TCL Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
159 people
favorited this theater
Showing 1,526 - 1,550 of 1,670 comments
“Earthquake” was moved from the Chinese to the Paramount theatre across the street during it’s run in 1974?
I’ve not been here but its on my list of top 10 places in the world to visit!
I just received a post card announcing that the original 1925 Raymond Kennedy architectural rendering of the theater is going on auction on eBay on March 30. It states that this is the only signed, color version in existence. The original color rendering for designing the asbestos theater curtain is also going to be auctioned.
The famed Grauman’s Chinese Theatre opened in 1927 with a 3 manual
17 rank Wurlitzer organ. The organ was shipped from North Tonawanda, NY on 12/20/1926 and is known as Opus 1541. The organ chambers are above the auditorium, just in front of the stagehouse. The style 260-special organ with a “small” set of 32' Diaphone pipes installed backstage, the organ was removed from the Chinese Theatre in the early 1950s.
The organ was removed and seriously modified and reinstalled in St. Finbar’s R.C. Church in Burbank. In the early 1980s, the organ was either completely removed or again modified. The original Chinese Theatre Wurlitzer console is now playing the superb 20-rank Wurlitzer in the Stanford Theatre in Palo Alto, CA.
The late theatre organist George Wright (who actually recorded some never-released recordings of the Chinese Wurlitzer) described the organ as having a very pleasing, but distant sound.
The elaborate cieling organ screen is dozens of feet from the actual chamber openings. The organ sound was transported via a large, smooth surface “tone chute”.
Like Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre (across and down Hollywood Blvd. from the Chinese), the Chinese Wurlitzer console was not on a lift
but sat in a fixed position in the orchestra pit. (The Egyptian Theatre Wurlitzer was the same Wurlitzer style 260 as the Chinese Wurlitzer but was installed in 1922.)
For those that are interested, a short history of Raymond M. Kennedy, the architect of the Chinese Theater has been recently posted on Wikipedia. Once you are at the Wikipedia web site just type in Raymond M. Kennedy into the search box and click on Go. For some reason if you click search after typing in his name it does not go to his page.
CALLING ALL THEATRE / MOVIE ENTHUSIASTS!!!
T'he Los Angeles Theatre' on South Broadway, LA is playing host to the UK television show ‘Dead Famous LIVE’. We are currently looking for people who would like to come along as part of the studio audience.
‘Dead Famous LIVE’ is a studio entertainment show all about Hollywood History and the paranormal. We will be welcoming celebrity guests on to the show and investigating famous locations around Hollywood which are rumoured to be haunted including the Los Angeles Theatre itself.
This is an invaluable chance to get access to the Los Angeles Theatre, the place where Charlie Chaplin’s ‘City Lights’ premiered in 1931 and to have a thoroughly great day out! (And its free!!)
We’re transmitting ‘Live’ back to the United Kingdom so expect it to be exciting and fun!
We will be filming on three days from 11th – 13th November between 11.30am – 4pm. If you are interested in coming on one or all of these days then email me for tickets!
.uk
I look forward to your responses!
My grandfather, Jean Klossner was on the original Meyer & Holler construction crew that built the Egyptian, Chinese, Mayan and American theaters (among others) ….. After the opening of the Chinese, he performed the footprint ceremonies for over 40 years. He said Sid Grauman always wanted to open a complete chain, each theater with a different theme …. So different than the “Multiplex Giants” of today ……
Theatre chains need to worry about above comments. Presentaiton is a key elemnet missing in many of our theatres across the country. The experience of going to a theatre must competed with DVD’S in todays world. In the old days bad behavior in a theatre wasn’t tolerated.brucec
My apology to those who read my comments and were puzzled by the facts. The actual film I was referring to was BATMAN BEGINS . Sorry, I must have been so flustered by my experience I had forgotten the name of the film I saw or in this case didn’t see since I left well before the ending. People with stinky feet and cell phones should be banned from any theatre. Were was security or ushers to keep an eye on such nonsence, especially a place like Grauman’s!
This theatre features prominently in the film “Fade to Black” (1980).
Stevebob: I absolutely remember the plastic mold machine; it sat on the extreme right of the forecourt (facing towards the entrance) next to the entrance of the gift shop. I last saw it in the early 1990s, but it has gone now. How I wish I had actually made one of the little pagodas on one of my many visits, now the opportunity is lost.
There’s something else that’s missing from the forecourt. Many years ago (in the 1940s, maybe), the theatre held a contest that would allow the winner, just any average Joe, to place his name and prints in cement just like the celebs did. The deal was that the cement slab would remain there forever, just like all the others. Eventually, of course, the slab was moved to an out-of-the-way spot waaaayyyy to the right, not far from the plastic machine mentioned above. I remember seeing it there at the same time I last saw the mold machine. Now, it has gone too. I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the winner who was so immortalized, but I remember the words ‘contest winner’ were on the same slab with his prints.
It’s just bats, man.
“I attended a showing of Batman Returns at one of the multiplex screens not the original theatre” (Valencia, Aug 27, 2005)
“If memory serves, and it does so less than it used to, ‘Batman Returns’ would have played when the twin was still next door and not the current 6 plex in the new center.” (Manwithnoname, Aug 27, 2005)
I saw “Batman Returns,” the 1992 entry in the movie series, on opening night in the Chinese’s original, main auditorium. So either Valencia is confusing one “Batman” movie with another or saw the movie after it had been playing a while and the print had been moved to one of the smaller screens next door.
I attended a showing of Batman Returns at one of the multiplex screens not the original theatre which by the way is still glorious. The modern multiplex is like anyother multiplex in the USA rather boxlike and unimaginative but clean and comfortable. Yet my experience that evning was awful. A woman who sat behind me had the nerve to prop her shoeless feet on then top of the vacan seat next to me inches from my face. Talk about manners! I could have said something to her but was worried I would offend her race and gender. So to prevent another LA riot starting in the theatre I moved my seat. The next place I sat the person next me decides to take a cell phone call. I had it and left. The movie stank any way.
