Handprints of Tradition

This weekend I went with two friends to Grauman's Chinese Theater to see Christopher Nolan, whom some have said is the "Hitchcock" of our time, leave his handprints and footprints in the concrete outside. This is a long tradition which began when Fairbanks, Pickford, and Norma Talmadge stepped out of a cab onto some wet cement leaving their footprints outside of the theater. Sid Grauman, the theater owner at the time, liked the idea and made it a tradition for well-known people in the (film) industry to sign their names in cement with their hand and footprints. This weekend the cast of The Dark Knight Rises was present for Nolan's ceremony and I was fortunate enough to be standing on the right side of the theater on the railing when everyone arrived. It was a lovely morning (even though we had to wake up early to walk the mile and a half down Hollywood Boulevard) and we got lucky with our timing arriving just as they were stopping people from going in to see the ceremony. I also got some choice shots of the cast of Dark Knight as well as a signed poster with the autographs of Hans Zimmer (composer), Michael Caine, and Christian Bale. Some of my friends were able to get Anne Hathaway and Gary Oldman's autographs as well.