I recently returned to one of my many childhood hometowns and had the opportunity to visit something quite unique; since it was established in 1991, the St. Louis Walk of Fame didn’t exist when I last lived (or visited) there. Though I’m sure it pales in comparison to Hollywood’s Walk of Fame (a place I’ve yet to see), it does include a descriptive plaque along with the imbedded star, which I found helpful for some of the names not easily recognized. Though the St. Louis walk includes national luminaries from art, music, architecture, literature, journalism, civil rights, education, science, and broadcasting, I was surprised at how many were from acting and entertainment.

Nominees for the St. Louis Walk of Fame must fulfill two main criteria:

Among the more recognizable names on the city’s walk (from acting and entertainment fields) were:

Buddy Ebsen, who was really born just across the Mississippi river in Belleville, IL; he’ll be forever known to many as TV detective Barnaby Jones and Jed Clampett (of the Beverly Hillbillies), the backwoodsman who struck black gold in the hills of Tennessee and moved his family to one of California’s richest areas where be became the bane of banker Mr. Drysdale (Raymond Bailey). He was also cast as the original Scarecrow for The Wizard of Oz (1939) before he switched with Ray Bolger (who coveted the role) to become the Tin man, but an allergic reaction to the toxic aluminum powder makeup forced him to give way to Jack Haley. He did, however, appear in several memorable films including the Broadway Melody of 1936 (1935), with his sister Vilma, Born to Dance (1936), and as Audrey Hepburn’s ex-husband in Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961).

William Inge – the Oscar winning writer of Splendor in the Grass (1961) was born in Kansas but came to work as a drama critic for a St. Louis newspaper; once there, fellow inductee Tennessee Williams inspired him to write his first play. He also taught at Washington University while he wrote Come Back, Little Sheba. His other works include Picnic, for which he won the Pulitzer Prize (St. Louis Post-Dispatch founder Joseph Pulitzer is also an inductee), and Bus Stop. A star for writer T.S. Eliot can also be found on the St. Louis Walk of Fame.

Scott Joplin, whose compositions like The Entertainer were adapted by Marvin Hamlisch to win one of the seven Academy Awards that Best Picture The Sting (1973) received.

Though born elsewhere, Agnes Moorehead lived in St. Louis as a child; she appeared in stage productions, danced with the Municipal Opera, and debuted as a radio singer on the city’s flagship station KMOX before moving to New York where she appeared on Broadway and became a charter member of Orson Welles's Mercury Theater (and things really took off for her).

While the name Marlin Perkins is not known because of any association to classic movies, most people my age will remember the host of TV’s original (before Animal Planet and Steve Irwin) nature show – Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, which was regular viewing in our household every Sunday night before Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color.

Vincent Price – my fellow Morlocks can do a much better job recounting the film, stage, and TV career of "The King of Horror", so I won’t even try. However, I did find it interesting that Price graduated from the Country Day School, a private high school that some of my friends attended.

Character actress Mary Wickes was born and raised in St. Louis, where she graduated from high school and college before making her way to Broadway; her first success was as Nurse Preen in The Man Who Came to Dinner. She can also be seen in such notable films as (a nurse in) Now, Voyager (1942) and another Bette Davis vehicle June Bride (1948), three of Doris Day’s early features, White Christmas (1954), The Music Man (1962), as a nun in The Trouble with Angels (1966) and Sister Act (1992), and as Aunt March in the Winona Ryder version of Little Women (1994), among countless other roles in the movies and television series. She was also Wicked Witch Margaret Hamilton’s understudy for The Wizard of Oz (1939).

Tennessee Williams attended high school, including University City where the Loop that’s home to the Walk of Fame is located, and Washington University in St. Louis before moving on to find success elsewhere.

Shelley Winters, a two time Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner (for The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) and A Patch of Blue (1965)) was a St. Louis native whose family moved to Brooklyn, NY when she was still young, before she left high school to become a model while studying acting.

Also – John Goodman, who ironically shares his name with a friend of mine that acted in several of our high school’s plays, Betty Grable, Supporting Actor Oscar winner Kevin Kline (A Fish Called Wanda (1988)), the former Mrs. Neil Simon – Marsha Mason who earned three of her four Best Actress Oscar nominations in movies written by him, Virginia Mayo, and the multi-talented Kay Thompson.

Some of those not (yet) on the St. Louis Walk of Fame include: Max Factor, character actor Frank Faylen, Oscar nominated Supporting Actress Linda Blair, a Morlocks favorite, five time Emmy winner Doris Roberts, two time Emmy and DGA winner Betty Thomas, character actress Mary Treen, and writer Sally Benson.

I found a pretty good compilation of webshots of these street stars and placards on the Internet, but I wasn't able to figure out how to use the pictures here.