The Daily Chronicle from De Kalb, Illinois • Page 2

A2 DAILY CHRONICLE, Monday, August 21, 2000 Chance of thunderstorms -3 Weather Outlook The nation's weather The Accu Weather forecast for noon, Tuesday, Aug. 22. 1 I I 1' I 11 10s 20s 30s 40s 50s 60s Bands separate high temperature zones Local forecast Tonight Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms late Low in the middle 60s Southeast winds around 10 mph. Tuesday: Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers aid thunderstorms. High around 80.

Weather, data High yesterday: 74 Low yesterday 58 Normal high today: 81 Normal low today: 60 Record high today: 100 set in 1955 Record low today: 45 set in 1950 Precipitation Yesterday 0 MIC Total in August: 3.65 Total this year: 30.99 i Astronomical data Sunset: 7 47 p.m. Sunrise: 6 12 a.m. I 1 -10s -Os Os 2000 AccuWeather, Pressure: E3 Inc 3 70s 80s 90s 100a 110s for the day. FRONTS: COLD WARM STATIONARY 0 lc Sunny Pt. Cloudy Cloudy L-r-i Today's drawing by: Mackenzie Curran First grade Cortland Elementary School Chicago The extremes High: 112 degrees at Thermal.

Calif. Low: 27 degrees at Stanley, Idaho Mail your color drawings to: Samvedna Dean Daily Chronicle, P.O. Box 587 DeKalb, IL 601 1 5 Illinois weather i Rockfofd 63780 1 DeKalb Mohne 64785 Springfield 69786 I St Louis 71 90 Cairo Nation's cities High Low Showers Rain T-tormt FlurrlM Snow FRIDAY THURSDAY Cpomcle Vol. 121 No. 164 Local phone: (815)756-4841 Toll-free phone: (877) 688-4841 For subscription Inquiries Press 1 after the initial phone greeting If you dkJnl get your paper by 8 a.m.

weekends or 5 p.m. weekdays Call the Circulation Department at Ext. 204 by 1 1 a.m. weekends and 6:30 p.m. weekdays.

To become a ChronJde canter Call the Circulation Department at Ext. 234 To place a classified ad Call (815) 787-7861 from 8 a m. to 6 p.m. weekdays or fax your ad to (815) 756-2079 To buy a Display ad or to ask a question about advertising DeKalb west of Route 23. Ext.

213 DeKalb east of Route 23, Ext. 210 Sycamore, Ext. 263 Outlying areas, Ext. 211 or 261 Automotive, Ext. 217 Real estate, Ext.

216 For all other advertising questions, call the advertising directorretail, Ext 217 If you would Dke to have Chronicle staffers meet with you or your organization to discuss our content and operations Call Publisher Chris Doyle, Ext. 260, or Managing Editor John Kelleher, Ext. 235 To ask a question, express a concern or offer a suggestion about our local or national news coverage Call Managing Editor John Kelleher, Ext. 235, or City Editor Inger Koch, Ext. 220 To inquire about letters to the editor, Ear To Ear or any subject on the Opinions page Call Managing Editor John Kelleher, Ext.

235 To place a letter to the Write to "Letters to the Editor" do Daily Chronicle, P.O. Box 587, DeKalb, IL 60115, or send an e-mail to jkelleherpulitzer.net To call in an item to "Ear To Eat Call 756-4841, Ext. 700 If you have a question, suggestion or concern about sports coverage Call Sports Editor Steve Nemeth, Ext. 226 For Information on lifestyles, likely 82 Albany 69 46 clear Casper 90 44 clear Memphis 89 73 pcldy Orlando 94 73 pcldy Salt Lake 85 56 clear Sioux Falls 74 65 pcldy Amarillo 100 70 clear Cleveland 69 48 clear Miami Beach 90 78 pcWy Pendleton 76 46 clear San Antonio 98 76 pcldy Syracuse 66 47 clear Anchorage 59 48 rain Dallas 102 80 clear Midland 97 72 clear Philadelphia 75 57 clear San Diego 76 69 pcldy Tampa 90 75 rain Atlanta 87 67 cldy Denver 88 56 pcldy Milwaukee 69 60 pcldy Phoenix 106 87 pcldy San Francisco 73 54 clear Topeka 100 70 pddy Bismarck 72 50 pcldy Houston 99 72 pcldy Nashville 83 64 pcldy Pittsburgh 73 51 clear San Juan 91 80 pcldy Tucson 99 79 pcldy Boise 78 49 clear Kansas City 89 73 rain New Orleans 95 74 rain Reno 86 55 clear Santa Fe 84 58 pcldy Washington 76 60 clear Boston 72 56 clear Las Vegas 101 73 clear New York 74 60 clear Ricnmond 77 56 pcldy St. Ste.

Marie 70 51 pcldy Wichita 104 72 pcldy Burlington 67 48 clear Los Angeles 84 64 clear OklaCity 102 67 clear Sacramento 87 58 clear Seattle 73 54 pddy Wilkes-Barre 69 43 dear Buffalo 66 46 clear Louisville 82 61 pcldy Omaha 78 67 cldy St. Louis 77 66 cldy Shreveport 102 76 clear Wilmington 75 53 clear 1 -j If Partly cloudy High 82 takes." Lack of parking and uncomfortable seating also plague the theater. There is hope to correct the seating problem in the future. When the theater first opened it had seating for 1,600. After renovation, seating was cut down to 1,483.

Brantley said the theater will lose four more seats in the fall to correct inadequate seating for the handicapped. "You really have to like what you pee here in order to come here," Brantley said. Day E3 LT3 WEDNESDAY Partly cloudy High 80 measures a cozy 35 feet across. Another drawback of the theater is its lack of an air conditioning system. There are wind tunnels beneath the first floor designed to cool off the building that are not exactly doing their job.

