TCL Chinese Theatre - Hands in the Cement

Photo: Rob Young from United Kingdom, CC BY 2.0 (cropped)

A stop on Hollywood Boulevard Walk, a free self-guided tour.

You are standing in the most famous forecourt in show business. Showman Sid Grauman opened this theater on May 18, 1927, with Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings, and its pagoda roof, bronze dragon and stone guardian lions were pure movie-palace fantasy. Architect Raymond M. Kennedy of the firm Meyer and Holler designed it, and it is still a working cinema, now with a giant IMAX screen.

Now look down. Nearly 200 stars have pressed their hands, feet and signatures into these concrete squares, starting with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks in April 1927. How the custom began is a legend with several versions: the theater's own story says silent star Norma Talmadge stepped into wet cement by accident, while Grauman once claimed he did it himself.

Hunt for the oddballs: Harold Lloyd's eyeglasses, Groucho Marx's cigar, Betty Grable's leg and the wands of the three young Harry Potter stars. Then see whose shoes your own feet fit.

Getting here: The tour begins here in the forecourt, just west of the Hollywood/Highland Metro station on the north side of Hollywood Boulevard.

Did you know?: In 2013 the Chinese electronics company TCL paid $5 million for the right to put its name on the theater, but plenty of people still call it Grauman's.

Photo op: Stand at the front edge of the forecourt with your back to the boulevard to frame the green pagoda roof above the doors, then crouch beside a favorite star's handprints for a close-up.

More on Wikipedia: Grauman's Chinese Theatre · Sid Grauman · Norma Talmadge · Mary Pickford

TCL Chinese Theatre - Hands in the Cement

Stops on this tour