Click on the photo to see a larger view, then click again for an ever larger view.

Judging by the cars parked outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, I figured that this pristine photograph was taken fairly early on in the theater’s life. But then my friend Kurt from GraumansChinese.org told me the poster in the bottom left corner was of Cecil B. DeMille. This indicated that this shot was taken during the debut run of his film, “King of Kings” which had its premiere on May 18, 1927 ahead of an impressive 24-week run through to the end of October. Only one of the independent stores in the complex was open back then. On the right side was Lickter’s Chinese Smoke Shop. They specialized in hand-rolled, gold-tipped, monogrammed cigarettes and would later install a neon sign that said: “A Puff from Hollywood.”

Of course, the “puffing” that goes on in Hollywood these days is of an entirely different nature…