Newhall’s Upstart Walk of Stars Takes Another Step Toward Fame

The beleaguered Walk of Western Stars in Newhall marks another milestone Saturday when it adds the name of actor George Montgomery to its list.

A sidewalk plaque honoring the former star of Western movies will be unveiled at an 11:30 a.m. ceremony with at least two earlier inductees--Hoyt Axton and Iron Eyes Cody--in attendance. The event, to be held near the front gate of William S. Hart Park in Newhall, is free and open to the public.

Montgomery--whose career included such films as “The Cowboy and the Blonde,� “The Lone Gun� and “Battle of the Bulge,� plus the NBC-TV series “Cimarron City� that aired from 1958 to 1960--is the walk’s 34th inductee.

But the site is still a long way from being the tourist attraction that its founders envisioned when the first plaque was encased in the sidewalk in 1981.

Montgomery, for example, said he had never heard of the walk before he was selected as an honoree. “I will be in good company, though,� said the actor, who now concentrates on making bronze sculptures of Western scenes.

The list of inductees includes such Western veterans as John Wayne, Gene Autry, Tom Mix, Ben Johnson, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, Dennis Weaver and Amanda Blake. Also included are several lesser-known figures, such as stuntman Andy Jauregui and singer Cliffie Stone, who had a local country music television show in the 1950s.

The walk was begun by the Santa Clarita Valley Chamber of Commerce and the Downtown Newhall Merchants Assn. as a way to mark the area’s contribution to the Western genre. Several oaters had been shot in the Santa Clarita Valley at ranches and studios owned by the likes of Autry and Mix. And Hart, one of the superstars of silent films, owned a house and ranch in the valley. Upon his death, they were given to Los Angeles County for use as a public park.

It was hoped that the Newhall Western Walk of Fame, as it was first named, would also bring in some tourist trade.

“We hoped there would be Western gift shops, restaurants and other places that would be complementary to the Western-style buildings already in our area,� said Jo Anne Darcy, one of the walk’s founders.

But the project ran into problems almost from the beginning. The original designer of the plaque, which depicts an empty saddle, sued when the walk committee decided to go with a different design after the first three were already in place. The designer won a $500 decision in court.

And although several Western notables moseyed out to Newhall for plaque unveilings, few tourists visited. Eventually, the Chamber of Commerce disassociated itself from the walk.

The biggest problem came in 1987 when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, overlord of the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame, insisted that Newhall was treading on its copyrighted name. The Newhall group agreed to change the moniker to the Walk of Western Stars and, in return, the Hollywood chamber said it would shoulder the expense of modifying the concrete-and-wood sign that marked the Newhall site.

Not even that worked. To save on labor and materials, the Hollywood group changed just one word on the sign, misnaming it the Western Walk of Stars.

“We didn’t see it until it was too late,� said Darcy, who works as a field deputy for County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and is a Santa Clarita city councilwoman.

Darcy believes that the walk’s future will brighten. “We hope that by next year, we will be able to formally make this area a historic district,� she said. “We will form a foundation to help make it happen.�

The annual budget of about $30,000 for the walk--plaques, alone, cost about $2,500 apiece, according to Darcy--has been raised by having a yearly charity dinner at CalArts. More fund-raising will be done, she said, to achieve the goals for the area and to keep it in good condition.

“I was over in Hollywood the other day and you would not believe how bad their plaques look,� said Darcy, taking a dig at the group that had made her walk change its name. “The plaques were really dirty. Trash all over the place. People had spit on them.

“That will not happen here.