Antique & Vintage Postcards

Twenty-four of Hollywood's brightest stars press their hands and feet into immortality on this spectacular linen-era panorama of Grauman's Chinese Theatre forecourt — a document of celebrity culture at its most tactile and human, each cement block a moment when a living legend knelt in the California sun and left their mark for the ages. Sid Grauman, the theater's showman-impresario, collected these tributes personally, and the handwritten messages to "Sid" across the blocks give the card an intimate warmth that transcends mere spectacle. This Curt Teich & Co. card (number 819, code 1B-H2165) was published by Western Publishing & Novelty Co. of Los Angeles and includes blocks from an extraordinary roster: Shirley Temple (March 14, 1935), Joan Crawford (September 14, 1929), John Barrymore (September 5, 1940), Judy Garland (October 10, 1939), Mickey Rooney (October 18, 1938), Fred Astaire (August 1, 1937), Ginger Rogers (September 5, 1939), Jean Harlow (September 29, 1933), Don Ameche, Carmen Miranda (March 29, 1941), Eddie Cantor, Sonja Henie, Loretta Young, Tyrone Power, Harold Lloyd, Norma Shearer, Ann Harding, Pola Negri, Janet Gaynor, and Tom Mix. The latest date visible — Carmen Miranda, March 29, 1941 — establishes the card's earliest possible production date.