Hollywood at Your Feet: The Story of the Chinese Theatre Footprints

This 2000 documentary was made for American Movie Classics and is hosted by Raquel Welch. It tells the story of the history of Grauman's Chinese Theater located in Hollywood, and the story behind the famous hand and foot prints in cement. The documentary features interviews with several people who have been immortalized in cerement at Grauman's, including Michael Keaton, Jane Withers, Donald O'Connor and Charlton Heston. The best thing about the film is the footage of the ceremonies themselves. Snippets are shown from color home movies and newsreels of stars like, Tom Mix, Kirk Douglas, Marilyn Monroe, Clifton Webb, Susan Hayward, Ava Gardner, Bette Davis, Joanne Woodward and so many more. This is a must see if you have even the slightest interest in Hollywood history.

This "documentary" is basically a PR tie in to a book and the old AMC cable channel.

The book's co-authors (really? it took 2 people to write this?) share air time of this flimsy bit of fluff that sure seems to favor the AMC line-up of stars, especially those from 20th Century Fox movies.

While there are some interesting tidbits here and there, most of this hour-long show is padded and skewed toward newer stars and events like STAR WARS and Michael Keaton and Whoopi Goldberg. There's very little about the silent era and stars, and more info on Sid Grauman himself would have been welcome.

And way too many errors. Shots of silent stars with no IDs, One ID claims Janet Gaynor and Franklin Pangborn, when it's Gaynor and Adolphe Menjou from A STAR IS BORN. One gushing tourist can't wait to find the prints of "Jeanette Gaynor." Good luck, bub.

Then there's Raquel Welch as hostess who keeps mispronouncing Norma Talmadge's name as TALL-madge. Constance Talmadge is shown in a shot with Grauman but never identified.

The film clips are all pretty meaningless and have nothing to do with the actual cement slabs. Cheesy and badly done. I bet this ran on AMC quite a few times.