Rolling Out the Royal Treatment for King Tut

June 14, 2005 -- -- The gold carpet will be rolled out in Los Angeles, hundreds of ships adorned in gold finery will cruise the waters in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the crème de la crème will raise their glasses among golden masks and sparkling jewels in Chicago.

No expense will be spared, no glamorous detail overlooked, as four museums lay out the royal treatment for a long-awaited visitor: King Tut.

After almost 30 years, the most famous mummy in the world returns to American soil on a four-city, 27-month tour beginning at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on June 16. Promoters are working hard to ensure festivities surrounding "Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" are fit for a king, and attract America's equivalent of royalty -- the rich and famous.

A number of celebrities have already tentatively confirmed they will walk the gold carpet at the grand opening in Los Angeles on June 15, which Bryan Harris, director of marketing for GolinHarris, the firm promoting the exhibit, described as "museum meets Hollywood." He said he is hoping Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maria Shriver, the first couple of California, will emcee the event.

"It will be every bit as glamorous and premier-ish as the Hollywood way," Harris said. "We really feel like it warrants this type of an opening. The event hasn't been in the U.S. for 26 years, the treasures of Tut's tomb have not been here in that time, and we want to celebrate the return in a very big way."

The exhibit will be on display in Los Angeles from June 16 to Nov. 15 and will then move to Fort Lauderdale in December. The Chicago Field Museum gets the show in May 2006, and Philadelphia hosts King Tut at the Franklin Institute from February to September 2007.

Northern Trust, a national sponsor of the exhibit, will be treating its clients to exclusive events throughout the tour.

"Our clients are successful people and they enjoy the arts," said Sherry Barrat, chief executive officer of Northern Trust Bank of California. "They are all about creating legacies and certainly King Tut and the legacy of King Tut is a perfect fit. It's a wonderful metaphor for what Northern helps our clients do, which is preserve their legacy."

In addition to providing tickets to private parties and organizing bus tours to bring clients in from out of the area, Northern Trust is taking the exhibit to its clients. Curators will visit the San Diego and Newport Beach, Calif., offices to discuss the exhibit.

"What we're doing is giving our clients the royal treatment," Barrat said. "Some clients in the Midwest and East will have stops that are nearer to them, but we already have clients flying out to the West because they want to see it first."

Those who wait until the second stop in Fort Lauderdale will have a chance to partake in a citywide celebration. The Museum of Modern Art in Fort Lauderdale has teamed up with Winterfest Celebration, which includes a black-tie gala and a parade of ships. Both Winterfest events will follow a "Jewel of the Nile" theme.

The 1,500 boats expected to float past an estimated crowd of 850,000 spectators, will be encouraged to decorate their ships using ideas such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Walk Like an Egyptian" and the "Mummy Returns."

Those who attend the $200-per-ticket Winterfest gala will be transported back to ancient Egypt with people waving large palms as guests walk through the doorway, performers on stilts dressed as pharaohs and a living tomb.

"We're really going to work to make it a dramatic transformation," said Winterfest Executive Director Lisa Scott-Founds.

The Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale is undergoing its own transformation to get ready for royalty. Executive Director Irvin M. Lippman wants to paint the street outside the museum blue like the River Nile and he says there are talks of constructing a pyramid of light over the top of the museum as a "beacon to draw people."

Not that drawing people to King Tut is a problem. Lippman said the museum has been processing dozens of new memberships each day, since only members can currently buy tickets to the exhibit.

"Because of the huge interest in the exhibition, we don't have to invent ideas to bring people here. People are coming with ideas to us," Lippman said. "This is not just an exhibition that the museum is excited about, the whole community is getting excited here."

That excitement is already evident in Chicago, even though the opening at the Field Museum is almost a year away.

"We just opened our group sales tickets on June 1 and in the first 48 hours, tickets were selling 10 times faster than they were for Jackie Kennedy, which opened last year," said Pat Kramer, director of public relations and advertising at the Field Museum. "As soon as the exhibition was announced, the phone was ringing off the hook to book parties. This would be the most glamorous, most gracious, most beautiful setting in Chicago."

Although none has been booked so far, representatives at the Field Museum said they would not be surprised if a private event like an Egyptian-themed wedding were to be booked during the exhibit.

"Naturally, museums are great venues for those types of special events," Harris said. "But it's one thing to have a special event at a museum, it's another to be themed around King Tut."