Hollywood Walk of Fame

The story

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a landmark of more than 2,800 five-pointed terrazzo-and-brass stars set into the sidewalks of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles.⁴ The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce administers it, and the self-financing Hollywood Historic Trust keeps it maintained.⁴

The stars honor achievement in entertainment and carry the names of actors, filmmakers, musicians, inventors, businessmen and even fictional characters.⁴ Many people have been honored more than once.⁴ The Walk's own website calls it the world's most famous sidewalk.¹

History

The Walk of Fame was originally conceived in 1953.^3,4 The idea is credited to E M Stuart, who was then the volunteer president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.³ He pitched it as a way to keep alive the glory of a community whose name stood for glamour and excitement worldwide.³ He appointed a committee, and the architectural firm of Periera and Luckman was hired to develop proposals.³ A possible precursor was the dining room ceiling of the historic Hollywood Hotel, which once bore painted stars with celebrities' names.³

The basic tenets were agreed in 1955, and plans went to the Los Angeles City Council in January 1956.³ The Council embraced the idea and directed the Board of Public Works to draw up engineering plans and set up an assessment district to fund the work.³ A proposed star design unveiled in 1956 included a caricature of the honoree, with brown and blue sidewalks.³ Caricatures proved too difficult, and the colors changed to black and coral.³

Eight stars were unveiled on Hollywood Boulevard at Highland Avenue on August 15, 1958 to show what the Walk would look like.³ Construction began on February 8, 1960, and the first star laid was Stanley Kramer's, on March 28, 1960, near Hollywood and Gower.³ The job was completed in 1961 with the first 1,558 stars.³ The Walk was named Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #194 in 1978 by the city's Cultural Heritage Board.³

What to see and do

Start with the stars themselves, then look for the special entries and landmarks along the way.⁴

• The stars

  Each coral-pink terrazzo star has a brass rim and sits in a square of charcoal-colored terrazzo, with the honoree's name in brass letters above a round brass category emblem.⁴

• The categories

  Stars are awarded in motion pictures, television, recording, radio, live theater/performance and sports entertainment, each with its own emblem.⁴

• The special entries

  A seventh category, the Awards of Excellence, honors organizations and corporations and sits on private property beside the Walk.⁴

• The Apollo 11 markers

  Four circular entries at the corners of Hollywood and Vine resemble the Moon, in silver and grey on a pink background.⁴

• Meaningful spots

  Stars are often placed somewhere connected to the honoree, and family members and co-stars are often grouped together.⁴

• The gateway

  The Hollywood and La Brea Gateway, also called Four Ladies of Hollywood, is a gazebo marking the entrance to the Walk from a traffic island where Hollywood Boulevard meets La Brea Avenue.⁴

• The mural

  A 100-foot mixed-media mural honors two milestones, the Walk's 60th anniversary and the Chamber's 100th.⁴

Why it matters

Wikipedia describes the Walk of Fame as one of Los Angeles's most popular tourist attractions, with an estimated ten million annual visitors in 2010.⁴ Crowds at new star unveilings can reach into the thousands.⁴ Buskers often perform here, and the spot also attracts crowds gathering to pay tribute or hold demonstrations.⁴ Some of its entries are controversial, and so is its overall state.⁴ The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce continues to add new stars as the representative of the City of Los Angeles.³

Getting there

Stretching 1.3 miles along Hollywood Boulevard from Gower Street to La Brea Avenue, the Walk of Fame also covers 0.4 miles of Vine Street between Yucca Street and Sunset Boulevard.⁴ Approach on foot from either end, since the stars face differing ways so pedestrians can read them in whichever direction they walk.⁴