I normally focus on vintage photos of Los Angeles and Hollywood, but I feel that the name Grauman (as in Grauman’s Chinese Theatre) is so synonymous with Hollywood that I’m grandfathering it in. This photo was taken in San Francisco after the devastating earthquake that leveled 80% of the city. Among the destroyed buildings were both Sid Grauman’s Unique and Lyceum theaters. Recognizing that the locals yearned for a return to normal, Sid swung into action. He borrowed a tent from a local preacher, salvaged some church pews and opened the Grauman’s Canvas Theatre on the grounds of his Unique Theatre on Market St, where he showed “The Great Train Robbery” (1903) to such success that he opened a second canvas theater where the National Theatre had once stood. Ever the showman, he promoted his enterprise with this reassuring message: “Nothing to fall on you but canvas if there is another quake.”