Thursday, October 29, late morning, outside Amoeba Music on Hollywood Boulevard. Fred Schneider, Kate Pierson, Cindy Wilson and Keith Strickland of the B-52s stand over a freshly unveiled brass star while neighbors watch from their balconies. The Go-Go’s and comedian Fred Armisen are there too. It is the 2,861st star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“I don’t think any of us imagined that one day we’d get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Strickland told the crowd. Wilson went back to the beginning: a band that started in a former mortuary in Athens, Georgia. Schneider, as usual, got the laugh. He is happy to be in a band, he said, because he has “no marketable skills after dropping out of college.”
From a Chamber idea to a landmark
The Walk began as a business idea. According to the timeline on the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce’s anniversary mural, Chamber chair E.M. Stuart came up with the concept in 1953. Joanne Woodward posed with a star in 1958, the first honoree to do so, and construction started in 1959. A year later the first star was made, for director Stanley Kramer, and the Walk was officially dedicated.
It was completed in 1961 with 1,558 stars. In 1978 the City of Los Angeles designated it Historic Cultural Monument #194. The Live Theatre category arrived in 1984.
Milestones along the boulevard
Counting is part of the tradition. Sophia Loren received the 2,000th star in 1994, and Jennifer Lopez the 2,500th on June 20, 2013. Gene Autry holds the record as the only celebrity with five stars, set in 1987. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen became the first twins honored in 2004. In 2017, Selena Quintanilla set an audience record when 4,500 fans came to her dedication. Then came 2020, when Anthony Anderson’s ceremony was the first held virtually.
The 2026 ceremonies show how the Walk has changed. On September 4, Lea Salonga became the first Filipino to receive a star, the 2,855th, in front of the Pantages Theatre. She joked from the podium, “Feel free to walk on me.” Her hope, she said, was that a Filipino kid would one day come to Hollywood, see her name and think, “maybe I can get here too.” Darren Criss, Ming-Na Wen and Brandy spoke, and Dolly De Leon said simply, “It’s about time.”
The B-52s, who have sold more than 20 million albums, got theirs a day before a show in Chula Vista. Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, called the star a celebration of the band’s “unforgettable music, fearless spirit and the nostalgia they’ve created for generations of fans.” Six stars separate Salonga’s from theirs.
Sources
- Walk of Fame star honors party-band legends The B-52s – San Bernardino Sun
- Lea Salonga makes history with Hollywood Walk of Fame star | The Star
- Hollywood Walk of Fame Mural Historical Marker (Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, 2021) – HMDB
