TCL Chinese Theatre

Bill:

Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately, Keye Luke is not the name I’m looking for. I understand that Mr. Luke did, indeed, paint the murals in the lobby, but not the one along the far left-side interior wall.

Again, thanks for the help.
~Spoondoggie

Last month I took a quick 10-minute tour of the Chinese Theater. From the lobby, we entered the auditorium around the right side of the concession stand. We exited the auditorium via an aisle on the far left side. While heading back up towards the lobby, the guide stopped us and pointed out a mural that was painted on the wall (in the aisle, near the entrance to the left side of the lobby). He told us the painter’s name, and I remember saying to myself, “WOW! Wasn’t he a famous musician, or bandleader?” Of course, now I can’t remember the painter’s name.

It is an unusual, but highly recognizable name. I’ve been searching all over the web looking for a clue. Any help would be most appreciated. :)

Thanks, Spoondoggie.

Well from reading most of this I would say most of us are still suffering from (((Sensurround))) syndrome I can still the vibrations! That’s why I was pleased when the DVD came out I just cranked up the THX sound system and shock the room to bits at 120dbc!

Hey that’s pretty cool, I am going to be in Hollywood and Los Angeles area in a few weeks, I will have to go check that out. I don’t rember that being there the last time I was there some years back, but obviously it was…

Warren: Great 1958 photo and seen from a different angle of a famous landmark.

That shot of the Chinese would date around Fall (Sept) 1953.

A high rise office building was later built on the old Hollywood hotel site east of Grauman’s Chinese and for many years until it’s demolition in the late 90’s sported a huge roof top sign that read FRIES ENTERTAINMENT.

Lost Memory: Can you perhaps provide a photo of this theatre’s auditorium. And I didn’t know that in 1946 the Academy Awards were held at this theatre for the 3rd and last time.

ken mc: In the b/w photo that you posted on July 14, 2006 I was wondering where in that photo is the now Kodak Theatre? And the tall building in the background..is it still there today?

Unfortunately, the two fallen movie palaces were the Fox San Francisco and the Fox Phoenix…

Here is an article from the Fresno Bee dated 5/29/31, when Sid ceded control to Fox:

Final papers now are being prepared which will give William Fox control of Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Hollywood, according to announcement made by Harold B. Franklin, president of Fox West
Coast Theaters. Attorneys are now working on the details, Franklin said. Control of Grauman’s Chinese Theater, considered the show house of the world, will become effective the minute the final details are completed. Franklin added that the taking over of the famous theater will not in any way affect the Fox plans for the building of a new theater in Hollywood.

Sid Grauman, nationally known and colorful showman, will remain in an advisory capacity in the conduct of the theater under the policy to be set by William Fox when the picturesque playhouse passes to actual participation in the Fox country-wide circuit. The same policy instituted by Grauman will remain under the Fox direction. This means that the theater will continue with prerelease showings of the most outstanding screen attractions and with the stage prologues that have a national reputation for originality, beauty and lavish splendor.

Since the opening of Grauman’s Chinese Theater on May 18th, 1927, it has occupied a unique position in national theatricals. Grauman, of course, had considerable reputation before coming to Los Angeles,
but with opening of the Egyptian Theater, his fame grew to world-wide proportions and when the Chinese Theater opened the event was one of the most colorful in the history of the industry.

With the passing of the Chinese into the control of the Fox organization, the theater becomes a part of the circuit in which the great Roxy Theater, the finest in the East, is a unit. In other important cities of the country, William Fox has erected magnificent playhouses, at the present time there is nearing completion in San Francisco a 5,000-seat Fox Theater and before Fall new Fox Theaters will open in San Diego, Visalia, Hanford and Stockton, California, and Phoenix, Arizona.

It was definitely a crime to open the forecourt up on one side so that a walkway and escalator connect it with the shopping complex next door. Now, instead of being an enclave and foretaste of the theatre, it’s simply a thoroughfare.

Removal of the free-standing ticket book was a crime. The plaza looks open and lifeless now.