Walk of Stars on Strip to add Liberace, Marino

Friday, Jan. 21, 2005 | 8:30 a.m.

In October "Mr. Las Vegas" Wayne Newton was honored with the first star on the new Walk of Stars on the Strip.

The second two recipients of stars will be "Mr. Showmanship" Liberace and female impersonator Frank Marino.

Their stars will be placed in front of the Riviera, where Marino stars in "An Evening at La Cage." Newton's is in front of the New Frontier, where he performed for several years.

A ceremony for the latest honorees will be held at the Riviera on Feb. 1 -- Liberace's at 10 a.m. and Marino's at 2 p.m.

Liberace, who died of AIDS in 1987, arrived in Las Vegas in 1944, making his premiere at the Last Frontier. A spokesman for the Liberace Museum said he was hired by entertainment director Maxine Lewis for $750 a week -- and after a week his salary was doubled.

The Museum, which Liberace opened in 1979, is at East Tropicana Avenue and Spencer Street.

Marino has starred in "La Cage" for almost 20 years.

The Las Vegas Walk of Stars is patterned after the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which includes more than 2,200 names. Eventually it will stretch from Sahara Avenue, down the west side of the Strip to Russell Road and back again down the east side -- a total of eight miles.

Robert Alexander, chief of the Palm Springs, Calif.-based Motion Picture Hall of Fame Foundation, heads the Vegas nonprofit venture, which will donate $750 from each $15,000 star to a trust fund for the homeless.

A 25-member nominating committee, which meets monthly, proposes candidates for stars. The committee meets monthly.

Currently the list of candidates includes about 100 names.

The slab of granite in which the star is embedded costs $15,000, which is paid for by friends, fans, family and sponsors.