who was first star on hollywood walk of fame
Hollywood Walk of Fame While Joanne Woodward is often singled out as the first to receive a star on the Walk of Fame,[25] in fact there was no "first" recipient; the original stars were installed as a continuous project, with no individual ceremonies. Woodward's name was one of eight drawn at random from the original 1,558 and inscribed on eight prototype stars that were built while litigation was still holding up permanent construction.[26][27][28] The eight prototypes were installed temporarily on the northwest corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue in August 1958 to generate publicity and to demonstrate how the Walk would eventually look.[14] The other seven names were Olive Borden, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedgwick, and Ernest Torrence.[14][29] Official groundbreaking took place on February 8, 1960.[17] On March 28, 1960, the first permanent star, director Stanley Kramer's, was completed on the easternmost end of the new Walk near the intersection of Hollywood and Gower.[14][30] The Joanne Woodward legend may have originated, according to one source, because she was the first to pose with her star for photographers.[25]
Hollywood Walk of Fame Radio personality, television producer and Chamber member Johnny Grant is generally credited with implementing the changes that resuscitated the Walk and established it as a significant tourist attraction.[21][35] Beginning in 1968, he stimulated publicity and encouraged international press coverage by requiring that each recipient personally attend his or her star's unveiling ceremony.[21] Grant later recalled that "it was tough to get people to come accept a star" until the neighborhood finally began its recovery in the 1980s.[32] In 1980 he instituted a fee of $2,500, payable by the person or entity nominating the recipient, to fund the Walk of Fame's upkeep and minimize further taxpayer burden.[21] The fee has increased incrementally over time; by 2002 it had reached $15,000,[36] and stood at $30,000 in 2012.[4] The current (2017) fee is $40,000.[37]