Clark Gable's Big Hands

One of the first things people do when visiting the stars’ handprints and footprints in cement out front of the (now) Mann’s Chinese Theater is to put their own hands in those famous indentations. It is especially tempting with Clark Gable’s because his paws were so large.

“To Sid who is a great guy,” he wrote into the cement. Sid, of course, refers to showman Sid Grauman, who owned the (then) Grauman’s Chinese Theater, among others. The date was January 20, 1937, the same day President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was being sworn into his second term of office and frankly announcing, “I see one third of our nation ill-housed, ill-clad, and ill-nourished.”

It was also the same day director W. S. Van Dyke, II got to put his hands in cement at Grauman’s as well. I don’t know if there was a tie-in (Van Dyke had directed Gable a few years previously in “Manhattan Melodrama”), or if this was just the chance way the scheduling came together. “One-take Woody” directed “After the Thin Man”, which had been released the previous month, and his “Personal Property” with Jean Harlow and Robert Taylor would be released in another two months. He turned them out like clockwork.

Gable’s next picture to be released would be “Parnell” in June, which in a way dovetails us into Thursday’s St. Patrick’s Day post. It won’t be “Parnell” this time, about the 19th century Irish politician, a role for which most people agree Gable was probably not the best choice. Instead, we’ll look at another film tackling Irish politics and “The Troubles” -- “Beloved Enemy” (1936).

For more on the Chinese Theater, have a look at this website.

Roz Russell Leaves Her Mark

Rosalind Russell left her mark in cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theater, February 19, 1959. Above her name she wrote “Auntie Mame was here”, so even then perhaps she knew it would be her “signature” role. The movie “Auntie Mame” had been released about six or seven weeks before, in December 1958.

In this post we covered another honor for Roz, under much more harrowing circumstances that happened three years previously in her hometown of Waterbury, Connecticut. No cement then, just a lot of water over the bridge.

More Cement, Take Two

For Jean Harlow, whose stardom seemed cemented after her soon to be nationally released “Dinner at Eight” (1933), it was case of “try, try again” when getting the star treatment at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.

On September 25, 1933, she was the main attraction on stage at the Chinese Theater for a live ceremony before a paying audience to watch her plunk her hands and her high-heeled shoes into a slab of wet cement. Presumably flashbulbs, presumably applause, and presumably a handy towel to wipe the gunk off her hands and shoes.

Not presumed at all was the quick-drying cement, which had dried so quickly that when the slab was attempted to be moved, it was dropped. Smashed to smithereens.

Take two. Four days later, a very game Jean Harlow repeats the ceremony, this time outdoors on the sidewalk, on September 29, 1933. “To Sid in Appreciation - Jean Harlow” she signed the new slab of wet cement, and presumably Sid Grauman appreciated her return engagement.

Jean Harlow, sadly, did not have too many more second chances in her young life. She died four years later in 1937, at 26 years old.

For more on the footprints in cement occasion, have a look at this website.

Roy's Boots, Trigger's Horseshoes

Having mentioned Grauman’s Chinese Theater last week, perhaps it be-hooves us to note one of its many famous cement autographs, Roy Rogers and Trigger. Not only do we get Roy’s boot prints, but Trigger’s horseshoe prints, and the imprint of Roy’s six-shooter. Also, most other signers in cement at this auspicious sidewalk autograph book have not been so fastidious as to leave us the actual date. The King of the Cowboys was one thorough hombre.

Grauman's Chinese Theater

One of the most iconic movie theaters in the United States, let alone Los Angeles, is Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, later Mann’s, on Hollywood Boulevard, which opened in the 1927. Though evocative of Asian motifs, it’s exotic architecture perhaps demonstrates even more about an ebullient, if not zany, 1927 USA than it does China.

It is equally known for the garden of footprints (and handprints, and hoof prints) in cement that form one of the most popular tourist attractions for visitors to Hollywood, as well as the many studio film premieres held here.

For more on the Chinese Theatre and description of its opulent décor, have a look here.

ANNOUNCEMENT: I’d like to open up these occasional posts on individual theaters to everyone who’d like to submit a photo and their own memories and/or research on a particular theater. I’ve realized that there’s a whole lot of movie houses out there in the heartland that you can cover better than I can. The movie theater need not be in business today, and photos are not absolutely necessary, but if you happen to be driving along and some Art Deco marquee catches your eye, grab your camera. Send your info to: JacquelineTLynch@gmail.com. Thanks.

I SHOULD ALSO NOTE: The photos must be yours, or in the public domain, with the understanding that any photo or email communication you send may be published on this blog.

Fredric March - Footprints at Grauman's

The strong signature of Fredric March scrawled across the wet cement, accompanied by imprints of the hands and shoes, was made at Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater a week before “A Star in Born” was released.