PET Inc. is trying to raise enough money through outside sources for the installation of a new air conditioning system for the theater. "Not everything that we do here is perfect," Brantley said. "Sometimes we spend years correcting our mis Citizen of the A I Rain High Champaign 64785 IND 170790 and Tori Amos. The majority of the films shown at the Egyptian Theatre are second-run art, independent and foreign films.

These unique films are what Brantley feels is the draw for the theater. "If we did not show them, people would drive to Chicago to see them," Brantley said. "We can generate enough mney with the foreign films to pay the bills." For the upcoming season the Egyptian Theatre will show "Bossa Nova," "Hamlet" starring Ethan Hawke, and "Blood Simple," a 1984 film by the Coen brothers, who released "Fargo" in 1996. Most people who go out to see the movies do not know of the unique technology used to show the films. The films are shown on carbon arc projectors that require projectionists to train three to six months in order to be comfortable with the system.

There are no other indoor theaters in the state of Illinois that use carbon arc projectors. This makes finding carbon rods to burn in the projector rather difficult. To start the arc, the power is turned on with the carbon rods separated. They are then brought together until they touch. The rods are gradually separated until a nice steady arc is formed that produces a bright light.

"The picture is great," Brantley said. "You can't beat the carbon arc light source." The workers at the theater are all volunteers except for Brantley and a few paid projectionists. Grant Poormon of DeKalb has been a projectionist at the theater since last November. Poormon admits he is not the biggest movie fan in the world. "My brother was working TODAY TUESDAY Cloudy High 78 Thunderstorms High 80 here and they just needed someone else to work," Poormon said.

"It is really hot and there is not much else up here." The projection room is not the only place in the theater that offers a challenge. Changing the house lights that highlight the theater's upper atmosphere is a huge task. Brian Eide of Sycamore, who changes the lights for the theater, estimates the ceiling is 5 to 6 feet high. Eide is one of only four people allowed to climb and crawl up into the ceiling to change the lights. "What is really dangerous about it is if you have to go all the way up there," Eide said.

"It really doesn't bother me anymore. I have gotten used to it." During live events there may be as many as 20 people working. While the movies are showing there may be as few as three. According to Brantley, the theater is not on anybody's tax roll. Some years it receives tax increment financing money from the city.

It also gives PET Inc. $12,000 each year for advertising. "We are doing a wonderful thing for them (the city) by bringing people downtown," Brantley said. All the live shows at the Egyptian Theatre are rental shows. PET Inc.

attempts to keep the rent low for these acts. The Egyptian Theatre hosts live acts such as the Kishwaukee Symphony, elementary school shows and the Stage Coach Players. Those who enter the theater may discover it does have some problems. The theater was originally designed to be a vaudeville theater with a typically smaller vaudeville stage. At the Egyptian Theatre the stage i i i food, religion or DeKalb County Weekly coverage Call Lifestyles Editor Cindy DiDonna, Ext.

227 For information on marketplace, farm or outdoors coverage Call News Editor Matt Carlson, Ext. 221 To offer a suggestion for a photo or a nomination for Citizen of the Day Call Photo Editor Don Vaughan, Ext. 265 To order a reprint of a Call Carol Rombough, Ext. 240 To place an obituary Call Editorial Assistant Samvedna Dean, Ext. 228 To submit a community news brief or weather drawing Call Editorial Assistant Samvedna Dean, Ext.

228 To send a newsroom fax Call 758-5059 The Daily Chronicle welcomes unsolicited photographs, news releases and manuscripts. Inquiries should be addressed to the managing editor. The publisher, however, assumes no responsibility for such materials and their return, even with return postage included. No payment for articles or photographs will be made unless specifically agreed to in writing by the publisher. Copyright 2000 PuHtzer Community Newspapers Winning lottery numbers for Sunday: Pick 3-Evening 1-4-6 (Pick 4-Evening 0-8-7-6 Lotto jackpot: $4.5 million ig Game jackpot: $26 million Si ILLINOIS PR6SS ASSOCIATION mmswiM S0Y1NKI The Daily Chronicle is entered as periodicals paid at the post (office at DeKalb, IL 601 15.

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From page A1 tors that would cast clouds on the ceiling over tiny lights that resemble stars in a nighttime sky. Now the stars remain, but the cloud projectors are outdated and no longer work. Inside and out there is the unmistakable influence of Egypt in the decor. "It was the architecture that saved this place," Brantley said. The theater experienced near death in 1970.

Most theater patrons started to prefer the newer movie theaters that were popping up during the '70s. In 1977 the Egyptian Theatre shut its doors. Brantley and others formed a group know as PET (Preservation of the Egyptian Theatre) Inc. to purchase the theater from the city before it became a parking lot in 1978. In 1980 PET joined with the DeKalb County Exposition Authority to qualify for a $2,125 million dollar state grant to restore the theater to its appearance today.

"By the 1970s this place was a wreck," Brantley said. "There was not enough money coming in the front door." "We had to put on hard hats and poke the ceiling to make sure plaster would not fall," Brantley said. PET restored the theater in 1982 and it reopened in 1983. Before the reopening the theater was restored to its original state. There are a total of six Egyptian-style theaters in the country.

Now the Egyptian Theatre is home to more than 15 performing arts groups, with movies shown between performance dates on the weekends. "We have had almost anything and everything here," Brantley said. In the past the venue has been the host to such musical acts as REM 1 i 1 tWom uik c-i. i Chronicle photoHOLLY LUNDH Sycamore HighSctool senior Ashley Hofer rinses soap SfCenter at the SHS SJudent Council rtomecomlng fundraiser held Saturday i.