Pearl Theatre Company and the LES Handprints of Fame
St. Mark’s Place (aka, 8th Street between 3rd Avenue and Avenue A) has some of the most interesting places in the Lower East Side. I really enjoy it down there.
Recently, I was walking past a place I’ve seen a number of times, Pearl Theatre, and looked down and saw that they’ve got a sort of Mann’s Chinese Theater handprints and footprints thing going on.
Below are Dom DeLuise and Joan Crawford. Now, that’s a strange twosome.
Next are Hildegard(?) and Myrna Loy.
Next are Gloria Swanson and Lillian Roth.
The next hold the prints for Ruby Keeler and Joan Blondell.
Next, Kitty Carlisle Hart (who recently died and was a NYC theater/opera/philanthropic legend).
Next Allan Jones (an actor and the father of singer Jack Jones).
I just can’t read the next one.
There are two names on the next, but the only one I can read, sort of, is “Wimi Shawn” or “Shaw” or “Shaun”. It almost certainly is not “William Shawn” as he was the famed editor of the New Yorker and it is hard to believe he’d put his handprints alongside people he may have covered. It could be “Wallace Shawn” (son of William Shawn) as he has some association with the Pearl Theatre, but it sure looks like there’s an “i” or two in the name.
Of course, it is likely there’s only one name (the Shaw/Shawn/Shaun one) and a mysterious message. Well, what’s life without some mystery? (EDITED TO ADD: thanks to reader “Brian”, it appears to be Winifred “Wini” Shaw.)
Under any circumstances, they haven’t taken great care with these names and prints. Too bad.
-H
Explore posts in the same categories: Celebrity Points, LES, Wanderings
Famous Ankles 
August 20, 2008 at 4:26 pm
Winifred “Wini” Shaw
October 31, 2008 at 2:06 pm
I’ve got a photo of Wini Shaw the day she placed her handprint into this cement! Wini was a wonderful singer.
October 31, 2008 at 7:25 pm
Robbie,
If you wish, send me an electronic copy to famousankles at gmail dot com (don’t put a space between famous and ankles, though) and I’ll attach it to the post.
-H
June 18, 2010 at 6:54 pm
Hildegarde: 1906-2005
Blond, and known by only her first name,she was a celebrated cabaret singer and supper-club artist.
Columnist Walter Winchell gave her the title, “The Incomparable Hildegarde,” by which she was known for 70 years.
June 22, 2010 at 2:33 am
A bit of background on the Ruby Keeler / Joan Blondell footprints, which I’ve just learned from reading the bio, “Joan Blondell: A Life Between Takes” (by Matthew Kennedy).
Blondell had opened 27 September 1971 in the initial staging(off-Broadway)of “The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-moon Marigolds.”
In this same period, Blondell’s old friend from their Warner Bros. days together, Ruby Keeler, was riding the nostalgia wave starring in the Broadway revival of “No, No, Nanette.” The pair of veteran actresses were brought together at St, Mark’s Place to add their autographs and footprints to the cement on 19 October 1971.
Blondell said later that the event triggered a nostalgic memory of 10 February 1937, when she and then-husband Dick Powell had placed their footprints together in the forecourt of Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in the era when she, Powell and Keeler were bright young stars at WB, starring in musicals together.
March 29, 2011 at 12:33 am
Alexis Smith is one of the names in the 7th frame and I believe another in that square is Rosemary Murphy.
I love this landmark. It used to be a movie theater that ran old classics in double features.
August 25, 2013 at 8:11 am
Oscar: I hadn’t noticed the dual auorths. It is the sort of concept that requires the efforts of two dedicated minds.MrIndie Day: “I don’t know if this is supposed to induce arousal or vomit.” I think a subtle combination of the two is the correct response.Matthew: They should commission you to write cover blurbs for all of theuir books in the form of lewd limericks. And the thing is, I don’t know that it would actually make them any weirder.Tulkinghorn: It’s surprising how stylish and normal some of those covers made Keeler’s work look. Quite what his publishers made of him I do not know.Stuart: Just iamgine what a classy job they would have made of a book with a title like ‘The Nigger Factory’.
April 11, 2011 at 11:47 am
I just found this entry last night. I am running over today to St. Marks Place today to see it. I am so excited.
August 28, 2013 at 7:45 am
Good choices. I’m sure A Star is Born is the rseotred version with some of the lost scenes shown with photos and the soundtrack behind them. It adds a lot to the fullness of the story of the film but it does take a bit to get use to the different rhythm that they give to the first portion of the picture. They only take up a small part of the film but it helps to know that they are going to be there before watching the movie.
October 17, 2013 at 10:17 pm
Unparalleled accuracy, unequivocal clarity, and undeniable importance!
November 8, 2013 at 6:41 pm
That’s a smart answer to a difficult question.
August 26, 2013 at 9:42 am
Oscar: I hadn’t noticed the dual arothus. It is the sort of concept that requires the efforts of two dedicated minds.MrIndie Day: “I don’t know if this is supposed to induce arousal or vomit.” I think a subtle combination of the two is the correct response.Matthew: They should commission you to write cover blurbs for all of theuir books in the form of lewd limericks. And the thing is, I don’t know that it would actually make them any weirder.Tulkinghorn: It’s surprising how stylish and normal some of those covers made Keeler’s work look. Quite what his publishers made of him I do not know.Stuart: Just iamgine what a classy job they would have made of a book with a title like ‘The Nigger Factory’.
January 1, 2014 at 6:24 am
Saw Myrna Loy’s autograph quite unexpectedly while strolling along the pavement a year or so ago. What a fine actress she was, and thanks for clarifying when the prints were made, For Loy never was a stage actress, and I was confused as to when she would have done this.Here is a good article about the pavement in question:
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/08/13/nyregion/walk-fame-s-melodramatic-turn-inspection-st-marks-place-imperils-hollywood-style.html
Michael