Eighty-five years after the iconic Grauman's Chinese Theatre opened on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, the favorite spot for both A-list Hollywood premieres and gawking tourists will now be named the TCL Chinese Theatre, after a television manufacturer based in... yep, China.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the Chinese firm (whose name stands for "The Creative Life") has signed a 10-year deal worth over $5 million for the naming rights to the theater, which is owned by producers Donald Kushner (Tron: Legacy) and Elie Samaha (The Whole Nine Yards)
The 1933 Mickey Mouse short Mickey's Gala Premiere was set at Grauman's, where Mickey's latest cartoon premieres. The many Hollywood celebrities laud and magnify Mickey's glorious name evermore, praising his performance and saying, "Bravo!" The film opens in front of the theater with searchlights probing the skies. A number of big-name Hollywood stars arrive, including Laurel and Hardy. Mickey and Minnie arrive, with Mickey pulling a reluctant Pluto on a leash. The film, "Galloping Romance," begins. Mickey is playing on a xylophone and Minnie is playing the piano when the villain, Pegleg Pete, bursts in on them, grabs Minnie, and takes off on his horse. Mickey takes off in pursuit, riding the galloping xylophone, variously pursuing Pete on a turtle, an octopus and a kangaroo, and firing at Pete with pistols and a cannon! Mickey rescues Minnie, and the film within a film ends. Will Rogers pulls Mickey, with a lasso, onto the stage of the theater, where he is congratulated by a cluster of movie stars. They all draw back, however, in respect to the approaching "star of stars," Greta Garbo, who picks Mickey up and begins kissing him. It all turns out to be a dream when Mickey wakes up to find that he is being licked by Pluto!
Kill Bill: Volume 1, which had an animated sequence, premiered on September 29, 2003 at Grauman's Chinese.
Also premiering at Grauman's in recent years: The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie, The Polar Express and Team America: World Police and Yu-Gi-Oh (all 2004); Racing Stripes (2005); Happy Feet, Ant Bully and Ice Age 2 (all 2006); TMNT (2007); Igor (2008); Astro Boy (2009); Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole (2010); Happy Feet 2, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Rio (all 2011); and Rise of the Guardians (2012).
On April 14, 2012, TCM had a 75th anniversary screening of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Grauman's.
Re: R.I.P. Grauman's Chinese Theatre
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Grauman's Chinese is depicted (realistically, at the beginning) in the Famous Studios Screen Song The Golden State (1948).
The cartoon shows stars' names and footprints in Grauman's famed sidewalk. In the Marx Brothers movies, Harpo Marx had a reputation as a girl-chaser. A great gag in the cartoon shows Harpo's footprints jumping out of the cement and running after a female visitor!
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"Oh boy." -- Allan Sherman
(This post was edited by eminovitz on Jan 12, 2013, 5:59 PM)
Re: R.I.P. Grauman's Chinese Theatre
[In reply to]
Grauman's Theater and its footprint sidewalk appear moments after the lead character, Danny Cat, steps off the bus from Kokomo, Indiana, in Turner Feature Animation's Cats Don't Dance.
"Since I was a little kitten / I've had a dream: "My name in lights / Danny the Song and Dance Cat."
Since this is a period feature, Turner's animators did the research and depicted quite a few Hollywood landmarks realistically.
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Life imitates cartoons. Don't believe me? Try typing "You're doing it wrong" into your search engine. * I have no idea how these fools survive themselves.
Re: R.I.P. Grauman's Chinese Theatre
[In reply to]
The Casper cartoon "Ghost Of Honor," had Casper asked to place his footprints in the cement. Remembering that a ghost's foot doesn't print, he used boots to leave the prints.
