Exhibition: King tut returns to San Francisco

Inside Bay Area (Pat Craig)

Back in 1979, Tutmania was akin to Beatlemania. That's when the "Tutafacts," 55 items from King Tutankhamun's tomb, toured America with the blessings of the Egyptian authorities.

Other than a brief visit by a handful to Tut items in 1960 to the Palace of the Legion of Honor, it was the first time anything from the 1923 discovery and opening of the tomb of the Boy King Tutankhamun had come to San Francisco.

But people were ready — teased by pictures in countless books, Steve Martin's novelty song tribute to the Pharaoh, and tasteful and tasteless souvenirs (including a T-shirt emblazoned with "Keep your hands off my tuts") — and by the time it was over, more than 8 million people across the country viewed the exhibition.

There is less Tut buzz today for the return of the exhibit, which opens Saturday in San Francisco's de Young Museum, where it played to crazed crowds and long lines three decades ago.

Why there is less buzz can be tied to any number of reasons, primarily that 1973 marked the first major exhibit of Tut artifacts in the United States. In addition, people had much less access to media 30 years ago — today you can get thousands of hits on an Internet search for King Tut. There was no Internet to speak of in 1979, when people had to go to ticket outlets in person and crowd control was less of a science.