Bernardi May Have a Star, but Not Fame

“I walk up and down this street and there are people who shouldn’t be here,” Jeff Schubert complained. “And I can’t even get an audition!”

Schubert is a 26-year-old actor from Manhattan who came to Hollywood to chase his dreams. The street is Hollywood Boulevard. The “people who shouldn’t be here” are, in Schubert’s view, the no-talents and obscure names who somehow got a star on the Walk of Fame.

He said this as he was standing beside the new star that honors Ernani Bernardi, the former city councilman from the Valley who made a name for himself as a Big Band musician long before he entered politics.

“Never heard of him,” Schubert said.

It’s remarkable how many people uttered those same four words the other day as I hailed passers-by at Bernardi’s star. Serving a record 32 years on the City Council won’t make you famous in this town.

I tried to set people straight. And in the end, one tourist declared that Ernani Bernardi, whoever he is, is “cool.”

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Now, the word cool doesn’t usually come up when the subject is Ernani Bernardi. Before he retired from the City Council last year, Bernardi was famous for being feisty and irascible. Bernardi, now recovering from a recent heart attack at age 82, never thought it was politically incorrect to be a hot-blooded Italian.

Friends loved to describe Bernardi as “the conscience of the council.” To others, he was just a naysayer. If the vote was 14 to 1, he was the 1.

One former constituent told me once how Bernardi angrily stalked out of a public hearing over what seems a minor point of contention. So this Valley politico didn’t endear himself to everyone. On the other hand, you don’t get reelected for three decades without doing something right.

At City Hall, he was anything but cool. But to be on the Walk of Fame, to be one of those names that most people don’t recognize--yeah, there is something cool about that.

His star is just east of La Brea, on the south side of Hollywood Boulevard. I queried about 10 passers-by. Not one recognized his name. But, as Schubert suggests, that puts Bernardi in a rather large company.

Take this quiz. The Walk of Fame was begun in 1958 with the unveiling of eight stars honoring motion picture performers. Match the first name in left column to the appropriate last name on the right. The correct answers will be at the end of this article.

Edward: Borden

Joanne: Colman

Olive: Lancaster

Ernst: Fazenda

Burt: Sedgewick

Louise: Torrence

Ronald: Woodward

Preston: Foster

So, you see? Ernani Bernardi fits right in.

I hung out at his star for about 30 minutes. Well, OK, it was more like 20 minutes. Goodness knows how long I would have had to stay before someone could (a) simply recognize the name, (b) place him in Los Angeles history and (c) explain why he merits a star.

There are essentially two reasons why.

One is that, even before he got into politics, Bernardi was a bona fide entertainer. In the Big Band era, “Noni” Bernardi, as he was known then, made a name for himself with the alto saxophone. He wasn’t an amateur like Bill Clinton. Bernardi was a pro who played with the likes of Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Lionel Hampton. Bernardi did the orchestration on one of Hampton’s hits. And for a time, Bernardi fronted his own band.

The other reason is politics. As a way of honoring Bernardi, Council President John Ferraro nominated his old paisano for a star on a block being revitalized by the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA).

Ironically, Bernardi has long been the CRA’s harshest critic--and the CRA paid for Bernardi’s star. Bernardi reviled the agency and complained that it diverted public money to private interests. Even now, Bernardi is suing the agency over some alleged shenanigans behind closed doors.

Normally, the installation fees for Walk of Fame stars are paid by studios eager to promote a new film or recording. It isn’t clear when Bernardi became aware that the CRA was paying for his star. His family, I’m told, has requested “no phone calls, no politics” during his recovery.

It’s known that, at the installation ceremony Feb. 1, Bernardi was handed a press release explaining the CRA’s role. Bernardi didn’t complain, but it’s possible he was distracted.

On that same day, on that same block, Sophia Loren got her star.

“She looked pretty good,” an appreciative Bernardi later told a friend.

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Not many people had time to chat. You can’t blame them. Was I really a reporter with a job to do--or just another weirdo on Hollywood Boulevard?

Dennis and Karen Lyons, tourists from Perth, Australia, wearing identical electric blue sunglasses, were an exception. They found the Walk of Fame amusing.

“They’re putting people here who don’t belong,” Dennis complained. “John Tesh! John Tesh has a star! He’s not a star!”

Devotees of Entertainment Tonight may disagree. As for Bernardi, I explained that he used to play with Goodman and Hampton, whose own star is just a block away, next to Louis Armstrong’s.

“Well, I know who Lionel Hampton is,” Dennis said. “He’s terrific!”

Then he looked down at Bernardi’s star.

“If he played with Hampton,” Dennis said, “he’s cool.”

(Quiz answers: Burt Lancaster, Joanne Woodward, Ronald Colman, Edward Sedgewick, Olive Borden, Ernst Torrence, Preston Foster and Louise Fazenda. If you actually knew a couple more than Lancaster, Woodward and Colman, consider yourself a film buff. If you knew all eight, get a life.)

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Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday.