If you visit Grauman’s Chinese Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard today, you’ll find, encased eternally in cement on the pavement outside, the hand and footprints of many Hollywood stars, living and dead.
Among them are John Wayne’s boot prints and a fist, imprinted on January 25, 1950.
The Western legend wrote in the wet mixture, “Sid – There are not enough words” before signing his name.
The Sid in question was Sidney Grauman, who built the Chinese and the Egyptian Theatre further up the famous Tinseltown street.
He died aged 70, just two months after helping balance Duke while the star stepped in his footprints, as captured in the photo below.
Wayne had been honoured with the Hollywood footprints after his Oscar-nominated performance in the Sands of Iwo Jima, about the World War 2 battle between the US and Japan. And what fans may not know is that actual black sand from the Pacific island was flown in specially to Los Angeles for the ceremony.