…and we were there (kinda)!

These shots were taken Nov. 29, 2004.
Place: Hollywood, CA. Just outside Grauman’s Chinese Theatre (now a MANN Theater).

Darlene and I went up to Hollywood to gawk at the big event: Godzilla’s first U.S. premiere. All previous Godzilla movies (I’m not counting Tri-Star’s 1998 shitpile and you shouldn’t either) have premiered in Japan… except this one. “Godzilla: Final Wars” is — allegedly — Toho Studio’s last Godzilla film for a decade.

So here we are at the red carpet (no, we common folk weren’t allowed to see the movie — that was reserved for special guests and Toho execs).

Godzilla received his star on the Walk of Fame. About frickin’ time, too. Homeboy’s been making movies since 1954 (that’s 50 years).

Yeah, that really does say “GODZILLA.” But I was blocking the light which would normally reflect off of the gold lettering.

<radiohead> “I wish I were special… so effing special…” </radiohead>

The gaudy float. I understand there was a parade the day before and this thing was wheeled out about an hour before the actual premiere. It was shrieking about every 45 seconds while Akira Ifukube’s “Godzilla March” played on the loudspeakers. It was a special time. Too bad Godzilla is gray, not green.