Film promoters like Sid Grauman would resort to anything to encourage people to come see films at his Chinese Theater—including a statue. The movie he was advertising was Douglas Fairbanks Sr’s “The Gaucho” set in Argentina. It had its world premiere at Grauman’s Chinese on November 4, 1927 ahead of a 12-week run. We have two clues about where this statue stood. In the left background we can see the Fox Belmont Theatre, which stood at 126 S. Vermont Ave, and on the right we can see the massive El Patio Ballroom (later the Palomar) which covered a whole block on Vermont between 2nd and 3rd Street. I assume the statue was made of plaster and was disposed of after the run of the movie, but wouldn’t it be great if it was still around? Although where anyone would put something like this is a mystery.
By the way, The Gaucho” was only the second movie to play the Chinese. The movie before it was “King of Kings” which had an astounding 24-week run.
** UPDATE ** – The statue was made by sculptor Finn Haakon Frolich. A Twitter user who goes by Bix found a source that said “In Hollywood he once made 100 statues in three months for a motion picture.”
All of that giant slough was down here so the lands and roadways had to be heavily altered over time. This lot came to be enclosed with fencing and fronted by a fancy billboard facing out on the corner, so what was behind it is a good question…parking area? On the northwest corner, and this is at around 3rd Street, was a Richfield Station. Same artist who did their race car sculpture?
I thought of that race car driver statue when I saw this photo, so it’s entirely possible they were both done by the same guy.