I wonder why you are nobody in Hollywood until Hollywood Boulevard itself, between the streets of LaBrea and Highland, is shut down for your pix’s premiere? Could there be a reason why this theater has had more premieres than any theater in the US? Is it the red carpet, the press, the tv coverage (at least in Hollywood), the fans screaming from across the street on bleachers as the limos arrive or the spotlights streaking above the skys? Might this actually be the theater of the STARS' preference since 1927? Ummm… Could the Chinese be HOLLYWOOD?
Everyday that I went to work there, under by breath, I would say, “Good Morning Sid,” and “Goodnight Mr. Grauman,” as though the man was still there. It didn’t matter who the director, producer, star or studio was, my respect went to Sid, The ShowMan!
In my 20s, it was my dream to work there: In my 50s, my recolection is to reminisce.
Hey, in México city there is another Chinese: the ‘Palacio Chino’, but it looks very different indeed.
Jim’s comments are always both informed and informative. I love the Chinese because it is an event, but it spent a very long time being badly maintained and a lot of its treasures lost or damaged. By the 1990’s it had really lost its lustre, having nothing much else but a famous name and a tourist attraction entrance.
The booth moved back upstairs about 4 years ago. The main chandelier is about 50% smaller than it was originally, but is once again lit. Hopefully the horrible red wool curtains on the screen and side walls have gone by now. Mann have spent a lot of money making it look special again but they could spend a whole lot more considering the rep this place has.
First, I have to say that I feel Jim Rankin’s comments above are totally on target in assessing the stature of the Chinese as a “phenomenon”. My feeling about the Chinese, and likewise the Egyptian, was always that their fame considerably exceeded their intrinsic merits as movie palaces per se. (Maybe it’s partly that I don’t really enjoy the movie palace experience unless I’m sitting in the balcony — an impossibility in both those theaters!)
Anyway, I saw A Star Is Born (1976) and Divine Madness (1980) at the Chinese. My recollection is that the projection booth was still at the back of the orchestra level then, that it looked like a tacky addition that didn’t belong there, that an aisle actually snaked around it, and that the presentation was marred by the beam being distractingly close overhead. If my memory is incorrect, someone please correct me.
When was the booth relocated to the balcony?
Also, on a slight tangent, I seem to remember that when I was a kid in the 60s there was a coin-operated souvenir machine that cast a miniature replica of the pagoda in a brown waxy resiny plastic kind of material. Does that sound familiar to anybody?
Knatcal is right that the Chinese is really famous for its history and longevity —along with the footprints, etc., in the forecort. It is certainly not the foremost movie palace architecturally in the Los Angeles area, and its fame is therefore not of that origin, contrary to that impression given in the VHS tape “Movie Palaces” put out by a cable TV network a fews years ago and reviewed and offered at www.Amazon.com With the LOS ANGELES, the ORPHEUM, and a host of others, the CHINESE is really more of a phenomenon than the epitome of a movie palace, and, in fact, its unique balcony arrangement really puts it more in a class by itself within the palaces.
Do they have tours of the Chinese Theater? I was there two years ago and bought a ticket to “The School of Rock” mainly to see the theater like Knatcal did. The movie turned out to be very good anyway, but I’d hate to have to sit through something like “The Dukes of Hazzard”.
I grew up around Los Angeles but I have no memory of ever going to the Chinese Theater as a child in 1970s or as a teenager in the 1980s. I do however remember going to the Chinese Twin Theaters – to see what I cannot I remember – that were formerly located next to the Chinese Theatre. Even then I was curious about the Chinese Theater however I did not see a film at the Chinese Theatre until I saw “12 Monkeys” in the mid 1990s. I have since seen two other films here, “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and very recently “The Dukes of Hazard.” On both occasion I saw the films mainly to see the theater. It is an amazing theater with a stellar past. However after going to many other classic movie palaces in Los Angeles that have ceased being regularly operating cinemas and are now used for stage theaters, special events or numerous other uses, I feel the Chinese Theatre benefits from its history, location and continuos operation to give it its larger than life mystique. The many other movie palaces around Los Angeles, and even in Hollywood, match the Chinese Theatre in opulence and grandeur. That is no means demeans the Chinese Theatre, which is an amazing movie palace, but places it in its proper place among a historic group of truly wonderful theaters with the Chinese being the only one to have never succumbed. And that is a grand feat.
I’ve vacationed in Hollywood twice (I’m from Minnesota) and I made sure to visit and see movies at the Chinese both times. The first time, in 1988, I had one of the most unique movie-going experiences I’ve known. I saw “Memories Of Me” (starring Billy Crystal) there, and walked through the famous courtyard in order to see a film featuring a scene that was set in the very same courtyard I had just walked through…
Here’s hoping the Chinese will remain standing as long as Hollywood itself does.
Bear in mind, there was no concession stand when the Chinese was built in 27. It came later. Then, for decades, it sat flush with its back wall against the booth wall, in the center of the lobby. Finally, when projection was moved back upstairs, the back wall to the projection booth was removed, and the concession stand now resides in what was the old booth.
The “large black structures” you speak of at the rear of the theater were the huge “Sensurround” speakers and sub-woofers installed for the movie “Earthquake” (1974). Both “Blazing Saddles” and “Earthquake” were made in the same year.
The ticket booth is on the street, but it is now located in the new 6 screens building, built to the right of the main theatre. This has now allowed the original courtyard where that hand and foot prints are, to be totally ‘opened up’ as originally intended and as seen in original opening photographs.