Concerned preservationists took the TCL Chinese Theatre to task for dragging souvenir stalls over its prized collection of celebrity footprints in concrete.
The furor began late last week when Vintage Los Angeles, a civilian-managed Facebook page, posted a photo of the slabs for Jean Harlow and Lana Turner covered by a cart “full of souvenir junk.” The resulting uproar inspired a petition on Change.org that was directed at the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation.
The director of the Foundation wasn’t swayed. He responded: "The Chinese Theatre is a business, not a museum, and whether one person or a million people walk into the Forecourt to take a selfie with their favorite star's footprints, they make no money to pay for insurance, maintenance, upkeep or improvements."
In the end, this was a case in which the Historic Theatre Foundation was more permissive than the theatre owner. Yesterday, KLM Equities, Inc., which owns the theatre and recently renovated and modernized the interior, removed the carts.
For our money, the question was never whether it's legal. It was about good stewardship of heritage. The Chinese Theatre, formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, opened in 1927 and right away the first movie stars, including Norma Talmadge, began visiting its forecourt and dipping their shoes and hands in wet concrete. That means some of the panels—there are now almost 200 of them—are nearly 90 years old. In the past decade, the neighborhood has been elevated to a major tourism hub (the Oscars are held in an adjoining shopping mall complex each year) but the increased traffic has not resulted in a reconsideration of how to preserve the panels. If the footprints were being truly honored, the stalls would never have been installed.
For our money, the question was never whether it's legal. It was about good stewardship of heritage. The Chinese Theatre, formerly known as Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, opened in 1927 and right away the first movie stars, including Norma Talmadge, began visiting its forecourt and dipping their shoes and hands in wet concrete. That means some of the panels—there are now almost 200 of them—are nearly 90 years old. In the past decade, the neighborhood has been elevated to a major tourism hub (the Oscars are held in an adjoining shopping mall complex each year) but the increased traffic has not resulted in a reconsideration of how to preserve the panels. If the footprints were being truly honored, the stalls would never have been installed.
There are so many more landmarks we can ruin in the name of business. Billboards on the side of the Sydney Opera House's roof? Renting Monticello as a B&B? Taking money from a corporation to carve a fifth face on Mount Rushmore? Those are hyperbolic examples, but there does come a point when we need to possess the good sense to recognize American heritage spots that matter—and to know what should be done to preserve them without a public shaming.