Mr. March’s career did not echo the infamous Norman Maine’s tragic demise of that film. He and his actress wife, Florence Eldridge, enjoyed long, successful careers on stage and screen. March won the Academy Award, and a couple of Tony Awards for his work on Broadway, appeared on television and worked several decades at a craft at which he was particularly good.

From matinee idol to aging character actor, he could play the charming hero, the menacing heavy, the miserable wretch of uncertain mind and dubious morals. He played men of the Elizabethan age with a flourish, and modern men in Greek tragedies. His presence on screen was as strong and as certain as his masterful signature.

Alice Faye in Wet Cement

On March 20, 1935, 73 years ago today, Alice Faye put her hands and high heels in fresh cement in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater. “George White’s 1935 Scandals” would open in another week, only her fifth film.

It would be another few years before her staring roles of the 1940s in glorious Technicolor, before Betty Grable, at this time still doing bit parts, would become her replacement and the new darling of 20th Century-Fox, before Alice, tired of studio machinations, quit the business, chucked her dressing room key out of her car window at the studio gate and never looked back.

For now, it was a rising star and fresh cement.

Shirley Temple - Grauman's Handprints

On March 14, 1935, some 73 years ago tomorrow, Shirley Temple put her small hands and bare feet in wet cement.

The box office champ for 1936, 1937 and 1938, three years in a row, and the savior of Fox studios, had not even hit her stride when she did the Grauman’s Chinese Theater sidewalk treatment.

Her film, “The Little Colonel” had just been released the previous month, with Lionel Barrymore, Hattie McDaniel, and that famous tap dancing up the stairs routine devised by the remarkable Bill Robinson.

Shirley Temple, not quite 7 years old at the time she got her hands in cement, would make three other pictures that year, one of the hardest working kids in Hollywood. The only thing more pleasing than reflecting on her early success is knowing that the rest of her life, beyond the soundstage, was varied, and full, and evidently a great pleasure to her. Hollywood film history is filled so many tragic stories of lives ruined. Miss Box Office Champ had a long way to fall even before she reached her 10th birthday. How nice that she didn’t, but just skipped along safely to other levels, like the little kid holding Mr. Robinson’s hand, bouncing up and down those stairs.

Edgar Bergen & Charlie McCarthy Footprints

I’m not sure who wrote the signatures in the cement in the above photo, Charlie McCarthy or Edgar Bergen, but the handwriting is the neatest I’ve ever seen. Probably Edgar, because Charlie was always cutting school, so his penmanship might have suffered.

The comedy team, one human and one ventriloquist’s dummy, had hit the big time after the inevitable vaudeville apprenticeship. A few movie appearances and some successful guest appearances on the Rudy Vallee radio show led Mr. Bergen, and his unruly sidekick, to their own radio program where they remained for the next decade or so.

Edgar Bergen’s film work continued in decades to come, and there was even a dramatic role or two without Charlie McCarthy, but at this moment in time, July 20, 1938, they were at the unique position in their career (difficult to speak of them separately), as being both at the pinnacle of achievement and yet at the same time, standing on the threshold of something very new and exciting.

In this same month, July 1938, the last reunion of Union and Confederate soldiers of the American Civil War took place at the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg.

Howard Hughes set a new flight record by flying around the world in 91 hours.

Somewhere in Austria, a concentration camp called Mauthausen was being constructed.

Pinnacles and thresholds for many indeed, and something more sinister on the horizon for many other people.

But for Edgar Bergen, the ventriloquist whose lips moved and who was such a comfortable entertainer that it did not matter, did not even matter that he was a ventriloquist ON THE RADIO, time pleasantly stopped as he (or Charlie) scratched their signatures and planted a big set of hands and feet, and a little set of hands and feet, in front of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood.

Four days later on July 24th, their radio program, The Chase and Sanborn Hour, was hosted by Edward Arnold. Bergen and Charlie rubbed elbows with Spencer Tracy and Dorothy Lamour. Just another day at the office.

Bogart's Cement Shoes

Humphrey Bogart spent the day at the Columbia Pictures lot shooting “Dead Reckoning,” co-starring Lizabeth Scott, and then went to get his hands dirty. The date was August 21, 1946, when Bogart joined the pantheon of footprints and handprints in front of Hollywood’s Grauman’s Chinese Theater. According to “Bogart” by A.M. Sperber and Eric Lax (William Morrow and Company, Inc., 1997), he left the lot in the late afternoon, put on “what he called his lucky shoes, the oxfords he wore in ‘Casablanca’ and ‘The Big Sleep’….” These shoes were to make a big impression.

In the photo of the event, his wife Lauren Bacall kneels beside him before the slab of wet cement. Her hand is placed atop his as he presses his hand into it. Along with his signature, Bogart scratched out a warm, personal message to Sid Grauman, “Sid, may you never die ‘till I kill you.”

Just another day out of the office for Sam Spade.