TCL Chinese Theatre

I worked at Grauman’s cir. 1960 as doorman. I had to wear the black uniform with the dragon on the front and it snapped on. Ralph Hathaway was the manager. And he had a couple of assistants too. The first premiere I worked was “HEAVEN KNOWS MR. ALLISON.” It played for several weeks. The opening picture for my employment was “Oh Men, Oh Women” and the front of the theatre had the title all across the entranceway in neon letters.

Of course it was exciting to work there. There were two trees on each side of the forecourt that had leaves constantly falling down. I had to sweep them up along with cigarette butts from tourists who walked around looking at the hand and footprint of famous actors. There were two fish ponds by the trees with large goldfish in them.

There was a small private balcony that seated around ten people. A few celebrities were allowed there to avoid fans chasing after them. I remember one time that Lawrence Olivier was there and also Marlon Brando. There was often name stars who came though the front entrance and sat in the audience with other theatre patrons.

I was told I had to sweep the gutter in front, and I felt this was below my job as doorman. The theater was later renovated for a film that flopped. The interior was changed as well as parts of the lobby. I have forgotten the name of the film…….(Windjammer), but Fox West Coast had a turnover of executives after that failure. I never worked there for that fiasco.

The biggest premiere, before I worked there was “GIANT.” Hollywood Boulevard was shut down a block to Highland. It was jammed with tourists and James Dean fans. There was a “canopy” made of Klieg lights that were shown over the theatre and unlike Klieg lights for premieres, they were stationary. It was awesome to see. Like “Oh Men Oh Women” the film’s title with the three star’s names, James Dean, Elizabeth Taylor and Rock Hudson lit up in neon. There was an early ceremony with Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson and director George Stevens placing their hand and footprints in the cement in the forecourt. It is still there although more worn that the others. The originator of the cement mixture had died and a new mixture for the concrete was used. It wore down pretty fast but it is still readable.

The Final Destination 5 3D is up now for Pre-Sale at the Main theatre, an for 2D at the Chinese 6. Opens Aug 12.

Riot Breaks Out At Grauman’s Chinese During “Electric Daisy Carnival" Premiere

I wonder if this will make the owners change their plans to make this theatre double as a nightclub/concert hall/etc…

Attended the 7:20PM Harry Potter showing on 7/26 and was pleased to count about 200 moviegoers, including quite a few speaking foreign languages. 3D adds nothing to the movie and I will also see it in 2D at the Vista.

The new owners need to add more variety to the Chinese 6 as they are also mainly showing Harry Potter and it dilutes the attendance at Grauman’s.

The Chinese (probably in the 6 plex) is getting THE SMURFS next Friday.

Makes sense. Just odd that they don’t have it listed yet. I just hope the Chinese doesn’t end up with Conan 3D.

I don’t know, while the Chinese has been impressively going up and up in quality, Arclight is slowly going down and becoming more and more like any other chain out there. People complained about how awful looking the Transformers 3 3D shows in the Dome were for a solid week before they said they took care of it. That’s completely unacceptable for a theater that prides themselves on being a presentation first destination and charges a premium for it. They’ve gotten a big ego lately (some of it well deserved) but it’s causing them to get lazy and sloppy and without a lot of interest in how happy their customers really are. The Harry Potter show at the Chinese was, all around, the best presentation/experience I’ve had in a long time. Other than the lack of reserved seating and the need to show that pre-show, it’s bested anything Arclight’s done all year. I told Arclight after the Transformers 3 fiasco that I wouldn’t be seeing anything else there the rest of this summer and I intend to stick to that.

And I don’t necessarily agree that all these bookings were lined up by Mann before they cleared out. The last Potter opened at the Dome and I can’t think of any reason why Arclight wouldn’t have fought to get 7.2 as well. I think the new owners ARE being more aggressive and the fact that the Chinese played two big studio movies a week apart is a good sign (especially considering how little interest Mann had in booking the theater when they DID run it). X-Men: First Class… maybe. but not 3 new movies in 6 weeks. That wasn’t Mann’s style the last few years.

By the way… still no Cowboys & Aliens showtimes for Hollywood, despite full weekend showtimes already up at the other 3 Arclights. Brad, when you say you were at Arclight and they are getting Cowboys & Aliens, did they say so to you or did you just see a trailer before whatever you saw?

I was at the Saturday 7/16 7:30 PM show for Harry Potter 7.2. I can confirm Cliffs’s findings including costumes in the lobby and trailers (although our showing also got “Happy Feet Two” as a 3D trailer as well). Harry should keep Chinese in business till late August or so, $168 million buck opening weekend and all.

No issues with the Dark Knight Rises trailer…they’ve only been shooting the flick for a month and a half. Can’t expect a plethora of footage. The teaser for The Dark Knight was just voiceover with the Bat logo exploding to a deck of playing cards with the Joker card hurling right at the screen.

I was at Arclight yesterday, they are getting Cowboys & Aliens. Pretty much every big film within the next 3 weeks they are getting. But from the sound of it, the Chinese can get by with Harry Potter for the bulk of the Summer.

“Harry Potter was rocking for the midnight show tonight. The line to get in stretched around Hollywood Blvd and down Orange hours before the show was to start. This was the Chinese of old….”

that’s great to hear Cliffs. :)

do you remember what trailers were shown before Harry Potter?

Harry Potter was rocking for the midnight show tonight. The line to get in stretched around Hollywood Blvd and down Orange hours before the show was to start. This was the Chinese of old. The theater was packed a good hour before showtime (they let us in at 11) and the crowd was hardcore fans. The 3D looked great and when we left it looked like there was a line outside for what I can only assume was an additional 3am show. It was good to see the Chinese looking like the Chinese again.

I also noticed that Arclight isn’t yet showing any Hollywood times for Cowboys and Aliens, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the Chinese might be making a play for that one as well. I certainly hope that to be the case… I’m pretty disillusioned with Arclight these days. In any case, it looks like the new owners and whoever is running things at the Chinese now is making a serious effort to get that theater back on its feet.

Zookeeper is opening tomorrow at the Chinese for one week only. Not that I will rush out to see that one, but its nice to see new product there!