TCL Chinese Theater

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Portal of Grauman's Chinese Theater

The TCL Chinese Theater ( Listen ? / I ) (former names: Grauman's Chinese Theater Listen ? / I and Mann's Chinese Theater Listen ? / I ) is a movie theater on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood , Los Angeles . It was opened in 1927 by the cinema operator Sid Grauman as a premiere cinema in the style of a Chinese pagoda . The cinema became world-famous for the hand and shoe prints of numerous film stars who have immortalized themselves in cement panels in the entrance area of ​​the cinema. Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample Audio file / audio sample

History of the Chinese Theater

Interior of the Chinese Theater

The builder of the TCL Chinese Theater is the entrepreneur Sid Grauman, who built one of the first cinema palaces in Los Angeles in 1918 with the Million Dollar Theater . In 1922, he built Grauman's Egyptian Theater, a large cinema designed like an Egyptian palace, in Hollywood, previously only home to several film studios . With this cinema built on Hollywood Boulevard, the cinemas moved from downtown Los Angeles to the suburbs of Hollywood.

In January 1926, Grauman decided to build another movie theater on Hollywood Boulevard just a few blocks from the Egyptian Theater . Partners in this construction project were actors Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford as well as entrepreneur Howard Schenck, and it was designed by architect Raymond M. Kennedy. The building was completed in spring 1927. Opened Grauman's Chinese Theater on May 18, 1927 with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's monumental silent film King of Kings on the life of Christ.

The construction costs for the cinema were two million US dollars. It was built in the Chinese style using many original parts from China. The portal of the building is dominated by two 27 m high red columns. Above them are iron masks depicting mythological dogs. Above this is the curved bronze roof. A Chinese dragon hangs between the pillars . In front of the portal is a walled forecourt, which was used as a reception area for many film premieres. The interior offered space for 2200 spectators on one floor. Since the cinema was planned before the breakthrough of the sound film , a modern Wurlitzer cinema organ was installed; The cinema also offered space for an orchestra and a show stage, on which in the early years of the Chinese Theater an extensive entertainment program with music and dance framed the film screenings.

In 1929 Sid Grauman sold his shares in the Chinese Theater to the film producer and cinema operator William Fox ; But Grauman's manager of the movie theater remained until his death in 1950. From 1944 to 1946, Grauman, a founding member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , hosted the Academy Awards with his Chinese Theater .

In 1968 the cinema was placed under monument protection. In 1973 it was taken over by Ted Mann, operator of the Mann cinema chain, and renamed Mann's Chinese Theater . In the 1980s, two smaller cinemas with 750 seats were built next to the main building. However, these outbuildings were closed and demolished in the late 1990s. The Kodak Theater , which has hosted the Academy Awards since 2002, was built in place of the outbuildings .

In 1986 Mann sold his theaters to Gulf and Western , the owners of Paramount Pictures . The Chinese Theater was damaged in the severe earthquake on January 17, 1994 , so that extensive renovation work was necessary. In 2001 the cinema got its historic name Grauman's Chinese Theater back. It is still used today as a premiere cinema, but also for normal film screenings.

The Chinese electronics company TCL secured the name rights to the theater for over five million US dollars, so that since 2013 it has been officially called the TCL Chinese Theater .

Collection of hand and shoe prints

The star prints in the forecourt

While the portal of the TCL Chinese Theater is one of the most famous attractions in Los Angeles, most of the four million visitors a year come mainly for the hand and shoe prints in the cement floor of the forecourt.

Legend has it that the actress Norma Talmadge got stuck with her high heels in the damp cement floor while visiting the cinema, which was still under construction, whereupon Grauman had the idea to immortalize such prints as "autographs" of the stars at the Chinese Theater . However, there is evidence that the construction worker Jean Klossner left his handprint and monogram when he had finished designing the forecourt. Klossner later oversaw the ceremony of the imprints from 1927 to 1962.

On April 30, 1927, the first impressions were made by Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in a solemn ceremony. Around 200 more stars were added in the next 70 years, although in the 1970s and 1980s, when the cinema was operated by Mann's Theaters , the number of film premieres and thus also the number of new prints fell sharply.

In addition to hand and shoe prints, some stars have also left other prints. So, leaving Harold Lloyd an imprint of his wire-rimmed glasses and the horses of the Western hitmakers Tom Mix , Gene Autry and Roy Rogers immortalized her hoof prints.

Charlie Chaplin's 1928 hand and footprints have been removed. The concrete slab with its imprints has been lost to this day. Chaplin had previously been refused re-entry to the United States - because of alleged proximity to communism - and then settled in Switzerland .

A counterpart to the collection in Rotterdam , the Netherlands , is officially called the Walk of Fame Europe .

1920s

Imprints of Norma Talmadge
Pola Negri prints
Imprints of Joan Crawford

1930s

Clark Gable's prints
Fred Astaire's prints
Ginger Rogers' prints

1940s

Imprints of Gregory Peck
Imprints of Bob Hope
Imprints of Humphrey Bogart

1950s

John Wayne's prints
Impressions from Hildegard Knef
Cary Grant's prints

1960s

Imprints of Sophia Loren
Imprints of Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine
Jack Nicholson's prints
The Chinese Theater's Fiftieth Anniversary

1970s

1980s

Impressions of Donald Duck and Clarence "Ducky" Nash

1990s

Impressions from Arnold Schwarzenegger
Imprints of Tom Hanks
Impressions of Matt Damon

2000s

Impressions of Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint

2010s

2020s

literature

  • Maggie Valentine: The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theater , Yale University Press, New Haven 1996, ISBN 0-300-06647-3 .

Web links

Commons : Grauman's Chinese Theater  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cinema Compendium : History of Grauman's Chinese Theater .
  2. ↑ http://www.infranken.de/ueberregional/vermischtes/art102843,685387
  3. ↑ Expressly listed under this date (as ceremony # 138 since the memorial was founded) on the official website of the Grauman's Theater for the memorial, Footprint Ceremonies 1970’s ( Memento of the original from December 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on February 22, 2011) . Bushman, born in 1883, died in 1966, so none of the usual hand and footprint ceremonies could have taken place here. Apparently he was given the memorial ceremony because Bushman lived in the early twenties on the exact spot on Hollywood Boulevard , where Grauman's Theater was built from 1926; see. in addition Hollywood Boulevard ( Memento of the original from April 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (scroll down for the entry on Francis X. Bushman) (accessed February 22, 2011) . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.manntheatres.com  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.atriptothemovies.com
  4. ↑ prnewswire.com: The Smurfs honored with historic Handprint Ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theater (accessed February 2, 2020)
  5. ↑ Hamburger Abendblatt: Michael Jackson's children immortalize the King of Pop (January 27, 2012)
  6. ↑ Film dog "Uggie" immortalizes little paws in cement ( memento of the original from June 28, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Süddeutsche.de , June 26, 2012, accessed on July 26, 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sueddeutsche.de
  7. ↑ 'The Wizard of Oz' actor Jerry Maren honored at TCL Chinese Theater
  8. ^ First paw print on Hollywood Boulevard , Focus.de , January 23, 2014, accessed April 3, 2014
  9. ↑ Mel Brooks Has 11 Fingers! Beloved Actor Makes an Impression During Hollywood Cement Ceremony , de.eonline.com, from September 9, 2014 (English)

Coordinates: 34 ° 6 ′ 7 ″  N , 118 ° 20 ′ 27.5 ″  W.