Something relatively interesting that I found out doing my research on the Egyptian Theatre in Coos Bay is the fact that even in the 1950s and the 1930s, the theater was used for events that were not centered around films. Two of the events that I was able to find within the newspaper articles while doing my research were actually those consisting of a blood drive going out to the soldiers that were serving in the Korean War from 1950 to 1953 and a home fashion show that was being modeled by the Girl Scouts in the area. Now I already knew from being raised in the Coos Bay area that the Egyptian Theatre was often used as a concert venue, but I was not actively aware of the amount of public events that were occurring even as far back as the 1950s. I also found out that it was often used for a concert venue back in those days for artists such as the Jones and his band players.
However, I think that’s some of the most fascinating information that I have received during my research as the fact that it’s still retained its original Wurlitzer Theatre organ, making it one of the few theaters that still retains one to this day and also likely making it the last of its kind that are to be found within movie theaters.
Another piece of information that I was able to find was about how one of the former owners of the Egyptian Theatre had converted part of the original theater to become a second screen during the 1970s as a point to try to profit margins during point in which movie theater sales were dropping. The idea behind this idea was to market multiple movies at once for maximum profit.
