40 Fun Facts About Grauman's Chinese Theatre

Which child star pressed her bare feet into the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1935?

Shirley Temple went barefoot to pull attention away from her face, because she was losing her baby teeth at the time. She left her hands and feet in the wet cement on March 14, 1935.

Which 1977 film opened at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, lost the screen to another booking, then returned in August?

Star Wars lost the screen to a film already booked there, then came back on August 3, the day Darth Vader, C-3PO and R2-D2 left their prints in the forecourt.

What did Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint press into the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Their wands sit beside their handprints: each of the three Harry Potter leads pressed in the prop that belonged to their own character.

Which cartoon character left prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1984 with his voice actor, Clarence Nash?

Donald Duck was marking 50 years since his 1934 debut in The Wise Little Hen, and Nash had been his voice for the whole of that time.

Which comedy director wore a prosthetic sixth finger for his 2014 handprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Mel Brooks slipped a fake finger onto his left hand, so his slab shows six digits on one side and five on the other.

Which resort built a full-scale replica of Grauman's Chinese Theatre from the 1927 blueprints?

Walt Disney World put the copy at the centre of its Hollywood Studios park in Florida, where it housed The Great Movie Ride from 1989 until 2017.

Which movie car left tire tracks in wet cement at a 1977 ceremony at Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Herbie, the racing car from The Love Bug, rolled across the wet cement in July 1977 rather than leaving the usual hands and feet.

Which star pressed an earring into the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre beside co-star Jane Russell?

Marilyn Monroe and Russell shared the ceremony as the two leads of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, and the spectacle won the film a great deal of publicity.

Which creature fills a 30-foot stone carving on the front wall of Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

A dragon is carved between two red columns, beneath a bronze-roofed pagoda that rises 90 feet above the forecourt.

Which 1939 musical premiered at Grauman's Chinese Theatre and reopened the building in 3D in 2013?

The Wizard of Oz premiered there on August 15, 1939, and its lead Judy Garland left her prints in the forecourt that October.

Which giant-screen format was the auditorium of Grauman's Chinese Theatre rebuilt around in 2013?

IMAX brought what was then one of the largest screens in North America, and the rows were re-stepped from street level down to the floor of the former basement.

Which Canadian-born silent star was a co-owner of Grauman's Chinese Theatre when it opened in 1927?

Mary Pickford held a share alongside Douglas Fairbanks, and the two of them made the first dated prints together on April 30, 1927, before the doors had opened.

Which wartime romance won Best Picture at the first Oscars held at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in 1944?

Casablanca took the top prize on the night the ceremony first left the banquet hall for a large public venue. Two more Oscar nights followed there in 1945 and 1946.

Which company's name is on the Oscars venue that stands next door to Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Dolby replaced Kodak on the building in 2012. The hall opened in 2001 as a permanent home for the Academy Awards, which had moved between venues for decades.

Which Western star's footprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre were set in cement containing sand from Iwo Jima?

John Wayne had just starred in Sands of Iwo Jima when he made his prints in January 1950, and he added a fist print to the usual hands and boots.

Which palomino horse left hoofprints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1949 beside those of cowboy Roy Rogers?

Trigger shares the slab with Rogers, who also pressed his revolver into the cement. The horses of Tom Mix and Gene Autry left hoofprints beside their riders too.

What did Whoopi Goldberg press into the cement beside her prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1995?

A dreadlock joined her hands and feet in the slab on February 2, 1995. Other keepsakes in the forecourt include Eleanor Powell's tap shoes and Roy Rogers's revolver.

Which Hong Kong action star pressed his nose into the wet cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1997?

Jackie Chan repeated a gag first pulled in 1945 by Jimmy Durante, the comedian nicknamed the Great Schnozzola, and he returned for a second ceremony in 2013.

Which director made his prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on the same day in 1984 as George Lucas?

Steven Spielberg and Lucas shared the ceremony on May 16, 1984, a week before their second Indiana Jones adventure opened in American cinemas.

Which Chinese electronics maker bought the naming rights to Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 2013?

TCL bought the naming rights in January 2013, eight months before the building reopened with a rebuilt auditorium and a giant new screen.

Which comedian left a cigar imprint beside his prints at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1933?

