Stars in Stride : Hollywood Fending Off the Imitators of Walk of Fame

It’s getting so you can’t help but step on a famous name. Or even a not-so famous one.

Take it from an authority--Ed Lewis, the executive vice president of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which has installed 1,856 sidewalk stars in the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

Walks of fame are popping up in such burgs as Newhall, Calif., Lubbock, Tex., and Philadelphia, like broken stretches on some zig-zagging highway of stardom.

Even schools have gotten into the act, with Fullerton’s Sunny Hills High Walk honoring baseball star Gary Carter (an alumnus) and the Rollins College (Fla.) Walk featuring stones reputedly taken from the birthplaces of Alexander the Great, Aristotle and Shakespeare (who were not alumni).

Instead of being flattered, the Hollywood chamber feels more like it’s getting trod upon by imitators.

“What these places don’t understand is that they can’t use the phrase ‘walk of fame’ because we’ve trademarked it,” Lewis said. “They can call it, ‘walk of stars’ or ‘walk of pride,’ but not ‘walk of fame.’ Otherwise, people might confuse the Hollywood Walk of Fame with the Cucamonga Walk of Fame.”

Cucamonga, possibly suffering from a star shortage, has no such avenue. But several other cities are considering celebrity-implants, and it somewhat nettles Lewis that they call Hollywood for advice. Would Macy’s help Gimbel’s?

Flood of Calls Rises

“We’ve been fielding more calls than ever the last 18 months,” Lewis said. “A merchants’ group in San Francisco called us about starting a Politicians Walk of Fame. We told ‘em we weren’t sure whether that’d go over. Cocoa Beach is talking about an Astronauts Walk, I think. Baltimore and Palm Springs have also called.”

Some rival pavements honor Hollywood’s wishes with alternate monikers.

A San Francisco film studio introduced Starwalk, a series of Mann’s Theater-type imprints. Possibly trying to get a head start on the still non-existent Politicians Walk, Starwalk tried unsuccessfully to get Mayor Dianne Feinstein to leave her mark.

“She got here before the cement guy,” explained the organizer, Roberta Riley. “She left and by the time she got back, the cement had hardened.” (Her Honor has not responded to requests for another cement session.)

San Pedro Sportswalk

In Southern California, which seems to be the fame capital, San Pedro laid out a Sportswalk to celebrate locals such as Dodger third base coach Joe Amalfitano. Palm Springs is considering an Avenue of the Stars, not to be confused with Echo Park’s Avenue of the Athletes, or Inglewood’s proposed Champions Walk (slated to be placed on that city’s Avenue of the Champions).

And Orange County, not wanting to feel left out, will unveil a Walk of Stars outside the Anaheim Hilton next month (first inductee: comic Joey Bishop, a county resident).

Why the proliferation of off-Hollywood walks?

“We get so much coverage across the country every time we install a star that I think other cities and merchant groups recognize that it’s a good way to get publicity,” Lewis said.

And the Hollywood chamber, aware that trademarks can be lost if not protected, is putting its foot down on what it considers violators.

Lewis said he’s written several letters of protest to the Downtown Newhall Western Walk of Fame. But, as befits a group that celebrates strong-willed celluloid cowpokes like John Wayne, the Western Walk ain’t budging.

Bob Martin of the Newhall Merchants Assn., summoning visions of the Alamo’s outnumbered defenders, pointed out: “They (Hollywood) have more people in their walk than we have in our whole town.”

The Hollywood chamber also complained when publicist Nann Miller recently tried to inaugurate a Jewish Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. “I guess I could call it something like, ‘Jewish Pathway of Accomplishment,’ ” she said.

However, the 3-year-old Ken & Bob Starfish Walk, located outside Tony’s Fish Market on the Redondo Beach pier, has somehow escaped the scrutiny of Hollywood.

Two Listeners Venerated

Founded by KABC radio personalities Ken Minyard and Bob Arthur out of revenge for their omission from the Hollywood Walk, the Starfish display so far bears plaques venerating two listeners: Jerry Good, the show’s joke-of-the-week champ, and Allan S. Hjerpe, promoter of the mythical Topanga Mildew Festival.

Inasmuch as Minyard and Arthur have since received one-half star each on Hollywood Boulevard, they might negotiate. “We could call it ‘Starfish Crawl of Fame,”’ Arthur said.

Asked about Philadelphia and Lubbock, the Hollywood chamber’s Lewis said: “They have them, too? Are you sure they aren’t halls of fame? Sometimes the media says walks of fame when they’re really halls of fame.”

But, no--the Philadelphia Walk is a parade of musicians’ names while Lubbock’s Buddy Holly Walk commemorates the late singer, not to mention his early band, the Crickets.

It is some consolation to Hollywood that, trademark problems aside, setting up this type of shrine is no walk in the park.

“We’ve been talking about an Astronauts Walk for years,” said Cocoa Beach, Fla., Mayor Bob Lawton. “But we haven’t been able to come up with the funds.”

“We’ve got the qualifications,” added city information officer Glen Rabac. “ ‘I Dream of Jeannie’ (the ‘60s television sitcom about an astronaut and his vanishing genie) was set here.”

