WALK OF FAME : ANAHEIM JOINS STROLL DOWN CELEBRITY LANE

A McDonald’s jingle may be more original. A Goodyear blimp grabs more attention viewed from a freeway. Still, the new promotional effort by the Anaheim Hilton & Towers is bound to get noticed.

After all, it combines the fame of celebrities, the civic appeal of a public monument, the historical aura of a prestigious award.

Still guessing?

It’s a walk of fame, of course. Something no community should be without. In recent years, towns and cities around the country have started similar sidewalks. From Inglewood to Philadelphia, they’re the rage, and now Orange County has a walk of its own.

The public relations people who came up with this one for the Hilton say that if everything goes as planned, every two months another famous name will be carved in a sidewalk for posterity. It won’t be exactly like the Walk of Fame in Hollywood, but it’s pretty close.

“It’s not a star like theirs,” said Cherie Kerr, president of Kerr & Associates, the Huntington Beach PR firm that devised the Orange County Walk of Stars for the Hilton. “It looks like a circle of stars. It looks like an Orange. In the middle there will by symbols of the fields that the people will be from--business, sports or entertainment--that look very similar to the kinds of symbols you see on bathroom doors.”

How’s that again?

“You know,” she said. “Very simple symbols for what the people do.”

Anyway, Nov. 5 is the day that Anaheim will unveil the brass signatures of Steve Martin, Jose Feliciano, the Righteous Brothers, Gale Storm and Buddy Ebsen--sunk in concrete, along with those simple symbols and framed by an Orange of stars. The list of future honorees, Kerr said, includes Angels owner Gene Autry, former astronaut Edwin E. (Buzz) Aldrin Jr., comedian Joey Bishop and former stage and movie star Ruby Keeler.

“There are a lot of jokes about living behind the Orange curtain,” Kerr said, “but we’re hoping this will show people that there are a lot of famous people who live here. Orange County is really big now. . . . There are a lot of people around here who have never been recognized.”

Asked whether the celebrity sidewalk wasn’t also a promotional bit to get the Hilton recognition, she said: “I guess you would have to say that that’s somewhat true.”

The criteria to get a star in that sidewalk: The people must live or have lived in Orange County, must be prominent and must agree to let their names be used. The name of John Wayne, the county’s most celebrated celebrity, is not scheduled to go down on that sidewalk.

“We did approach Mr. Wayne’s family, and some of them were very willing and others, well, his older children wanted substantial funds for the cancer foundation to use the name, and we’re not paying,” Kerr said. “The children have the licensing rights to his name.”

She said they’re also negotiating with Mickey Mouse, or, rather, with the Disney Co. about using the name of the world’s favorite rodent. “That hasn’t worked so far,” she said. “Some of these people are very slow about giving you a commitment.”

Steve Martin, who grew up in Garden Grove, will be represented at the Nov. 5 dedication by his parents, Kerr said. Otherwise the stars will be there in the flesh.

Kerr said Feliciano lives in Newport Beach. Righteous Brothers members Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield live in Newport Beach and Storm lives in Laguna Niguel. The ceremony is at 11 a.m.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame is managed by the Chamber of Commerce, which charges $3,000 for a star. Kerr said the Hilton isn’t charging.