Zaring's Egyptian Theatre

Joe Vogel on December 22, 2017 at 10:53 pm

Numerous sources indicate that the architect of Zaring’s Egyptian Theatre was Frank Baldwin Hunter, brother of Edgar Otis Hunter. Though Frank Hunter, who had studied art but had no formal architectural training, had apprenticed with Preston Rubush, he established his own practice in 1907, becoming quite successful as a residential architect. After designing numerous houses, he began designing commercial projects, including Zaring’s Egyptian and the Fountain Square Theatre.

DavidAE on August 16, 2013 at 3:58 pm

Historic Indianapolis article link http://historicindianapolis.com/indianapolis-then-and-now-zarings-egyptian-theatre-2741-central-avenue/

Joe Vogel on February 6, 2011 at 11:37 am

I came across this pdf file of a paper with some history of the Zaring family, which includes a section on Amzi C. Zaring, owner of the Egyptian. It begins on page 34, and says that he entered the movie exhibition business when he bought the North Star Theatre in 1910. The North Star was located at 25th and Central, so it was right down the street from Zaring’s Egyptian.

Amzi Zaring operated the Egyptian Theater until 1956, when he sold it to David and Kelly Levitt. By 1966, the house had become the only burlesque theater in Indiana.

The paper mentions several other theaters that Amzi Zaring operated over the years. They include the Delight, at 24th Street and College Avenue; the Garrick, at 30th Street and Illinois Avenue; the Columbia, on Senate Avenue; the Imperial, on McCarty Street east of West Street; and the Belmont, on Belmont Avenue and West Washington Street. Zaring also operated the Sipe Theatre at Kokomo, Indiana, for a time. The paper gives no dates for these operations, but I get the impression they were all open in the years before Zaring built the Egyptian.

If the North Star is listed at Cinema Treasures under some later name, it’s missing the aka. Maybe somebody familiar with Indianapolis theaters will know if it’s listed yet. It’s also possible that Zaring closed the North Star when he built the Egyptian. The paper doesn’t say.