Grauman's Chinese Theatre - Hollywood, California
Posted by: 
wildwoodke
N 34° 06.108 W 118° 20.457
11S E 376309 N 3774255
Grauman's Chinese Theatre is the movie theatre to visit when coming to Los Angeles, it is located at 6925 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.
Waymark Code: WMCH9X
Location: California, United States
Date Posted: 09/08/2011
Views: 21
The Guide Series describes the theatre as:
"...a spectacular adaptation of the Chinese style of architecture, designed by Meyer and Haller, is the scene of Hollywood's super premieres where stars and film moguls attend opening performances of new films with the ballyhoo of searchlights, floodlights, microphone and loudspeakers, and roped-off aisles covered with carpet.
The cacade, in the form of a U-shaped forecourt with a Chinese gate, set between terminal piers, suggest the approach to an ancient temple garden. Four lare obelisks, embellished with oriental decorations, surmount the two colossal piers. In the forecourt is a grove of palm trees, and other shrubs, and concrete slabs bearing the hand and foot prints of stars and their messages of congratulations. At the end of the forecourt a colorful pagoda forms the entrance to the theater, roofed in bronze aged to the color of jade green, and supported by two coral-red octagonal columns mounted with wrought-iron masks. Under the curved roof, and deeply set between the flanking piers, is a great stone dragon, modeled in relief on a slab 30 feet high."
Gillis, Mabel R. "California: A guide to the Golden State." 1939. Compiled and Written by the Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for the State of California. American Guide Series. Hastings House, New York. 713pp.
Today the Grauman Theatre is a tourist trap with numeros tour bus operators, visitors looking for their favourite TV personality and wanna-be actors grabbing your attention for the photo-op for a few bucks. With the Hollywood Walk of Fame more and more visitors can find there way there.
Much of the theatre's original charm is there but it can be difficult to see it through the mass. It is not a place to go if you are looking for some quite time and a chance to look at the architecture. Try to go very early in the morning or choose a holiday to find time to visit and contemplate some of the theatre's earlier glory days.
Book: California
Page Number(s) of Excerpt: 196
Year Originally Published: 1939
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