Hollywood Walk of Fame

==''Hollywood and La Brea Gateway''==
[[File:Four Ladies of Hollywood 2008.jpg|thumb|upright|''Hollywood and La Brea Gateway'' at the Walk of Fame's west end]]
The ''Hollywood and La Brea Gateway'' is a 1993 cast stainless steel public art installation by architect [[Catherine Hardwicke]].<ref name="Deioma">{{cite web|url=http://golosangeles.about.com/od/laphotogalleries/ig/Hollywood-Photo-Tour/Gateway-to-Hollywood-Sculpture.htm|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090208135356/http://golosangeles.about.com/od/laphotogalleries/ig/Hollywood-Photo-Tour/Gateway-to-Hollywood-Sculpture.htm|archivedate=2009-02-08|title=Hollywood La Brea Gateway – The Four Ladies Statue|publisher=Golosangeles.about.com|author=Deioma, Kayte}}</ref> The sculpture, popularly known as ''The Four Ladies of Hollywood'', was commissioned by the Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency Art Program as a tribute to the multi-ethnic women of the entertainment industry.<ref name="Art">{{cite web|url=http://siris-artinventories.si.edu/ipac20/ipac.jsp?uri=full=3100001~!337237!0#focus |title=Hollywood and La Brea Gateway (sculpture)|publisher= Smithsonian American Museum Art Inventories Catalog|accessdate=2024-01-27}}</ref> The installation consists of a square stainless steel [[Art Deco]]-style structure or gazebo, with an arched roof supporting a circular dome that is topped by a central [[obelisk]] with descending neon block letters spelling "Hollywood" on each of its four sides. Atop the obelisk is a small gilded weather vane-style sculpture of [[Marilyn Monroe]] in her iconic billowing skirt pose from ''[[The Seven Year Itch]]''. The corners of the domed structure are supported by four [[caryatid]]s sculpted by Harl West<ref name="Art"/> representing African-American actress [[Dorothy Dandridge]], Asian-American actress [[Anna May Wong]], Mexican actress [[Dolores del Río]], and Brooklyn-born actress [[Mae West]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.justabovesunset.com/photography/html/the_silver_women.html |title=The Silver Women" (photo montage)|publisher= JustAboveSunset.com|accessdate=2024-01-27}}</ref>  The installation stands at the western end of the Hollywood Walk of Fame at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and North La Brea Avenue.<ref name="Deioma"/>

The gazebo was dedicated on February 1, 1994, to a mixed reception. ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' art critic Christopher Knight called it "the most depressingly awful work of public art in recent years", representing the opposite of Hardwicke's intended tribute to women. "Sex, as a woman's historic gateway to Hollywood", he wrote, "couldn't be more explicitly described".<ref>{{cite news|last=Knight|first=Christopher|date=January 19, 1994|url=https://articles.latimes.com/1994-01-19/entertainment/ca-13098_1_la-brea-gateway|title=Caution: Bad Art Up Ahead|newspaper=Los Angeles Times (archives)|access-date=June 17, 2010}}</ref>

Independent writer and film producer Gail Choice called it a fitting tribute to a group of pioneering and courageous women who "carried a tremendous burden on their feminine shoulders". "Never in my wildest dreams did I believe I'd ever see women of color immortalized in such a creative and wonderful fashion."<ref>{{cite news|last=Choice|first=Gale|date=February 14, 1994|url=https://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-14/entertainment/ca-22913_1_pioneering-women|title=These Women Were Dreamers and Doers|newspaper=Los Angeles Times (archives)|access-date=June 17, 2010}}</ref> Hardwicke contended that critics had missed the "humor and symbolism" of the structure, which "embraces and pokes fun at the glamour, the polished metallic male form of the Oscar, and the pastiche of styles and dreams that pervades Tinseltown."<ref>{{cite news|last=Hardwicke|first= Catherine|date=February 14, 1994|url=https://articles.latimes.com/1994-02-14/entertainment/ca-22915_1_art-critic|title=Critic Missed the Humor and Symbolism|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|access-date=June 17, 2010}}</ref>

In June 2019, the Marilyn Monroe statue above the gazebo was stolen by Austin Clay, who had vandalized Donald Trump's star a year earlier.<ref name=":1"/>