Early years Grauman was born in
Indianapolis, Indiana in 1879, Grauman's parents were theatrical performers on show circuits. They were both
Jewish. Grauman and his father went to
Dawson City, Yukon, 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. In the Yukon, 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 the Yukon that Grauman saw his first motion picture. Before long, they added motion pictures to the vaudeville shows, and another theater called the Lyceum. 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. 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 United States. 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 in which he and his father were interested. 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. at Skelton's imprint ceremony in 1942 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.
Los Angeles By 1918, the first of three Grauman
movie palaces in downtown Los Angeles was open for business: the
Million Dollar Theatre. The others,
Grauman's Rialto and
Grauman's Metropolitan Theater, opened in 1919 and 1923, respectively. In 1921 in Los Angeles, David Grauman died suddenly, never able to see the completion of the
Egyptian Theatre which opened the year after his death. Now working on his own, Sid Grauman began building 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 works of sculpture which were originally located in the theater's forecourt and are now housed inside the theater. The forecourt still contains the 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. 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. and
Irving Thalberg (1932) Grauman was well known to 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. Arbuckle began working for Grauman as a singer at his San Francisco Unique Theater as R. C. Arbuckle. 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. 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. Grauman was very closely connected with the motion picture industry and appeared in several
cameo appearances that nodded to his fame in Hollywood and further afield in the Gold Rush. 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 at various premier restaurants and return to the hospital to sleep. ==Death and legacy==