On November 29th, 2004, Godzilla received his star on the famous Walk of Fame. Although it has been a few weeks since that happened, here is a video that showcases two news reports, from Fox News and KCAL 9, dedicated to Godzilla receiving his star on the Walk of Fame in Hollywood.
The video has been saved in the .wmv (Windows Media Player) format and has been further compressed by being placed in a zip folder. Two different versions of the video have been made, one at a lower bit rate per second for users on slower connections.
Download video at 696kb/sec (size: 8.31MB zipped)
Download video at 1096kb/sec (size: 14.0MB zipped)
History of the Walk of Fame
The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and E.M. Stuart pitched the idea for the Walk of Fame back in 1953. It was meant to celebration the community, although also had a natural draw of being a tourist attraction as well. By 1955, the design had been decided upon while from 1956 to 1957 the initial selections were made. A huge 1,558 honorees were selected as part of the initial phase across motion pictures, television, audio recording and radio.
Ground broke on February 8, 1960 and the stars started to fill up what would become the Walk of Fame. It took eight years, though, before it was decided to expand the Walk of Fame. This opened the doors for ongoing additions, as more stars were added on a frequent basis to honor those across the various entertainment mediums.
Godzilla breathing his ray during the ceremony
Other Fictional Characters with Stars
Godzilla is not the first and won’t be the last fictional icon to receive a star on the Walk of Fame. The trend of giving them to fictional characters started back in 1978, roughly 18 years after the Walk of Fame was launched, when Mickey Mouse got his star. Other fictional characters to get their stars before Godzilla include:
- Bugs Bunny – 1985
- Snow White – 1987
- Woody Woodpecker – 1990
- Big Bird – 1994
- The Simpsons – 2000
- Rugrats – 2001
- Kermit the Frog – 2002
- Donald Duck – 2004
Of note, Godzilla is presently the only fictional, movie character on the Walk of Fame who originated outside of the US. The distinction for movie is made as Snow White originated in Germany from the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. However, the Walk of Fame listing is for the Disney character, as stated for the reason for the star:
“For her role in the first feature-length Disney animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.”
