated David Lynch film, “Mulholland Drive,” will play from April 5th through the 8th

Admission fees range from $3 to $5 for tour groups, with a special rate for school groups.

The theater has varying accommodations and rates for weddings, parties, receptions and graduations.