Sid Grauman
Theater owner Sid Grauman with Red Skelton at Skelton's imprint ceremony, June 18, 1942.
Born	Sidney Patrick Grauman (1879-03-17)March 17, 1879 Indianapolis, Indiana
Died	March 5, 1950(1950-03-05) (aged 70) Los Angeles, California

Sidney Patrick Grauman (March 17, 1879 – March 5, 1950) was an American showman who created one of Southern California's most recognizable and visited landmarks, Grauman's Chinese Theater.^[1] He was the son of David Grauman who died in 1921 in Los Angeles, California and Rosa Goldsmith (1853–1936).^[2] Grauman's parents were theatrical performers on various show circuits.^[3]

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Grauman and his father went to Alaska for the Gold Rush when he was a young man. He worked there as a paperboy. Since newspapers were scarce, they could command a dollar each. Grauman told a story about a store owner who purchased a newspaper from him for $50. The shopkeeper then read the paper aloud in his store, charging admission to local miners.^[4][5] In Alaska, the young Grauman learned a lesson which would serve him the rest of his life: that people would willingly pay handsomely for entertainment. Sid and his father began organizing events like boxing matches, which paid them well. It was also in Alaska that Grauman saw his first motion picture.^[6] A failed prospector in the Klondike gold rush, David Grauman initially took his young son to Alaska with the idea of building a theater there. Though they did not strike gold, both of the Graumans were made considerably wealthy by their Alaskan entertainment activities.^[6] When his father's sister became ill and he left the territory to care for her, young Grauman remained in Alaska for a time. His parents settled in San Francisco and Grauman joined them there in 1900.^[3]

San Francisco[link]

David and his son decided to open a vaudeville theater in San Francisco. Their first venture was on Market Street near Mason called the Unique Theater.^[7][8] Before long they added motion pictures to the vaudeville shows, and another theater called the Lyceum.^[3][9][10] As the theater manager, though Sid Grauman had seen just about every type of performance, there were some that startled and amazed him, turning down an offer to learn how to swallow swords.^[11] The Graumans were also instrumental in establishing the Northwest Vaudeville Company, which stretched from San Francisco to Minneapolis and Portland, Oregon. The association brought quality live entertainment at reasonable prices to the Northwest area of the US.^[12]

David Grauman tried his hand at expanding his theater business in New York City and the East Coast, where he was far from successful; for a time, Sid worked in Scranton, Pennsylvania at one of the theaters he and his father were interested in.^[13] David Grauman suffered enough financial loss to have the need to take a business partner in his Lyceum Theater, and to accept an offer from the partner to buy him out in 1905. He later arranged to take over the lease of the Lyceum, which would then evict his former partner from the theater in 1907. By early 1906, the Graumans had lost their lease of the Unique Theater. The building had been purchased by the president of the Orpheum Theater circuit and Grauman's rent was doubled by the new owner. The structure was able to house a theater only because Grauman had established one there before a fire ordinance prohibiting it was passed. Before his tenancy was over, Grauman hired a crew of men with axes to demolish the interior of the Unique, so it could not be re-built for use as a theater.^[14]

With the Unique Theater gone and the Lyceum unable to be occupied by the Graumans until 1907, father and son appeared to be temporarily out of business when the San Francisco earthquake of 1906 destroyed both the Unique and Lyceum theaters.^[14] Sid was able to save one of the theater's movie projectors from the ruins. He was also able to get a tent from an evangelist preacher in Oakland. Putting those together with some pews from a destroyed church, he set up on the site where the Unique once stood. The Graumans posted a sign outside of their makeshift theater that said: "Nothing to fall on you but canvas if there is another quake." The family received a commendation from the City of San Francisco for their help in boosting citizens' morale during the trying times.^[3] They operated their tent theater for two years; by that time David Grauman had opened a theater called the New National Theater. The Graumans expanded their theaters within a short period of time, opening the Imperial and the Empress in San Francisco, and branching out further to other Northern California cities.^[3][9] By 1917, the Graumans decided they would relocate to Los Angeles and build theaters there. They approached Adolph Zukor, who would go on to be the owner and founder of Paramount Pictures, regarding a business deal. Zukor agreed to buy the San Francisco theaters of the Graumans and also to assist them with financing in beginning their theater business in Los Angeles.^[3]

Los Angeles[link]

