Hollywood Walk of Fame
Los Angeles is primarily associated with Hollywood, and Hollywood – with the stars, so it’s not surprising that the Hollywood Walk of Fame is rightly considered the most popular tourist spot of the city. Annually more than 10 million tourists walk along on those stars, delighted and thrilled to be reading the names of idols, immortalized in stone slabs of the sidewalk for the glory of the entertainment industry. As well as it is necessary any sight “with a name”, at the Alley of stars – the long, various and rather interesting history, continuing to be created till this day: new “stars” are put here approximately twice a month.
A bit of history
The star alley did not arise at all spontaneously: the idea of creating a new attraction belonged to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce – both as a means of maintaining public celebrity fame, and as a way to provide the city’s budget with additional income. Originally the plan was to use a brass caricature instead of a star with the actor’s name written in it, but the execution of it proved to be quite complicated and expensive. Therefore, the City Hall of Hollywood decided not to philosophize slyly, and took as a sample an ordinary five pointed star, “drawing” it from the ceiling of the hotel “Hollywood”.
The stars include, in addition to the name of the celebrity, one of five icons: a movie camera, a TV, a phonograph, a radio microphone and two masks, thus indicating to which area of show business the owner of the star belongs.
The first commemorative plate appeared on the Alley of Stars in 1958. More precisely, these were the eight first plates from 1550 celebrities chosen by members of the Chamber of Commerce, who in the future were to be awarded their “star”. Since 1960, the regular laying of plates began, which continues to this day. However, the history of the Mall knows many defeats: in the 1960s and 1970s there was almost a fifteen-year stagnation complicated by legal proceedings, and then the heyday began again. Today the Avenue of Stars has more than 2500 registered plates.
The bookmarking of the name “star” on the Star Alley is not at all free: the lucky recipient of the nominal plate is to pay 30 thousand USD of “organizational expenses”.
What to see
The alley of stars is one of the “longest” attractions: its total length is more than 18 city blocks! The main part stretches 15 blocks along the Hollywood Boulevard, and since its length was clearly not designed for the numerous representatives of bohemia, there is also a three-quarter “tail” of the Mall on Vine Street. To see them all are capable only of inveterate fans of show business, so before you go to Alley, it makes sense to go to the official site of the site and find out the exact location of the “star” idol.
“Address” of the name plate is indicated by the exact address of the building opposite to which it is located.
Some very prominent representatives of the entertainment industry have two stars on the Walk of the Stars: for example, John Lennon, Ringo Star and George Harrison are immortalized as members of The Beatles and as solo performers. And in exceptional cases, the Stars also marked stars that do not fall under any of the categories of show business – for example, Muhammad Ali (in his case, the Committee equated boxing fights of an outstanding athlete to a theatrical art).
And of course, there were mythical characters: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White and Dwarfs, Shrek, The Simpsons and many other cartoon characters are on a par with the names of real people.
The ceremony of star setting
It’s quite easy to get to the ceremony of bookmarking a star’s plate of a star: it is enough to get acquainted with the schedule of events on the Avenue of Stars website in advance and come early. Ceremonies usually begin at 11:30 and last about 45 minutes. The entrance is free; you need to consider that you can not climb anything (satellite companions, chair or ladder). An indispensable condition for bookmarking a “star” is the personal presence of a celebrity.
