Charlie Chaplin's 1918 Footprints in Cement
Hollywood, California
On January 21, 1918, silent film star Charlie Chaplin opened his new movie studio by writing his name and the date in a slab of wet cement, then walking across it in his comically oversized slap shoes. In 1960 the studio was bought by comedian Red Skelton, who dug up the slab and moved it to his Palm Springs home. Six years later music producer Herb Alpert bought the studio, and the slab returned.
Now the studio is owned by the Jim Henson Company, and the slab has a place of honor next to the entrance gate, leading to a door with a life-size painted image of Chaplin.
The slab seems remarkably well-preserved for a chunk of cement that's so old, but this is Hollywood -- where celebrities never age, and apparently neither do their footprints.
But wait! Tinseltown trickery! According to tipster Gary Helsinger: "The signature and footprints of Chaplin at Henson Studios are actually a reproduction. Red Skelton's widow donated the original cement slabs to his alma mater, Vincennes University in Indiana, and they are on display at the Red Skelton Museum there."