TCL Chinese Theatre

Sid Grauman's 1927 Chinese-style movie palace on Hollywood Boulevard, with the famous forecourt of star handprints and footprints in concrete. It remains a working cinema, often used for premieres; the interior is one of the more elaborate surviving picture palaces in the country.

The forecourt is free to wander at any time. Tours of the auditorium run several times a day and are worth the half hour for the architecture.

things to do sight hollywood
A story
The forecourt slabs of cement, with the handprints and footprints of nearly two hundred film stars from Mary Pickford to John Wayne to Marilyn Monroe, were started in 1927 when a passing star — accounts differ on whether it was Norma Talmadge, Douglas Fairbanks, or Mary Pickford — accidentally trod in wet cement at the building site.

Other places in Things to Do