Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a stretch of sidewalks in Hollywood, a Los Angeles suburb, lining along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street. They are paved with thousands of five-pointed stars with names of celebrities as a sign of acknowledgement of their accomplishments and immortalization of their fame.

Now the number of stars is more than 2500. For contribution to the entertainment industry not only real people have been immortalized with inscriptions but fictional characters as well. The Simpson family, for instance, occupies equal place on the walk with Michael Jackson.

It all began long ago – in 1950s. Harry Thompson and Gordon Williams, owners of a construction company, came up with an idea which helped them sign a profitable deal with the municipality. It was at that time that the city hall was especially concerned with problems of beautification of the small town. As a result, in September of 1958 the first eight stars were installed on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and High Land Avenue. People seemed to be in favor of the idea, that’s why several months later, in 1960, an official ceremony of opening of the Walk of Fame took place (only now it was done in another location). On February 9 the first star was installed – with the name of an actress Joanne Woodward.

Since then the Walk is one of the most popular places of interest in Los Angeles. It has been stretched up to 6 kilometers (3.7 miles). For tourists it is somewhat of an entertainment museum outdoors. And the exposition is always the same and is closed in certain places only when builders or workers of repair services begin their next excavations. While the number of the displays increases all the time.

Stars can be received in five categories – for contribution to television, radio, music, cinema and live theatre. But, of course, all this is not strict, because sometimes stars are received by celebrities from other realms of human activity. For instance, one can see on the Walk the crew of the Apollo 11, Mayor of Hollywood Johnny Grant and even the Disneyland Park.