The Hollywood city council wanted a new tourist attraction, something connected to Hollywood. As honorary mayor E.M. Stuart put it in 1953, the motive was to “maintain the glory of a community whose name means glamour and excitement in the four corners of the world.” A committee formed to explore how that would take place, and though accounts differ in regards to who came up with the stars-on-sidewalk idea, most agree those stars were originally meant to have not only the names, but caricatured likenesses of the starts etched in bronze, against black and blue backgrounds. When that idea fell through due to prohibitive costs, the modern design of the walk of fame was formed.

On this day, February 8, in 1960, construction began on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Several celebrities were on hand to scoop up the dirt in the groundbreaking ceremony: actresses Linda Darnell and Gigi Perreau, as well as veteran actors Francis X. Bushman and Charles Coburn.

Officially, the first star set down on Hollywood Boulevard was of radio actor Stanley Krame, on March 28. Unofficially, eight stars got a sort of a demo run when Hollywood unveiled its plans for the walk of fame. The eight experimental stars were for Olive Bordon, Ronald Colman, Louise Fazenda, Preston Foster, Burt Lancaster, Edward Sedwick, Ernest Torrance, and Joanne Woodward.