I do so love atmospheric nighttime shots in Hollywood—especially ones with blurred movement capturing the improvised nature of the image. This one was taken in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre as people were browsing the footprints and handprints immortalized in cement. The ever-resourceful Kurt Wahlner at GraumansChinese.org tells me this photo was taken on June 15, 1951, which means “As Young As You Feel” and “Secrets of Monte Carlo” were playing on the night captured here. I haven’t heard of either of those movies, so you’d more likely have found me across the street at the Cinegrill cabaret whose neon sign you can see in the background.
People browse the footprints and handprints in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood, June 15, 1951
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I was trying to figure out whose hand & footprints those ladies were standing in front of, using the link to Kurt Wahlner’s fantastic website in the post, and I believe it to be those of Frederic March, placed there the day after his 1937 film A Star is Born premiered there.
The one to the right of that, left in the photo, is Alice Faye’s, and the one the ladies are mostly standing on is the footprints Lucy and Ethel–and a policeman–tried on for size when they were sightseeing there in that famous episode. Yup! Gary Cooper. If the ladies walked two cement blocks north of where they are they’d see John Wayne’s.
Excellent sleuthing, Mr Pal!