COUNCIL FILE NO. __../_{)_-_f~_b3__ COUNCIL DISTRICT NO. 13 APPROVAL FOR ACCELERATED PROCESSING DIRECT TO CITY COUNCIL The attached Council File may be processed directly to Council pursuant to the procedure approved June 26, 1990, (CF 83-1 075-S1) without being referred to the Public Works Committee because the action on the file checked below is deemed to be routine and/or administrative in nature: _} A. Future Street Acceptance. _} B. Quitclaim of Easement(s). _} C. Dedication of Easement(s). _} D. Release of Restriction(s). _L} E. Request for Star in Hollywood Walk of Fame. _} F. Brass Plaque(s) in San Pedro Sport Walk. _} G. Resolution to Vacate or Ordinance submitted in response to Council action. _ } H. Approval of plans/specifications submitted by Los Angeles County Flood Control District. APPROVAL/DISAPPROVAL FOR ACCELERATED PROCESSING: APPROVED DISAPPROVED* Council Office of the District I v 2. Public Works Committee Chairperson *DISAPPROVED FILES WILL BE REFERRED TO THE PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE. Please return to Council Index Section, Room 615 City Hall City Clerk Processing: Date ____ notice and report copy ma iled to interested parties advising of Council date for this item. Date ____ scheduled in Council. AFTER COUNCIL ACTION: ___} Send copy of adopted report to the Rea l Estate Section , Development Services Division, Bureau of Engineering (Mail Stop No. 515) for further processing. ___}Other: PLEASE DO NOT DETACH THIS APPROVAL SHEET FROM THE COUNCIL FILE ACCELERATED REVIEW PROCESS ~ E Office of the City Engineer Los Angeles California To the Honorable Council JUt 2 6 Ofthe City of Los Angeles Honorable Members: C. D. No. 13 SUBJECT: Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street- Walk of Fame Additional Name in Tenazzo Sidewalk­ NEIL DIAMOND RECOMMENDATIONS: A. That the City Council, designate the unnumbered location situated one sidewalk square westerly of and between numbered locations 11 p and 12P as shown on Sheet 21 of Plan D-13788 for the Hollywood Walk ofFame for the installation of the name of Neil Diamond at 1750 Vine Street. B. Inform the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce ofthe Council's action on this matter. C. That this repmt be adopted prior to the date of the ceremony on August 10, 2012. FISCAL IMP ACT STATEMENT: No General Fund Impact. All cost paid by permittee. TRANSMITTALS: 1. Unnumbered communication dated June 20, 2012, from the Hollywood Historic Trust of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, biographical information and excerpts from the minutes of the Chamber's meeting with recommendations. City Council - 2- C. D. No. 13 DISCUSSION: The Walk ofFame Committee ofthe Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has submitted a request for insertion into the Hollywood Walk of Fame the name ofNeil Diamond. The ceremony is scheduled for Friday, August 10, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. The communicant's request is in accordance with City Council action of October 18, 1978, under Council File No. 78-3949. Following the Council's action of approval, and upon proper application and payment of the required fee, an installation pennit can be secured at 201 N. Figueroa Street 3rd Floor, Counter 23. Respectfully submitted, l!Jo_()A_ __ ~ Lemu7M~~ P.E. Central District Engineer Bureau of Engineering pkt:wof.02 (213) 482-7030 cc: Construction Services Center, Counter 23 Bureau of Street Services Administration +IOLLVWOOD- wALK 0!= !=AM~ June 20, 2012 J'vlr. Gary Lee Moore Public Works Engineering Att: Lemuel Paco 201 N. Figueroa St. 3rd Floor, M.S. 503 Los Angeles, CA 90012 Fax 213 482~ 7007 Dear Mr. Moore: The Walk of Fame Committee of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has approved the below listed name for insertion into the Hollywood \Valk of Fame: NEIL DIAMOND (Category -RECORDING)~ Requested star location to be 1750 Vine Street, on the east side of the street, in front of CAPITOL RECORDS. The star for Neil Diamond will be situated in the second row, (next to the stars in the original tow) of NATALIE COLE (11p), to the north and CONRAD NAGEL which is numbered (12P) to the south. According to sheet# 21 plan 13788, NEIL Dli\MOND's star has no number as it will be placed in the second row closest to the building. The star for NEIL DIAMOND is