By 1918, the first of the three noteworthy Los Angeles movie palaces was open for business: the Million Dollar Theatre.^[15] In 1921, David Grauman died suddenly, never able to see the completion of the Egyptian Theatre which opened the year after his death.^[16][17] Now working on his own, Grauman began the building of his last theater, the Chinese Theatre, in 1926. It was opened for a premiere on May 18, 1927. There was a crush of onlookers eager to have a glimpse of both the stars attending and the splendor of the building. Many of the fittings were imported from China and Chinese artisans were brought in to create the works of sculpture now housed inside the building but were originally located in the theater's forecourt.^[18]

The forecourt still contains the now-famous celebrity hand and footprints in cement. The tradition began by accident, while the finishing touches were being put on the Chinese Theatre. Two versions of the story have been published; one has Mary Pickford as the actress who stepped in the wet cement on her way to see Sid Grauman's new building, and the other credits Norma Talmadge with the misstep. Grauman decided it was a wonderful way to have a permanent record of the stars, and began inviting selected film personalities to put their hand and footprints in concrete. Grauman himself made the choices; the tradition continued after his death using a secret system for choosing celebrities.^[19][20]

Grauman was not the sole owner of the Chinese Theatre, even though it bears his name. His business partners in the venture were Mary Pickford, Douglas Fairbanks and Howard Schenck. Two years after its opening, he sold his share of the theater to Fox West Coast Theatres, but remained its Managing Director for the rest of his life.^[5] Over four million people visit the Chinese Theatre yearly.^[18]

Grauman's non-entertainment ventures turned out as badly as his father's. He formed the Black Hills Exploration Corporation in a gold mining effort near Deadwood, South Dakota. Grauman had convinced others such as entertainer Al Jolson and many movie company executives to join him in investing in the company. The company was not successful and Grauman advised everyone to get out of the investment.^[21]

Grauman was known far and wide among Hollywood's leading stars and was considered to be a close friend to many, including Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle. It was in Grauman's office at the Million Dollar Theatre that Arbuckle called the San Francisco police to turn himself in.^[22] Arbuckle began working for Grauman as a singer at his San Francisco Unique Theater as R. C. Arbuckle.^[23] The San Francisco theater connections of father and son meant the Graumans knew people like Charlie Chaplin and Mary Pickford, as the stars had performed at one of the Grauman theaters when they were on their way up. David Grauman was the originator of Pickford's "America's Sweetheart" nickname.^[24]

Grauman, who never married, was devoted to his mother. She was the only non-celebrity whose imprints were taken for display; after Rosa's death, Grauman kept all of her personal effects.^[2][6][25] While Grauman was very closely connected with the motion picture industry, he never appeared in a film until a year before his death, where he had a cameo appearance.^[5] Living for 35 years at Los Angeles' Ambassador Hotel, Grauman spent the last six months of his life at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, but not because of illness. Grauman liked being at Cedars and would leave to eat out at various premiere restaurants and return to the hospital to sleep.^[26]

Death and legacy[link]

Grauman received an honorary Academy Award in 1949 for raising the standard for film exhibition.^[27] He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6379 Hollywood Blvd.^[28] He was one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS).^[29]

Grauman died of a coronary occlusion at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles on March 5, 1950.^{[1][4][5][30]} He was interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.^[31]

After Grauman's death, a woman named Carrie Adair came forward with claims of being his common-law wife and the mother of his child. Adair produced a copy of a will and a letter naming her as Grauman's childhood sweetheart. Adair's sister, Agnes Gerlich, gave testimony that her sister was living in Texas during the time she was said to be with Grauman. She also stated that the child Adair referred to was actually her daughter and not Adair's.^[32][33]

See also[link]

• Charles E. Toberman

References[link]

External links[link]

• Sid Grauman's Chinese Theater (Historic Photos)
• Sid Grauman at Find a Grave

Not to be confused with the actor Victor Sen Yung who was sometimes billed as Victor Young

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2010)

Victor Young (August 8, 1900 – November 10, 1956)^[1] was an American composer, arranger, violinist and conductor. He was born in Chicago.

