Hollywood Tutors

About Hollywood

One of the most famous and well known attractions in Hollywood, California, even more well known then your Hollywood tutor, is the Hollywood Walk of Fame. This is a star studded (literally) piece of sidewalk with over 2500 pink star shaped paving stones. These stars are awarded men, women, and even fictional characters who have made a significant contribution to entertainment, whether it be in the live theater, on film, etc. It encompasses a stretch of sidewalk over a mile long, with both sides full of stars.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame started in 1958 to add a little pizazz to the area, and boy did it take off! There are five different categories that you could get awarded a start for. The first is motion picture, which is obvious enough. The next is television set, which is an award for broadcast television. Then you have phonograph record, which is the recording industry. Up next is radio microphone, which is of course the radio, and finally twin comedy/tragedy masks, which is an award for live theater. It used to be that many people had more than one star, receiving stars in multiple categories. When the criteria for starts was better set in 1960, and the stars had to be funded by the Chamber of Commerce themselves, it became very rare for one person to receive a star in more than one category, however.

The very first eight stars to be laid in 1958 for promotional purposes were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward. You would think the walk would have ben a great success, but it actually met a lot of opposition. Lawsuits created by property owners who didn’t want the stars there along with friends and family of Charlie Chaplan, who was excluded from the walk due to political reasons, put the development of the walk at a halt. By 1960 the walk was back in swing, and in one short year 1558 stars were laid. That is when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in, and in 1968 devised system of nominations and criteria that had to be met, so that not just anyone could add a start to the Walk of Fame.

Next time you have a free moment, maybe you could go and check out all the names that make up this famous piece of sidewalk, and who knows, if you continue to meet with your Hollywood tutor regularly your name might just be a name found on that sidewalk as well one day!