The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a world-renowned acknowledgement of the contribution of Tinseltown to the image and reputation of Los Angeles.
The Walk of Fame comprises a star-studded walkway of tributes to those who have made the biggest contributions to stage and screen in the history of Hollywood.
To really consider yourself to have made it in this hardest of towns to remain in the spotlight, it’s not enough just to have your name in lights, you also need to it to be set permanently in concrete. Those that have achieved great things in the business have their names embedded in brass and set inside a coral-pink, terrazzo five-pointed star, to mark their contribution to the business that makes LA tick.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame attracts vast numbers of visitors, who crowd by the sidewalk to see this most loved and well-known part of Los Angeles. This historic stretch of paving runs for 15 blocks of the Hollywood Boulevard, and also encompasses a few neighbouring streets.
This tribute to those that have lit up cinema screens all over the world began in 1960, when the city first began acknowledging its big screen achievers with a permanent reminder. The Hollywood Walk of Fame began with just eight stars back in 1960, among which were Burt Lancaster and Joanne Woodward. It has since expanded to become a vast record of the Hollywood’s great and good, with nearly 2,500 names having been etched into the Hollywood pavement for posterity.
In addition to the obvious superstar names, there are also a number of stars that acknowledge the less glamorous and notorious individuals who work behind the scenes in Tinseltown. For each individual whose name is etched into the Hollywood sidewalk, there is an appropriate symbol attached which represents within which part of the entertainment industry the individual excelled. Each star contains a motion-picture camera, a television set, a radio microphone, a theatrical mask or a musical record.
The Hollywood Walk of Fame is a must-see for anyone who is in love with the big screen in particular, or show business in general. It attracts people from all over the world, and is a fun way to spend an afternoon within the glitzy world of Hollywood.
