It's a Wonderful Life - On a Big Screen

Being far away from home during the holiday season is interesting. And it's times like these that Ryan and I look to create some traditions of our own in order to fill those voids. Some of those voids include-

* The lack of pine trees, and branchy old deciduous trees (still firmly planted in the earth and living outside on the streets and in folks' yards), decorated by the city and/or homeowners with lights and ornaments. (Sorry LA, but a string of white lights wrapped around the base of a palm tree is much less satisfying than what New England has to offer).

* The lack of fluffy white snow, or even falling snow during the Christmas season. (I still maintain snow is great from Thanksgiving up until the day after the New Year, after that it can melt and go away until the following year).

* The lack of family, friends, and coworkers, in additon to the lack of general familiarity.

It's a Wonderful Life advertised outside the
Grauman's Chinese Theatre

However, even with all that said LA remains a very cool place and thankfully there are many cool things to do in Hollywood, and I found one such cool thing - It's a Wonderful Life showing at Grauman's Chinese Theatre for a quarter.

It's a Wonderful Life has long been one of my favorite Christmas movies. Not only do I own it, but I've been known to watch it any old time I please, like the middle of summer. (After all, there are powerful messages in this movie that should be remembered and practiced the whole year long).

Last year, at an office Christmas party, I went wild when a coworker wrapped a present in It's a Wonderful Life wrapping paper, but unfortunately the wrapping paper was so cool everyone bought it and I couldn't find it anywhere!

In addition to my love and adoration for the movie, this was also gonna be a fine chance for Ryan and I to finally see the inside of the  Chinese Theatre.

Here's the thing about the Chinese Theatre - there is the old theater (absolutely beautiful) and there is a newer section where they have several screens and show new releases. It's a Wonderful Life was showing in the old theater, which was absolutely stunning.

The older theater is the one most accessible from the street (Hollywood Blvd). The mouth of the theater's entrance is met with the famous cement imprints of many celebrities like Jack Nicholson, Marilyn Monroe, and Shirley Temple.

The forecourt of famous hand and footprints

Shirley Temple's little prints :)

In fact during its construction owner Sid Grauman had commissioned Jean Klossner (the construction foreman) to make this extremely hard card concrete for the forecourt of the theater. Known later as Mr. Footprint, Klossner assisted in the concrete hand and footprint ceremonies from 1927 -1957.



There are several conflicting accounts of how the hand and footprint tradition began, but Klossner's handprint and autograph dated 1927 can still be seen at the theater today.

The outside, as you can see, is very detailed and was designed to replicate a giant, red, Chinese pagoda. There's a gigantic Chinese dragon and Chinese Ming Heavens dogs are at guard at the main enterance.

This facade is both unique and impressive. This also happens to be a fairly "happening" venue. Before this moment Ryan and I had not been able to even walk past the theater. Many movies premier here, it is also located in a highly touristy stretch of Hollywood Boulevard, and the Dolby Theater is nearby, as is the El Capitan Theatre (across the street) and the Roosevelt Hotel (where Robert Kennedy was shot and killed on his 1968 campaign trail).

So we waited outside for the people to begin letting us in to the theater. Ryan had been interviewed by a young man with a video camera. He wanted to know what Ryan thought about the event, and if he thought it was a good thing, and why? The young man interviewed several people in line. I wondered if he was a student somewhere and if this were an assignment. This entire event was part of the theatre's 85th anniversary. To celebrate its birthday the theatre was offering 25 cent tickets to a long list of classic movies like Shanghai Express, Hell's Angels, The King and I, and Breakfast at Tiffany's. It's a Wonderful Life was going to be its last movie shown during this "25 Cent Movie Mondays" event.

Once we were inside - Wow!!! The theatre was large, red, opulent, beautiful. Please note that no pictures will ever do this place justice, but I tried anyway.

A panorama picture of this gorgeous theatre

Let me assure you the movie was magical. I never thought in a million years I would ever have the chance to see this movie in a theater or a theater this magnificent and beautiful. 

There was a nice guy who bought tons of tickets for friends and coworkers, and gave tickets to families that wouldn't have otherwise had the chance to see this movie. The spirit of Christmas was in this theater that night.

Ryan and I scoped out the Christmas decorations in a connected court yard/shopping mall and also took a walk through the lobby of the new Chinese theater located upstairs from the original one.

Here's how all that looked...

The Leow's shopping area - complete with Christmas tree

The entrance, and pictures in the lobby of the Chinese 6 Theatres

This event was a lot of fun. We'd been through the Leow's shopping area/mall before. This is where that fabulous candy store  Sweet's is. 

There's also a Johnny Rocket's. There are a variety of other shops and vendors in the courtyard too.

Upon leaving at the end of the movie there was great applause. 

We visited Jimmy Stewart's wax figure in the lobby of the theatre. It was on loan from Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum.

Then we had some bacon wrapped hotdogs from a vendor on the street and they were delicious.

Mmmmmm, supper :)