Biography[link]

Young was born in Chicago on 8 August 1900 into a very musical family, his father being a member of one Joseph Sheehan’s touring Opera company. The young Victor began playing violin at the age of six, and was sent over to Poland when he was ten to stay with his grandfather and study at Warsaw Imperial Conservatory, achieving the Diploma of Merit. He studied the piano with Isidor Philipp of the Paris Conservatory. While still a teenager he embarked on a career as a concert violinist with the Warsaw Philharmonic under Julius Wertheim before returning to Chicago in 1920 to join the orchestra at Central Park Casino. He then went to Los Angeles to join his Polish fiancée, finding employment first as a fiddler in impresario Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre Orchestra then going on to be appointed concert-master for Paramount-Publix Theatres. In the mid-1930s he moved to Hollywood where he concentrated on films, recordings of light music and providing backing for popular singers, including Bing Crosby. His composer credits include "When I Fall in Love," "Blue Star (The 'Medic' Theme)," "Moonlight Serenade (Summer Love)" from the motion picture The Star (1952), "Sweet Sue," "Can't We Talk It Over," "Street of Dreams," "Love Letters," "Around the World," "My Foolish Heart," "Golden Earrings," "Stella by Starlight", "Delilah", "Johnny Guitar" and "I Don't Stand a Ghost of a Chance with You."

Records[link]

Young was signed to Brunswick in 1931 where his studio groups recorded scores of popular dance music, waltzes and semi-classics through 1934. His studio groups often contained some of the best jazz musicians in New York, including Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Joe Venuti, Arthur Schutt, Eddie Lang, and others. He used first-rate vocalists, including Paul Small, Dick Robertson, Harlan Lattimore, Smith Ballew, Helen Rowland, Frank Munn, The Boswell Sisters, Lee Wiley and others. One of his most interesting recordings was the January 22, 1932 session containing songs written by Herman Hupfeld "Goopy Geer" and "Down The Old Back Road", which Hupfeld sang and played piano on (his only two known vocals).

In late 1934, Young signed with Decca and continued recording in New York until mid-1936, when he relocated to Los Angeles.

Radio and films[link]

On radio, he was the musical director of Harvest of Stars. He was musical director for many of Bing Crosby's recordings for the American branch of Decca Records. For Decca, he also conducted the first album of songs from the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, a sort of "pre-soundtrack" cover version rather than a true soundtrack album. The album featured Judy Garland and the Ken Darby Singers singing songs from the film in Young's own arrangements. He also composed the music for several Decca spoken word albums.

He received 22 Academy Award nominations for his work in film, twice being nominated four times in a single year, but he did not win during his lifetime. He received his only Oscar posthumously for his score of Around the World in Eighty Days (1956). His other scores include Golden Boy (1939), For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), Love Letters (1945), So Evil My Love (1948), Samson and Delilah (1949), Our Very Own (1950), My Favorite Spy (1951), Payment on Demand (1951), The Quiet Man (1952), Scaramouche (1952), Something to Live For (1952), Shane (1953), A Man Alone (1955), and Written on the Wind (1956).

Young also composed "The Call of the Faraway Hills," used as the theme for the U.S. television series Shane.

As an occasional bit player, Young can be glimpsed briefly in The Country Girl (1954) playing a recording studio leader conducting Crosby while he tapes "You've Got What It Takes". His last film score was for Omar Khayyam, starring Cornel Wilde, filmed in 1956 and released by Paramount in 1957 after Young's death.

Young died in Palm Springs, California after a cerebral hemorrhage at age 56. He is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, Hollywood, CA. His family donated his artefacts and memorabilia (including his Oscar) to Brandeis University, where they are housed today.^[2]

Broadway[link]

• Murder at the Vanities (1933) - musical - contributing composer
• Blackbirds of 1933 (1933) - revue - featured songwriter
• Winged Victory (1944) - play - performer for the role of "Lee"
• Arms and the Girl (1950) - musical - performer for the role of "Son of Liberty"
• Pardon Our French (1950) - revue - composer
• Seventh Heaven (1955) - musical - composer

Sources[link]

• Young, Victor. Cinema Rhapsodies: The Musical Genius of Victor Young Ontario: (Hit Parade Records, 2006).

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Victor Young Collection of Television Music. UCLA. Performing Arts Special Collections, findaid.oac.cdlib.org.
• Victor Young at the Internet Movie Database
• Victor Young at the Internet Broadway Database, ibdb.com
• Victor Young's Web, victoryoung.czechian.net
• Victor Young at Find a Grave
• Victor Young Collection at Brandeis University