King Tut and Egyptomania
Now that King Tut is doing Dallas, this is a perfect time to reflect on the many ways ancient Egypt has influenced American culture and the rest of the world. The list is gathered from Andrew Marton’s article for the Star Telegram but I’ve added to it.
Music
Walk Like an Egyptian by The Bangles
Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs
King Tut by comedian Steve Martin
Movies
The Mummy - 1932 original starring Boris Karloff
“Mummy” - a sequence of films first released in 1999, starring Brendan Fraser
The Mummy’s Curse - 1944 movie starring Lon Chaney Jr.
Cleopatra - 1934 original starring Claudette Colbert and the 1963 blockbuster of the same name featuring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
The Ten Commandments - 1923 and 1956 Biblical films but who can ignore the Egyptian setting.
The Egyptian - 1954 movie loosely and poorly based on the wonderful novel Sinuhe the Egyptian by Mika Waltari
We Want Our Mummy - 1939 slapstick comedy by the Three Stooges.
Death on the Nile - 1978 movie based on Agatha Christie’s suspense novel
The Jewel of the Nile - 1985 film featuring sizzling pair Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner
The Prince of Egypt - 1998 animated film based on the Ten Commandments
Television
Batman with Victor Buono as arch-enemy “King Tut”
Tutenstein - Animated series from Discovery Kids about a 10 year old pharaoh brought back to life
Actor
Omar Sharif - Alexandria born actor made famous for his roles in Lawrence of Arabia and Doctor Zhivago
Belly dancing
Little Egypt, also known as “Fatima”
Sport
Bowling - the origin of this sport occurred thousands of years ago at a simple lane about 56 miles south of Cairo
Pyramids and obelisks
Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tenn.
Luxor Hotel in Las Vegas
Pyramid Arena at Cal State
Pyramid entranceway to the Louvre Museum in Paris
The Washington Monument obelisk
Expressions
“Sphinxlike” refering to someone bearing an inscrutable, unreadable facial expression
“Pyramid scheme” meaning a corrupt form of making easy money
“Inverted pyramid” as a form of organizing a news story
Eateries
King Tut - a Fort Worth institution since opening in 1992
Campisi’s Egyptian Restaurant - where Jack Ruby dined the night before John F. Kennedy was assassinated
And of course, the legendary and pervasive “mummy’s curse”.
Comments
Leave a Reply
