Quote:
Originally Posted by Godzilla
I noticed the relief but was more transfixed on the fact that building was designed to appear wider at the base than its top. This was as I tried to picture the building inverted so that the white area becomes a real pediment. Is an upside down design connected with King Tut's Curse?
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LOL. I have no idea.
We've had bouts of Egypt-mania before. The Washington Monument was designed in the 1830s and cities along "America's Nile" were named Thebes, Karnak, Memphis, etc. Yanks are forever looking for an origin myth, some ancient inspiration or source of our supposed greatness: Greek, Roman, Egyptian. We'll try on anything for size. Even before the King Tut discovery America was romancing Egypt again. There were five Cleopatra movies between 1908 and 1918 and Theda Bara was a big star. Idealized Anglo "wholesomeness" and puritanism is forever warring in our tiny hearts with the exotic. Ancient Egypt, with its symbolism and emphasis on the afterlife is certainly exotic.
The Egyptian Theater opened mere weeks before the Tut discovery, making it a huge, fortuitous hit. The Egyptian Theater was supposed to be "Spanish-Oriental" (hence the incongruous red-tile roof) but developer Charles Toberman convinced Grauman to change it to Egyptian-style after construction had begun to save money. Raymond M. Kennedy of Meyer and Holler ran with it:
wiki
And speaking of ranches and sphinxes:
Here's the Andrew McNally (co-founder of Rand-McNally) Windemere Ranch out in La Mirada (Frederick Roehrig was the architect). McNally's grandson, architect Wallace Neff, was born on the property in 1895.
The gates to Windemere:
Kanner via
http://so-cal-arch-history.com/archives/1847
The ranch's citrus label based on the photo
(Now he's a she and the sphinxes have their shirts off. Sex sells):
eBay
(I dunno why sphinxes were chosen, but I'll bet
GW knows all about it.)
It looks like the above today. 76 degrees, 8% humidity, hot sun, cool breeze, snow-capped mountains in the distance and not a cloud in the sky. All doors and windows thrown open. If you're not already, wish you were here. It's gorgeous.