After posting my story (see Big Shoes to Fill – In the Rain) about hosting Robert Downey, Jr.’s hand-and-footprint ceremony I got a nice note from Stacey Behlmer, who (as Stacey Endres, then unmarried) co-wrote the definitive book on the history of the theater, Hollywood at Your Feet. She had a few notes and corrections to pass along: “I can't vouch for the ceremonies that took place after [our book] was published, but it did rain on a couple of the earlier ceremonies: James Mason was one and the Anne Baxter/Gregory Peck dual ceremony was another. Baxter actually drew an umbrella, a heart, and the sun in the cement and inscribed something about DEAR SID RAIN OR SHINE I LOVE YOU.”
Regarding the undocumented Charlie Chaplin ceremony of 1928, she notes, “It would be terrific if an image ever appeared showing the Chaplin ceremony but then Robert (Cushman) and I never found one, nor images for the ceremonies for Fredric March, Janet Gaynor, Edward Arnold, etc., and those squares are still in the forecourt.” And regarding Robert Downey’s reaction to the job at hand last Monday, “A number of the other celebrities in the forecourt complained over the years that writing in cement was difficult!”
