NitrateVille.com

Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks, Norma Talmadge, and Sid Grauman's original footprints in the forecourt of Grauman's Chinese were removed in 1958 when the Hollywood Walk of Fame stars were being put in, and then replacements were put in. The originals were believed lost, but exist in an airplane hangar now.

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local ... 42909.html

That's intriguing - I'd pretty much written off the claim about Norma Talmadge accidentally treading in the concrete as Hollywood hokum.

I'm still not clear on exactly when those three particular sets were done, though - I have never seen a photo of a ceremony taking place, and some sources list them as having been `backdated' to the theatre's opening day.

Also interesting to see the `practice slabs' confirmed as fact. I recently saw a set of these for sale (from memory, they were Joan Crawford's) and the whole thing sounded pretty fishy to me ... apparently not!

There are original photographs of the ceremony on pages 58 and 60 in the great book "Hollywood at Your Feet: The Story of the World-Famous Chinese Theatre from the Silents to Star Trek" by Robert Cushman and Stacy Endres.

Reminds me of the old urban legend that stars who quickly faded into obscurity had their footprints quietly removed and placed into a basement (or warehouse) to make room for newer fresher names. I wonder if they will auction off the Pickford, Fairbanks, and Talmadge footprints?

The owners of the Chinese will not come up with the $$ to get their history back, BUT......

on Feb. 19 they will let Kobe Bryant place his hand & footprints in the forecourt as part of the NBA All-star weekend game in L.A.

Now why do they let a basketball player be among film stars? (I know, I know....he's popular.)

This is so wrong.