Financing a Problem

Financial problems have also slowed the pace at times of the Newhall Western Walk as well as Echo Park’s Avenue of the Athletes, whose plaques salute California athletes (as well as guest star Babe Ruth) along Sunset Boulevard. While hundreds of thousands of tourists stop each year at points along Hollywood’s 3 1/2-mile stretch of fame, nothing quite the same happens at the Avenue of the Athletes, although it’s a 10-minute walk from Dodger Stadium.

“To be perfectly honest, I don’t think anyone particularly goes out of their way to see it,” a member of the Echo Park walk’s organizing committee once admitted.

Meanwhile, the first star in the proposed Jewish Walk--honoring Los Angeles City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky--sits in founder Miller’s office. She hasn’t found anyone willing to donate sidewalk space.

Pavement-reinforcement problems on Broadway have also stopped the spread of Latino actors’ stars outside the Million Dollar Theatre in downtown Los Angeles.

And don’t mention sidewalks to Mike Dornan, manager of the Palomino Club, home of the Country Music Walk in North Hollywood. Founded in 1979, the Country Music Walk could be called the Country Music Step since it consists of exactly one star--for singer Eddie Rabbitt.

Lacks In-Out Permits

“What happened,” Dornan said, “is we put it in and then the city said we had to take it out because we had no permit. Then we started to take it out and the city told us we couldn’t take it out because we needed a permit to do that . We finally gave up.”

Rabbitt’s selection originally stirred some curiosity in that he’s a successful, but less-than-legendary performer. His crowning virtue, apparently, was that he was appearing at the club the week he was enshrined.

Availability is, in fact, a crucial factor for such ceremonies because little or no publicity is likely to ensue unless the honoree shows.

“We’d love to honor Burt Reynolds but so far he hasn’t been able to attend,” Jo Anne Darcy of the Downtown Newhall Western Walk said. “And Jim Arness (“Gun-smoke’s” Marshal Dillon) too but he’s very shy.”

Stars, in fact, seem a bit shyer about showing up in person at less well-known walks. At a ceremony on the Avenue of the Athletes in 1985, the Lakers’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was represented by his agent, whom he has since sued. About 50 people--including some passers-by--stopped to watch the proceedings (contrasted with the estimated 5,000 who saw singer Michael Jackson receive his star on Hollywood Boulevard).

No walk ceremony is too small to attract politicians, though. City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay is enshrined in the Latino actors’ display downtown, though he is neither a Latino nor an actor (oratorical flourishes aside).

However many rivals it inspires, the Hollywood Walk continues to churn out sidewalk stars faster than anyone (in fact, within its current boundaries, it has only about enough sidewalk space to last another 60 years).

The concept was a spinoff from Grauman’s (now Mann’s) Chinese Theater Floor of Fame. Legend has it that the Grauman’s attraction was born in 1927 when a visiting actress, Norma Talmadge, accidentally stepped in a patch of wet cement at the construction site there. More than 150 others have left imprints of everything from hands and feet to a leg (Betty Grable), a knee (Al Jolson), a profile (John Barrymore) and hoofs (Trigger).

The Hollywood Walk itself originated in 1956, according to Bill Welsh, president of the Hollywood chamber, who said, “as an answer to the complaint from people who said they came to Hollywood and never saw a single star. We couldn’t do handprints and footprints up and down the street so we came up with the idea of implanting stars.”

Actually, the Hollywood Walk is just a toddler compared to the Rollins College Walk of Fame in Winter Park, Fla., which was created in 1929 by school President Hamilton Holt.

Fascination for Stones

As a child tramping through the countryside with his physician father, Holt developed a fascination for stones of ancestral homes that had been handed down from generation to generation.

He began collecting stones from the reputed birthplaces of the famous--ranging from Alexander the Great to several American Presidents--and set them in a pathway at the small liberal arts college.

Holt envisioned a second walk, as well, in 1945, when the college was offered a stone that was said to be from the fireplace of Adolf Hitler. “Of course, we’ll accept the stone,” Rollins said at the time. “I have always wanted to have a Walk of Ill Fame at Rollins in which to put Benedict Arnold, Madame de Pompadour, Hitler, Mussolini and President Harding.”

But the Walk of Ill Fame never got off, or into, the ground. The whereabouts of the Hitler stone are unknown.

1. Newhall Downtown Newhall Western Walk of Fame On San Fernando Road, between 5th and 9th streets; honors film cowboys who frequented the Santa Clarita Valley.

2. North Hollywood Country Music Walk of Fame Outside Palomino Club, 6907 Lankershim, North Hollywood; founded in 1979 and consisting of just one star: singer Eddie Rabbitt.

3. Hollywood Hollywood Walk of Fame Along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street; started in 1956 to honor entertainers, the walk now includes 1,857 stars.

4. Los Angeles Avenue of the Athletes On Sunset Boulevard, between Alvarado Street and Elysian Park Boulevard; plaques salute California sports stars.

5. Los Angeles Hispanic Starwalk Outside Million Dollar Theatre, Broadway and 3rd Street; honors Latino entertainers and City Councilman Gilbert Lindsay.

6. Los Angeles Jewish Walk of Fame No home yet; one star, honoring City Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky, was unveiled on Wilshire Boulevard.

7. Redondo Beach Ken & Bob Starfish Walk Outside Tony’s Fish Market on the Redondo Beach pier; two plaques honor listeners of a popular KABC radio show.

8. San Pedro Sportswalk In front of Trani’s Majestic Restaurant at the corner of 6th and Beacon Street; several dozen plaques honor local athletes.