(Encapsulated PSA/DNA TYPE I) Offered is a photo capturing
The Champ co-star Jackie Cooper's handprints enshrined at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on December 12, 1931.
The Champ was a huge hit that year. Wallace Beery won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance, Frances Marion won the Academy Award for Best Story, and the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture and Best Director. At age nine, Cooper became the only child and youngest person nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for the 1931 film
Skippy. He was also a featured member of the
Our Gang (
The Little Rascals) ensemble in 1929–1931. The photo measures 8 x 10 inches with some minor paper loss and chipping, with notations on the reverse. Very Good to Excellent condition.
This photo comes from a collection of more than 100 photographs offered in this auction which document the early decades of the famous "handprint" ceremonies at Grauman's Chinese Theatre on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. The theatre was built by theatre mogul Sid Grauman over 18 months beginning in January 1926, the theater opened May 18, 1927, with the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's The King of Kings. It has since been home to many premieres, including the 1977 debut of Star Wars, as well as many private events and three Academy Awards ceremonies. Nearly 200 Hollywood celebrity handprints, footprints and Signeds are in the concrete of the theater's forecourt. Though many other handprints have been added nearby in recent years, the ones placed within the forecourt are still chosen by a special committee which selects celebrities based on their contributions to Hollywood cinema. Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford were the first, done on April 30, 1927. Master of Ceremonies Jean Klossner appears with his signature beret in many of the photos. During the theatres initial construction, Grauman hired Klossner to formulate an extremely hard concrete for the forecourt of the theater. Klossner later became known as "Mr. Footprint", performing the ceremonies from 1927 through 1957.