It's the story of one theatre and its multiple lives (not quite nine yet, but then again, it's a movie theatre not a cat). The twice monthly backstage tour at the Egyptian begins with the theatre's auspicious tinsel-town beginnings and moves through decades chronicling its decline and re-emergence as the art house it is today. Along the tour's wide-sweeping route, architectural decisions, wise and unwise, are noted and explored in depth, so that you not only take a trip back to the golden age of Hollywood, but begin an inquiry into theory and methods of preservation.

With access to just about every nook and cranny, movie buffs will love going behind the scenes exploring the actor greenrooms and the classic LA singer's boxes (if you don't know about those, you will). Movie nerds will love entering the projection room and learning how they play films from 16mm to 70mm and even digital. As is so often true of places that have lost their past glamour, perhaps the most interesting things on the tour are those that are no longer there; the once grand proscenium, missing murals, the organ – their absence embues the place with the strange sense that one could almost reach through time and get them back – almost.

For an extra $5, you can stick around after the tour to watch Forever Hollywood a 55 minute documentary that celebrates a century of movie making history. While you are in the lobby pick up a flyer for the American Cinamatique, the non-profit organization that now runs the Egyptian and is always playing rare and interesting films of yore.