The only Hollywood Walk of Fame star you can’t walk on
The much-lambasted tourist attraction, The Hollywood Walk of Fame, sometimes called “the worst tourist site in the world”, is located along 15 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. It features several monumental stars to those who have contributed their efforts to entertain the public throughout their careers. It’s estimated that ten million-plus tourists visit the site each year.
The walk is indeed mostly reserved for those who have worked in the entertainment, music and film industries in Hollywood, but there is also a special place reserved for the heavyweight champion of the world, Muhammad Ali. However, Ali’s star is not technically on the walk but is placed on a wall nearby.
The reason that one cannot walk on Ali’s star, placed in 2002, is related to his name. Born Cassius Clay Jr in 1942, the boxing champion converted to Islam in 1961. In 1964, he denounced his birth name as a “slave name” and began going by the new moniker Muhammad Ali, named, of course, after the Islamic prophet.
However, because Ali’s first name indeed resembles the prophet Muhammad, he did not want anyone to walk on the name and thus disrespect him. After all, showing any disrespect of Muhammad, such as drawing depictions of him in any form, is considered a grave sin and was opposed to Ali’s religious beliefs.
Ana Martinez, the producer of the Walk of Fame ceremonies, admitted that Ali “did not want the name of Muhammad to be stepped on”, so the committee took the decision to put his star in a vertical position outside of what is now the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
There’s also the sense that Ali did not want those who disrespect his own personal prowess as a public figure to walk on his name in a showing of disrespect. As Martinez proclaims, the real reason for Ali’s getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the first place, even though he was indeed a sportsman and not an actor, was his status as an entertainer.
“He was a showman,” she added. “He had two Grammy-nominated spoken word albums. He was an entertainer, as well”. Martinez placed a wreath of flowers at Ali’s star when he died in 2016 with a card addressed to his family that read, “Float like a butterfly. Rest in peace, Mr Ali.” It’s a touching tribute to Ali, who was one of the most prominent sports figures of the 20th Century and a key counterculture figure to boot.
