The Hollywood Walk of Fame is the stretch of pavement along Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Los Angeles set with stars honouring people from film, television, music, radio and live performance. The first permanent star, for the producer and director Stanley Kramer, was laid on 28 March 1960. Joanne Woodward is often named as the first, but hers was one of eight prototype stars installed in 1958 to build excitement before construction began.
Gene Autry, the singing cowboy, is the only entertainer with a star in all five categories: four arrived in 1960 and the fifth, for live performance, followed in 1987, after that category was created. Getting a star is less mysterious than it looks. Anyone can nominate a celebrity, but only with that person’s written consent; a committee chooses around 30 names a year from hundreds of applications, and an 85,000-dollar fee covers the star and its upkeep.