Hollywood ‘Mayor’ Grant Makes Tracks--and Typo

Heeeeere’s Johny!

For once, Hollywood head cheerleader Johnny Grant was left speechless. Almost.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I’ve misspelled my name!” the veteran master of ceremonies announced Tuesday as he signed his name and placed his hand and footprints in wet concrete at Mann’s Chinese Theatre.

Grant, whose 4,500 emcee jobs have included more than 400 Hollywood Walk of Fame dedications and most of the recent Chinese Theatre celebrity ceremonies, attracted a crowd of venerable stars to his own moment of glory.

But tourists not familiar with the cherubic-faced Tinseltown booster were wondering, Who’s Johnny?

“He’s the only one here I don’t recognize,” confessed Steven Prete of Richfield, N.J., as he gazed at Jane Russell, Diane McBain, Mickey Rooney, Buddy Rogers and Gene Autry.

“I don’t know who he is,” said Pauline Sheehan of Devonshire, England, who was awed by Grant’s arrival in a rickshaw--accompanied by a police motorcycle escort and a marching band that traveled up Hollywood Boulevard beneath an archway created by two Fire Department hook-and-ladder trucks.

“He’s the mayor, yes? No?”

Well, yes and no.

Grant, 74, has been designated Hollywood’s “Mayor for Life” by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce in recognition for his unabashed civic boosterism and his work on such events as the annual Hollywood Christmas Parade.

But on Tuesday, the real mayor, Richard Riordan, settled for designating Grant as a “monumental citizen” and sending over an official-looking personalized “cultural monument” sign that was presented to Grant during the ceremony.

Ever the ebullient host, Grant did just about everything Tuesday except introduce himself to the crowd that spilled out of the theater’s forecourt and lined both sides of the boulevard.

“Ladies and gentlemen, you know I couldn’t go to an event and not do some emceeing!” he exclaimed.

Grant, a former radio and television personality, explained that his appreciation as a teenager for young actor Mickey Rooney initially led him to Hollywood from North Carolina. Glancing around the forecourt, he pointed out actors he has come to know, such as Angie Dickinson, Connie Stevens and Stephanie Powers.

“Ladies and gentlemen, Ralph Edwards--right back there!” he said. “And there is Miss Anne Jeffries!”

Grant said he planned to leave his signature minus an N, just as he had accidentally inscribed it. He said he could have easily taken care of the misspelling if he had been holding a microphone instead of a writing stick.

“When I’m doing these events, I know how to cover up when they make a mistake,” Grant said.

Still, announcing skills came in handy when he was called upon to stretch things out after lingering morning clouds delayed an aerial salute by military fliers. The pilots know Grant from his frequent trips overseas with Hollywood stars to entertain members of the armed forces; his 50th Christmastime excursion is planned this year as a visit to Bosnia.

“We’ve got a couple of more minutes, ladies and gentlemen!” Grant said. “Very shortly you’re going to see a flyover!”

His own spirits were already soaring.

“I’m not going to kid you, folks! I’m enjoying every minute of this!”