What Becomes Of A Legend Most?

There are stars in every city, In every house and on every street,
And if you walk down Hollywood Boulevard
Their names are written in concrete! -"Celluloid Heroes" by The Kinks
Nothing is permanent. Sixty-one stars are being removed from Hollywood Boulevard's Walk of Fame. Charlton Heston, Cary Grant, Clark Gable and Frank Sinatra, along with fifty-seven others have had their stars taken away and put into storage while construction takes place on Vine street. Eight of the stars crumbled to dust when they were taken up, but the brass was saved. The sidewalk needed reconstruction because it was improperly sloped and didn't meet federal requirements for providing access for wheelchairs, said Ken Summers, project director for Webcor Builders. The new sidewalk will be flatter, he said. "Closing down sidewalks for years at a time like they do here would never happen in New York City," said John Walsh, a longtime Hollywood activist. I found the discussion of sidewalks in Los Angeles ironic since, as Missing Persons would remind us, "only a nobody walks in L.A."
What intrigues me more is the somewhat egalitarian way in which stars are handed out. Anyone can nominate a celebrity (someone "active in the world of entertainment") to get a star, they just have to be willing to show up for the ceremony. Dead people have to be dead for five years before they can get a star. There has to be some way to keep the riff-raff out. That and the twenty-five thousand dollar fee for the ceremony.
Fame is fleeting, at least when you get your full fifteen minutes, and it behooves us all to remember that a shopping center is all that stands between all of us and immortality.