Free previewStop 2 of Hollywood Walk of Fame Walking Tour: Chinese Theatre to Hollywood and Vine
Who Really Stepped in the Wet Cement?
You're on Hollywood Boulevard, in front of the building everyone here just calls the Chinese. Its official name today is the TCL Chinese Theatre, after an electronics company paid 5 million dollars in 2013 for the right to put its name on it. Look down at the open courtyard in front of the doors. Those grey concrete squares are covered in signatures, handprints and footprints, the movies' own guest book, running from the 1920s to now.
The man behind all this was Sid Grauman, a theater showman who had already built the Million Dollar Theatre downtown and the Egyptian, just down this boulevard, which opened in 1922. The Egyptian was such a hit that Grauman wanted a second palace, even bigger. He leased the land where the actor Francis X. Bushman's mansion stood, and he brought in partners Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, the most famous couple in Hollywood.
That's the opening. The rest plays at stop 2 of Hollywood Walk of Fame Walking Tour: Chinese Theatre to Hollywood and Vine (3 min in all). Unlock the tour to hear it all, or try stop 1 free first.
