Travel Tips & Adventures

If you’ve ever seen any of the red carpet events in Hollywood, you don’t have to wish you could be there. You can travel there, too, just not necessarily during a major event.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre

The strip of Hollywood Boulevard where actors are immortalized with stars on the sidewalk, plus embedded in cement, is right there for anyone to see. Tom Hanks’ and George Clooney’s shoe and hand prints are there and seem small in comparison to the personas they both sport.

Arnold Schwarzenegger’s feet and hands – big shoes to fill – and his slogan – “I’ll be back” are on display. Johnny Depp, always an individualist, left his boot prints.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's prints

Johnny Depp's boot prints

A special surprise is all three of the child stars from the Harry Potter movies immortalized.

Harry Potter stars

Grauman’s Chinese Theatre http://www.manntheatres.com/chinese/ is there, gaudy and magnetic with the many imbedded prints that have been immortalized over time. The first footprint ceremony was in 1927 and stars have been leaving their foot, hand and other prints there ever since.

Go back a ways and you’ll see Clark Gable, Shirley Temple, and George Burns. Burns not only left his shoe and hand prints, but a cigar print with the motto “going in style.”

George Burns' feet, hands and cigar

Clint Eastwood also weighed in with his hand prints in 1984, and added his ubiquitous slogan, modified to, “You made my day.”

Clint Eastwood

The Kodak Theatre is near Grauman’s and can also be visited by normal mortals, but you can expect to be kept out of the limelight during awards events.
The more formalized stars that are set in the sidewalks go on for blocks. You’ll see Steven Spielberg, but also Godzilla, William Shatner, Charles Chaplin and many others that represent all aspects of the films industry, from actors to directors to composers.

Steven Spielberg's prints

There is a sense of hoopla as street performers, Disney characters and other tourists jostle each other to see their favorites.

Disney characters and hoopla

The best part about the stargazing is that it doesn’t cost a cent! Tours are, of course, available, but anyone can wander about looking.
If you want to do more than just stargaze, Hollywood has other sights, studios, and locations to view. Studio tours are available for which prices vary.
Outside of “Movie Central,” there’s much more to see in the Hollywood area, but it’s hard to resist looking at those feet!

Tags: Fun, Hollywood, US Domestic Travel

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 at 6:00 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.