Sid Grauman was a San Francisco showman who came to Los Angeles and
built three major houses, the Million Dollar, the Egyptian, and the
Chinese. The theater has hosted many film premieres, but is most famous
for the hand and footprints (and hoofprints and nose prints and other
types of prints) in the forecourt.
Widely loved singing cowboy Roy Rogers, the King of the Cowboys,
left his hand, foot, and revolver prints in the forecourt of Grauman's
Chinese on 21-April-1949. His trusty steed Trigger left his hoofprints.
Roy's wife Dale Evans wrote his theme song, "Happy Trails." DSCN4149.
I took this on 18-July-2009.
The 1948 Hollywood Reporter Production Encyclopedia
Young actor Page Peters, who had appeared in a number of movies, including Cecil B DeMille's The Warrens of Virginia and William Desmond Taylor's Davy Crockett, drowned at Hermosa Beach 100 years ago today, on 22-June-1916. The ad says George Beban would direct Davy Crockett, but the ad was probably printed before the movie was made.
Happy Fathers' Day to all my fellow fathers. I miss my dad. And I miss my father-in-law. I haven't had anyone to buy a card for for a long time.
I think my favorite movie dad is William Powell's Nick Charles in the Thin Man
series, inspired by Dashiell Hammett's novel. Nick and Nora really
loved each other. Nick had some points in common with my dad: He was
very smart, he could be very sarcastic, and he always enjoyed a martini.
Muhammad Ali, who may have been The Greatest of All Time, is dead. He inspired some great documentaries. When We Were Kings told the story of The Rumble in the Jungle, Ali's 1974 fight in Zaire against George Foreman. No one expected Ali to win. Some people expected Ali to die. I still get the chant "Ali, boma ye!" stuck in my head.
www.listal.com
Facing Ali allowed several of his opponents to tell their stories. I was sad to see the condition of many of the men, who I remembered as young and strong.
I remember a program he did on ABC's Wide World of Sports where Ali sat with Howard Cosell and watched movies of past heavyweight champs. Ali said he would have beaten each one. I wonder if he would have beaten Jack Johnson or Joe Louis. In either case, it would have been a heck of a fight. I would like to see the show again.
And of course Ali's 1975 fight with Chuck Wepner, the Bayonne Bleeder, inspired the movie Rocky.
