Footprints
There are nearly 200 Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints, and autographs in the concrete of the theater's forecourt.
Variations of this honored tradition are imprints of the eye glasses of Harold Lloyd, the cigar of Groucho Marx, the magic wands of Harry Potter stars Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the facial profile of John Barrymore (reflecting his nickname "The Great Profile"), the legs of Betty Grable, the fist of John Wayne, the knees of Al Jolson, the ice skating blades of Sonja Henie, and the noses of Jimmy Durante and Bob Hope.
Western stars William S. Hart and Roy Rogers left imprints of their guns. The hoofprints of "Tony", the horse of Tom Mix, "Champion", the horse of Gene Autry, and "Trigger", the horse of Rogers, were left in the concrete beside the prints of the stars who rode them in the movies.
Since 2011, there has been a surge of concrete ceremonies, many of which have been paid by movie studios for publicity reasons. One of the theatre's current owners Donald Kushner acknowledged this and referred to them as "mock ceremonies." This influx has been a matter of concern for film buffs and historians, as well as misleading for fans. However, despite the increase of cement blocks, the ones placed within the forecourt are still chosen by a special committee who selects celebrities based on their contributions to Hollywood cinema. The other blocks are placed on the walls of the Grauman Ballroom, located inside the Chinese 6 Theatres within the Hollywood & Highland Center.
Read more about this topic: Grauman's Chinese Theatre
Famous quotes containing the word footprints:
“Leonid Ivanovich Shigaev is dead.... The suspension dots, customary in Russian obituaries, must represent the footprints of words that have departed on tiptoe, in reverent single file, leaving their tracks on the marble....”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Morning at last: there in the snow
Your small blunt footprints come and go.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)