Groucho Marx was seldom on screen without a cigar and a greasepaint moustache, so the cigar went into the cement when he made his prints with Chico, Harpo and Zeppo.

Which wartime pin-up pressed her leg into the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1943?

Betty Grable was celebrated for her legs, and her bathing-suit poster made her the top pin-up of World War II, so she left a leg print as well as her hands and feet.

Which three-time Olympic champion pressed her ice skates into the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Sonja Henie won gold for Norway in 1928, 1932 and 1936, then became a film star and left her blades in the forecourt in June 1937.

Which silent comedian left the outline of his trademark glasses at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1927?

Harold Lloyd built his everyman screen character around horn-rimmed frames with no lenses in them, and their outline sits beside his hands, feet and autograph.

Which actor pressed the side of his face into the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1940?

John Barrymore was known as the Great Profile, so Sid Grauman pushed the side of his face into the cement beside his hands and feet.

Which 2013 comic-book sequel filmed scenes on location at Grauman's Chinese Theatre in Hollywood?

Iron Man 3 shot there in January 2013, joining a list of Los Angeles films that show the building, among them Speed and Austin Powers in Goldmember.

Which Western spoof ends with its villain hiding at a screening inside Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Blazing Saddles breaks the fourth wall in its finale: the picture playing on the screen where the villain takes cover is Blazing Saddles itself.

Which Cecil B. DeMille biblical epic was the first film to premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre, in 1927?

The King of Kings, a silent film, opened the building on May 18, 1927, as a crush of onlookers pressed in to glimpse the arriving guests.

Which themed movie palace did Sid Grauman open in Hollywood five years before Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

The Egyptian rode the craze for ancient Egypt of the early 1920s and hosted the premiere of Robin Hood, with Douglas Fairbanks, in the year it opened.

Which producer coaxed Sid Grauman out of retirement in 1930 to stage a premiere at Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Howard Hughes wanted one of Grauman's live stage prologues before Hell's Angels, his 1930 aviation epic. Grauman ran the house for the film's whole run, then retired a second time.

Which actress does Grauman's Chinese Theatre officially credit with starting the footprints by stepping in wet concrete?

Norma Talmadge is the one who slips in the official story, though Sid Grauman once said on radio that he himself had walked into the soft concrete.

Which silent-era star drove the first rivet into Grauman's Chinese Theatre at its 1926 groundbreaking?

Anna May Wong, Hollywood's first Chinese American film star, helped launch the building work, yet she was never invited to leave her prints in the forecourt.

Which cinema chain owner bought Grauman's Chinese Theatre in 1973 and swapped Sid Grauman's name for his own?

Ted Mann, who later married the actress Rhonda Fleming, sold his chain in 1986, but the building carried his name until 2001, when it went back to its original title.

Which Chinese dynasty produced the two guardian lion statues that flank the entrance of Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Ming dynasty lions guard the doors, and the US government had to grant permission for them to be imported from China along with bells and other artefacts.

What did Sid Grauman leave out of the plans for Grauman's Chinese Theatre, fearing it would spoil the show?

A concession stand would have detracted from the theatrical experience, Grauman thought, so the house did not begin selling snacks until the 1930s.

During which gold rush did the young Sid Grauman, later of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, sell newspapers to miners?

Klondike miners were so starved of news that, by Grauman's account, one shopkeeper paid him $50 for a paper and then charged others to hear it read aloud.

On the site of which silent star's mansion was Grauman's Chinese Theatre built, earning him a plaque on the front?

Francis X. Bushman, who played Messala in the 1925 Ben-Hur, had his home on the Hollywood Boulevard plot, and a plaque on the facade dedicated the building to him.

Which actor, later Charlie Chan's Number One Son, painted murals in the lobby of Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Keye Luke worked as an artist in Seattle and Hollywood before he acted, and decades after the murals he played the shopkeeper Mr. Wing in Gremlins.

Which company built the hidden pipe organ of Grauman's Chinese Theatre, later given to a church in Burbank?

Wurlitzer pipes sat above the proscenium, and chutes carried the sound through holes in the ceiling so the music seemed to drift down from overhead.

Near which European capital does a Warner theme park hold a copy of Grauman's Chinese Theatre?

Madrid's Parque Warner copied the building inside and out, and the hall there screens films for park visitors.