TCL Chinese Theatre
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
6925 Hollywood Boulevard,
Los Angeles,
CA
90028
160 people
favorited this theater
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Unfortunately, the two fallen movie palaces are the San Francisco Fox 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.
When I saw “Da Vinci Code” at the Dome, the trailer for “Casino Royale” was played. I assumed it was coming to the Dome. Instead, we’ll have “Happy Feet”. “Casino Royale” will probably play at the Chinese.
JSA
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 booth was a crime. The plaza looks open and lifeless now.
Removal of the free-standing ticket book was a crime. The plaza looks open and lifeless now.
Is is safe to assume that “Casino Royale” will play here? I thought it would play at the Cinerama Dome since they’ve been booking tons of Columbia product this year.
That photo dates from around mid August of 1929. From when the MGM film “Hollywood Revue of 1929” played the theatre. Up until that time there was only 14 footprint ceremonies held at the theatre. The next one was scheduled on Sept. 14th with Joan Crawford (#15). The first one being of Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks on April 30th 1927. The theatre opened to the public on May 19th. 1927.
This is an interesting photo from the 1920s as there don’t appear to be any footprints in the cement:
http://tinyurl.com/ylv9p9
Two big crowd-pleasing 1960’s hits at the Chinese:
View link
View link
Two ads from the Los Angeles Times – two big premieres of two big pictures at the Chinese – an overload of celebrity guests. If the hosts of these events had to stop and talk to every one of those guests, the show would never get under way on time.
West Side Story – December 1961:
View link
On the Beach – December 1959:
View link
Shane, come back, Shane….
http://tinyurl.com/rurwh
Last summer I went to the Chinese to see the WAR OF THE WORLDS remake. The film stunk but the THX sound was just awesome.
does anyone know how many subwoofers the Chinese has?
Hello everyone,
I just wanted to thank all those who responded to my post. All your comments were helpful. I turned in my paper a few days ago, so hopefully I did well. Thanks again! :)
-College Student
All the major Hollywood film palaces are open and being used. The smaller theatres are the ones that are either closed or have been demolished. Every major theatre has been restored or renovated with the exception of the Pacific(Warner).brucec
Bill, what’s so nice about the Hollywood area is that so many of the theaters survive. Although compared to what was once there on Hollywood Blvd, it’s even suffered a lot too. There are so many closed theaters on Hollywood Blvd (and surrounding) too. But since they had so many, thankfully a few of the gems survive.
College Student should go to Google and type in “Raymond M. Kennedy”, there is a Wikipedia bio about him and it gives some info on the theater design.
The Chinese theatre is featured as one of Los Angeles’s tourist attractions on this website about Los Angeles.
http://www.geocities.com/los_angeles_coast/
The theme of the CHINESE was not chosen to ‘honor’ China any more than the many Spanish-themed movie palaces were so decorated to honor Spain. And so for all the other themed theatres, aside from truly ethnic theaters such as the Germanic PABST in Milwaukee.
College Student would do well to read such as the landmark book at libraries: THE BEST REMAINING SEATS, THE STORY OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF THE MOVIE PALACE by the late Ben M. Hall in 1961. It is available at amazon.com as used copies. This book will show the genesis of these theatres, and while great attention to authentic detail was expended, it was to create a theatre type that had no precedent in China at the time, hence the auditorium is necessarily much larger in scale than the original throne room in the Imperial Palace in (then) Peiking. I can’t imagine that any of the theatre is an insult to the Chinese, but also we must not be so naive to think that it was designed as a ‘monument’ to the Chinese. It was designed to strike the fancy of the Los Angeles public as a theatre for maximum profit.
The Chinese Theater was an awesome and amazing sight for someone from the New York area like me. Almost all our movie palaces have been destroyed. A famous Chinese-American actor, Keye Luke, designed and painted the murals, wall and ceiling decorations in the theater, and they are truly beautiful.
Hello all, I’m a college student in southern California doing a research paper on Grauman’s Chinese Theater. I was hoping I could get a few questions answered, preferably by someone Chinese-American, who knows China’s cultural art, and has personally seen the theater. But anyone is free to answer any questions, any answers are greatly appreciated. Please respond ASAP.
Do you think the theater depicts China’s culture accurately? Please explain.
Do you the global exchange of Chinese architecture was a great idea for Hollywood? Why/why not?
What was it like for you when visiting the theater?
Anything else you would like to add.
Thank you for your time and I can’t wait to see your response.
Posiedon at least had its premiere at the Chinese — I was down there yesterday afternoon and they were getting ready for the festivities (Hollywood Blvd. westbound closed down in front of the theatre, the sidewalk in front of the theatre itself blocked and the tackiest blue carpet I think I’ve ever seen, bored security guards). Lots of disappointed tourists who wanted to see the footprints and weren’t necessarily willing to wait in the heat to see the stars. So, instead of wandering among the footprints after a not-that-satisfactory job interview, I wandered up the “Arcade of Awards” at the Kodak and enjoyed the Intolerance-style elephants.
“Duck Dodgers in the 24th ½ Century” was shown in 70mm with “Star Wars” at the Cinema 21 in San Francisco.
I just read some of the Star Wars stuff up above, I saw the original Star Wars in 70mm at the Chinese way back when and thought I’d get someone else’s memory going! I seem to recall that they were running a 70mm copy of “Duck Dodgers” (remember that great Daffy Duck Cartoon!) along with the film, and someone told me that it was a request of George Lucas. I also remember Star Wars as having been one of the first films to use the full 20th Century Fox “CinemaScope Fanfare” in years, it was really a knock-out in 70MM Dolby!!! The Chinese is another one of those wonderful theatres where even a “crappy” movie some how looks and sounds great! Not living in or near LA I have only seen a few films there, but seeing Star Wars there was outstanding, unfortunately, when I got home I had to run the film in 35MM mono, we did get Dolby several weeks into the run but no 70mm.