Egypt
Inside Bay Area (Pat Craig)
- Exhibition: Tutankhamun In San Francisco
Santa Cruz Sentinel (Tina Baine) In 1978, at age 23, I stood anxiously waiting in a long line outside the Los Angeles County Museum for my chance to see relics from King Tut's tomb. It certainly wasn't common in the 1970s for artifacts to generate...
- Exhibition: More Re Tutankhamun In San Francisco
SF Examiner (Steven Winn) Tutankhamun in the present day Gold, gold and more gold. Ornate jewelry studded with jewels and desert glass. Alabaster and faience. Delicate perfume vases and charming model boats. Game boards and thrones. Footstools and figurines....
- Exhibition: Golden Tut Rules
Tulsa World (Brandy McDonnell) He was just a boy when he became king and only a teenager when he died mysteriously, but people's fascination with King Tut endures more than 3,000 years after his death. The ancient Egyptian ruler's burial riches...
- Exhibition: Tutankhamun In Canada
The Globe and Mail (James Adams) The boy-king of ancient Egypt who "gave his life for tourism," as comedian Steve Martin famously sang in 1979, returns to Canada this fall for a five-month visit. The Art Gallery of Ontario announced yesterday that it...
- Exhibition: Tutankhamun Encore Visit To U.s.
PR Newswire Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," the exhibition that drew nearly 4 million visitors during its two-year, four-city tour, will return to the United States for a three-city encore tour. Following the success of the first...
Egypt
Exhibition: King tut returns to San Francisco
Inside Bay Area (Pat Craig)
Back in 1979, Tutmania was akin to Beatlemania. That's when the "Tutafacts," 55 items from King Tutankhamun's tomb, toured America with the blessings of the Egyptian authorities.
Other than a brief visit by a handful to Tut items in 1960 to the Palace of the Legion of Honor, it was the first time anything from the 1923 discovery and opening of the tomb of the Boy King Tutankhamun had come to San Francisco.
But people were ready — teased by pictures in countless books, Steve Martin's novelty song tribute to the Pharaoh, and tasteful and tasteless souvenirs (including a T-shirt emblazoned with "Keep your hands off my tuts") — and by the time it was over, more than 8 million people across the country viewed the exhibition.
There is less Tut buzz today for the return of the exhibit, which opens Saturday in San Francisco's de Young Museum, where it played to crazed crowds and long lines three decades ago.
Why there is less buzz can be tied to any number of reasons, primarily that 1973 marked the first major exhibit of Tut artifacts in the United States. In addition, people had much less access to media 30 years ago — today you can get thousands of hits on an Internet search for King Tut. There was no Internet to speak of in 1979, when people had to go to ticket outlets in person and crowd control was less of a science.
- Exhibition: Tutankhamun In San Francisco
Santa Cruz Sentinel (Tina Baine) In 1978, at age 23, I stood anxiously waiting in a long line outside the Los Angeles County Museum for my chance to see relics from King Tut's tomb. It certainly wasn't common in the 1970s for artifacts to generate...
- Exhibition: More Re Tutankhamun In San Francisco
SF Examiner (Steven Winn) Tutankhamun in the present day Gold, gold and more gold. Ornate jewelry studded with jewels and desert glass. Alabaster and faience. Delicate perfume vases and charming model boats. Game boards and thrones. Footstools and figurines....
- Exhibition: Golden Tut Rules
Tulsa World (Brandy McDonnell) He was just a boy when he became king and only a teenager when he died mysteriously, but people's fascination with King Tut endures more than 3,000 years after his death. The ancient Egyptian ruler's burial riches...
- Exhibition: Tutankhamun In Canada
The Globe and Mail (James Adams) The boy-king of ancient Egypt who "gave his life for tourism," as comedian Steve Martin famously sang in 1979, returns to Canada this fall for a five-month visit. The Art Gallery of Ontario announced yesterday that it...
- Exhibition: Tutankhamun Encore Visit To U.s.
PR Newswire Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs," the exhibition that drew nearly 4 million visitors during its two-year, four-city tour, will return to the United States for a three-city encore tour. Following the success of the first...