On this date in 1960, construction on the Hollywood Walk of Fame officially began. 10 facts about the Hollywood Walk of fame:
It started as a marketing tactic by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce. The idea was first suggested by that organisation’s volunteer president E. M. Stuart in 1953 to “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.” In January 1956 an official proposal was submitted to the Los Angeles City Council. Initially, the proposal was to have a caricature of the star honoured rather than a star, and placed along Brown and Blue sidewalks. The caricature idea was rejected because it would be too complicated and the colours because they’d clash with a building being erected along the route at the time.
Who the recipient of the first star was depends on what you count. Before the official inauguration, a temporary installation to raise awareness and support was unveiled in August 1958. Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, Ernest Torrence, and Joanne Woodward were the stars to receive the honours. Joanne Woodward is sometimes said to have been the first, although in truth that was probably because she happened to be the first to have her picture taken with her star. The first star to be installed in the Walk of Fame proper was Film-maker Stanley Kramer, whose star was put in place on 28 March 1960.
In August 2025 there were 2,818 stars at 6-foot (1.8 m) intervals along the sidewalk. Wikipedia describes the stars as “five-point, coral-pink terrazzo rimmed with brass and inlaid into a 3-by-3-foot (0.91 by 0.91 m) charcoal-coloured terrazzo background. The honoree's name is inlaid in brass block letters in the upper portion of each star, and below the name, a round inlaid brass emblem indicates the category of the honoree's contributions.” There are also several hundred blank stars, as placeholders for future recipients. Stars face east or west on Hollywood Boulevard and north or south on Vine Street so that whichever direction you walk there will be stars facing you.
That said, not all the stars are in the sidewalk and not all of them are stars. Four of the plaques are moons, dedicated to the astronauts and TV coverage of the Apollo 11 Moon landing; and one star is in a wall. That one is for boxer Muhammad Ali who, since he shares his name with a certain prophet, requested that the star be placed where it would not be walked on.
There are seven categories for which a star can be awarded: motion pictures; Television; recording/Music; live performance/theatre; Radio; sports entertainment and a special category for other achievements the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce deem worthy of inclusion, like the Apollo 11 astronauts. Muhammad Ali, incidentally, received his star before the sports entertainment category was introduced in 2023 – boxing was deemed to be a kind of live performance in order to allow him the star. Two sports teams have been honoured since: the Harlem Globetrotters and Los Angeles Dodgers.
A star can request a location for their star. A few are placed in quite ironic locations. Carol Burnett’s is in front of the cinema where she was fired as an usherette for advising a couple of latecomers to wait for the next showing of the movie as seeing the ending might spoil it for them; Jay Leno requested his star be near Hollywood and Highland because he was twice picked up by police for vagrancy there; Mike Myers's star was placed outside an adult store called the International Love Boutique; Roger Moore's and Daniel Craig's are located at 7007 Hollywood Boulevard. Michael Jackson refused to attend the unveiling of his star if it wasn’t outside Grauman's Chinese Theater. The Chamber agreed, and the unveiling of his star turned out to be a record breaker with around five thousand people turning up to watch.
As of October 2025, 44% of the stars were in the motion pictures category, 25% in television, 19% in audio recording or music, 9% in radio, fewer than 3% in theatre/live performance, and fewer than 1% in sports entertainment and the "special category" combined. 5.1% honoured African-Americans, 3.4% honoured Hispanic people, and 0.4% honoured Asians, all significantly less than those minorities' percentage of the overall population.
Gene Autry is the star nominated in the most categories: five. Bob Hope and Roy Rogers have been honoured in four. The family with the most individuals recognised is the Barrymores, with five. The line up also includes three dogs: Lassie, Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Lassie was the first fictional character to be included, although some claim Lassie was an animal actor in her own right although she was often portrayed by a male canine actor called Pal. If you don’t count Lassie, the first fictional character included was Mickey Mouse. They have since been joined by many more, including Snoopy, Kermit the Frog, Minnie Mouse and Batman, the first superhero to receive a star. Inventors who influenced the entertainment industry and have been recognised with stars include George Eastman, inventor of roll film; Thomas Edison for the phonograph, motion picture camera and lightbulb; and Ray Dolby, pioneer in surround sound. One inventor also has a star in the motion picture category: actress Hedy Lamarr, co-inventor of a frequency-hopping radio guidance system that was a precursor to Wi-Fi networks. There are two murderers: Spade Cooley and Gig Young. There are politicians there, too, unsurprisingly, Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Ignacy Paderewski, Prime Minister of Poland between World War I and II, is the only foreign head of government represented. Even Trump has one, for his work on the Miss Universe pageant and The Apprentice although there have been a lot of protests and calls for his star to be revoked, including one from West Hollywood City Council, who made a statement: "The Hollywood Walk of Fame is an honour. When one belittles and attacks minorities, immigrants, Muslims, people with disabilities or women – the honour no longer exists." His star has also been vandalised many times, including by one protester who let his dog poo on it and posted the result on Twitter.
The nomination process is strict. Anyone can make a nomination, including fans, although the nominee or their management must be in agreement and there is a hefty fee to pay. Nominees must have a history of "charitable contributions" and a minimum of five years' experience in their category; and they must agree to attend the unveiling of their star or the nomination will be rejected. In the case of deceased honorees, (who must have been dead for at least two years) a member of their family must agree to attend. I’m not sure what happens in the case of fictional characters! Some stars have declined to have stars on the walk, including Madonna (because she thinks it’s cheesy), Clint Eastwood and Prince. Leonardo DiCaprio, Julia Roberts, Bruce Springsteen, and Denzel Washington all ruled themselves out by refusing to attend their ceremonies.
There are two pairs of stars bearing the same name but representing different people. There are two Harrison Fords, one for the silent film actor and the other for the present-day actor, and two Michael Jacksons, one for the pop singer and the other for the radio personality. There might have been three, but for the correction of a typo. Actor Don Haggerty was awarded a star in 1960 that was wrongly engraved as Dan Haggerty. The star was replaced, and in 1994 an actor who was actually called Dan Haggerty (Grizzly Adams) received a star, too. Typos do happen. Julia Louis-Dreyfus's star read "Julia Luis Dreyfus". Dick van Dyke's star misspelled his last name as "Vandyke". Both stars were said to be amused rather than angry. Van Dyke took a marker pen and corrected the mistake. Both stars were replaced with the correct names in due course but a handful of mistakes live on. Carmen Miranda was honoured in the motion picture category but her star bears the television emblem, and four names remain mispelled: Lotte Lehmann (spelled as "Lottie"), Merian C. Cooper ("Meriam"), Auguste Lumière ("August"), and Mary Livingstone ("Livingston").
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