TCL Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
159 people
favorited this theater
Showing 76 - 100 of 1,670 comments
That’s Hedley.
Theres a scene in the movie “Blazing saddles” showing Mel Brooks going into the theatre, which is screening a premiere of “Blazing saddles”.
B&W newsreel footage of the Hollywood premiere of “Hell’s Angels” can be viewed here
I’m just going to say it – what they did with the Grauman Chinese (It will always be the Grauman Chinese to me) was an abomination.
Water and Power Associates link with the Chinese Theatre and photos of other theatres and buildings.
http://waterandpower.org/museum/Early_Views_of_Hollywood%281920%2B%29_Page_6.html
Hello-
thanks to Escot O. Norton and MSC77 for their replies. I am fascinated as to how long roadshow engagements of films lasted in L.A. as opposed to Manhattan. for instance the shortest roadshow engagement in Manhattan I can remember is Half A Sixpence which ran at the Criterion for a grand total of 6 weeks.
bigjoe59: Other roadshows at the Chinese included “Half a Sixpence” and “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.”
BigJoe, I recommend you spend some time on my friend Kurt’s website. He has an exhaustive collection of photos and information, including a COMPLETE list of every movie and show ever presented at the Chinese. Also check out the 1927 tour of the theatre! http://graumanschinese.org
Hello-
were the engagements of Windjammer, West Side Story
and Hello Dolly the only roadshow engagements the
Chinese has held?
That center aisle and the railings are just bad
That link includes a great interior shot of TCL Chinese Theatre.
Shame they have stairs running right through the centre of so many rows as that is where I prefer to sit, directly in line with the centre of the screen.
The replacement seating for the IMAX conversion was a “custom” design supplied by Seating Concepts:
How We Helped the Historic Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles with Its Recent Overhaul—Seating Concepts.
As far as I know neither Raymond Kennedy, chief architect of the Chinese Theatre, nor Donald Wilkinson, head architect of the firm of Meyer & Holler, with whom Kennedy worked closely on the project, ever visited China, but I’m sure Kennedy would have done some study of Chinese design for the project.
Although the theater’s details are Chinese, the building’s form is more European Renaissance, particularly the forecourt. A forecourt is not characteristic of Chinese design. Both Kennedy and Wilkinson were classically trained, and Kennedy was awarded a Diploma as a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome, where he studied for three years.
I don’t think that Sid Grauman ever went to China he just built theaters. Sid built the Egyptian to cash in on the Egyptian revival craze started by discovery of King Tut’s tomb.
Did the guy who created the Chinese go to China before making this theater?
Dome and Chinese has more bad seats, plus that’s not really a great comparison.
Different locations, different theaters, different times, different prices, different parking rates.
I saw Ready Player One last night looked okay. Not enough base good show great theater. Some people like the 2D version some like the 70mm version and some like the 3D version. The only one the even comes close to filling the theater is the 70mm version in a SMALL theater at the Arclight. There are plenty of seats at the Dome in 3D and plenty of empty seats at the chinese.
Zubi, thanks for the info on the II-III. When I first started traveling and taking pictures of theatres, I snapped a few shots of the lobby of the II-III after it was closed. Had I known they were going to be torn down I would’ve taken more.
They’re at the bottom of our page for it at Cinematour.com
https://www.cinematour.com/tour/us/2129.html
Would you say Chinese is the only theater that shows IMAX Laser in 2D concurrently with 3D when there’s a 3D blockbuster movie?
Let’s not forget the reason for building the twins. Star Wars was selling out and they were forced to move it to another theater for six weeks because of a previous booking arrangement. The twins solved that problem for future engagements. With the twins they could kick the dog into a twin and keep the big house for the blockbuster or a new release. All three theaters had Todd-AO 35/70 projectors. And they were a class act.
Does anybody have any photos or details about the original multiplex that was built to accompany this theatre? And how, historically, does that fit in. Were people irritated if they went to see a movie at the Chinese and they got stuck in the multiplex? Or was it just par for the course at the time?
Wouldn’t really make it any better still.
Sucks that last jedi didn’t premiere here like the first star wars movie.
“Windjammer” premiere April 8, 1958. Photo added courtesy of Mark MacDougal.
Justice League was shot in 1.85:1. Zack Snyder intentionally shot it that way because 1.85:1 will fill 85% of a TrueIMAX screen as opposed to 2:35 sitting smack dab in the center of the screen. Never saw the IMAX version so can’t confirm if any scenes were shot with IMAX cameras.