between a blank square (south) and another blank square in the second row and 'vill point to the North. The dedication ceremony is scheduled for Friday, August 10, 2012 at 11:30 a.m. Thank you for your cooperation in this request I look forward to a response from your office soon. If you have questions call me at (323) 468-1376. The following materials are enclosed: NEIL DIAMOND'S bio, and the Board of Director's ~1:.. ~ez Vice President, Media Relations Producer Walk of Fame cc: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa i\J:mcnia Aguilar Councilman Eric Garcetti Ralph Pipes Carmine Goglia Sally Castro Leron Gubler Maureen Schultz James Kuha Sgt. Lamont Jenett Top End Constmctors Inspector Andrews Darin Cohen BOARD OF DIRECTORS MINUTES - JULY 15, 1992 PAGE 5 WALK OF FAME COMMITTEE - MOTION WAS MADE BY JOHNNY GRANT AND SECONDED BY ELLIOT JOHNSON TO APPROVE THE FOLLOWING FOR INSERTION IN THE WALK OF FAME: MOT ION PICTURES - SAMUEL Z. ARKOFF, CHEVY CHASE, ARTI:IDR COHN, RICHARD FARNSWORTH, FRI Z FRELENG, ANNA LEE, PAT MORITA, JASON ROBARDS, OLIVER STONE j' MERYL STREEP. TELEVISION - ROSEANNE ARNOLD, EDWARD ASNER, FRED DRYER, FARRAH FAWCETT 1 DENNIS JAMES, RICHARD MULLIGAN. RECORDING - NEIL DIAMOND, GLORIA ESTEFAN, HERBIE HANCOCK, PATTI LABELLE, BONNIE RAITT, LUTHER VANDROSS. LIVE THEATRE - MARTHA SCOTT, RIP TAYLOR. RADIO - RAY BRIEM, ROBERT W. MORGAN. MOTION CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY. SUBMITTED BY: NORA ROJAS EVENTS COORDINATOR NEIL DIAMOND Neil Diamond's eclectic and universally beloved songs-as well as his charismatic and openhearted performances of them-continue to make him an international force both as a record maker and a live entertainer. They are the best and most tuneful explanation for his remarkable track record of 16 Top Ten albums and 37 Top Ten singles. Those very same songs-song blue or otherwise-are also the reason that this Grammy winning artist rock icon has been a Kennedy Center honoree, inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Songwriter's Hall of Fame, and is a recipient of the Sammy Cahn Lifetime Achievement Award. Among Diamond's many other notable honors, he has to date received a Golden Globe Award, thirteen Grammy nominations and was named the 2009 MusiCares Person of the Year. This man who has already sold more than 125 million records around the world was born the son of Kieve and Rose Diamond and raised humbly but lovingly in Brooklyn, New York-other than two early years spent in Cheyenne, Wyoming while his father was stationed there by the United States Army. After attending both Erasmus High School­ where he sang in the school choir with future duet partner Barbra Streisand-and Lincoln High School, Diamond went on to study at New York University as a pre-med student on a fencing scholarship. Yet ultimately it was Diamond's overriding, lifelong passion for making music that would trump his interest in fencing or the healing arts. So Diamond put down his sword and scalpel, picked up his trusty guitar and left NYU just short of graduation, putting everything on the line to pursue his dream of writing songs for a living. "There's something inside of me that is released when I'm writing music," Diamond explained in his introduction to his 1996 box set In My Lifetime. "And I think I'll need that release for as long as I live." Still, for the first half of the Sixties, Diamond would struggle mightily to make his mark in New York's music center Tin Pan Alley. He recorded a couple of little heard singles with friend Jack Packer while in high school, and even recorded a one-off single for Columbia Records before being dropped by the label in 1961. !n 1965-after spending another four years knocking on doors and selling his songs to music publishers-Diamond caught the eye of top songwritrng legend Ellie Greenwich at a recording session for which he had hired her to sing background vocals on a demo. Greenwich and her then-husband Jeff Barry were among the hottest songwriters in the world at the time, having co-written with producing legend Phil Spector such classics as "Be My Baby," "Da Doo Ron Ron," "And Then He Kissed Me," "Chapel of Love" and "River Deep, Mountain High," as well as "Hanky Panky" on their own and "Leader of The Pack" with Shadow Morton, to name just a few. "! was really lucky to get Ellie to do my date with a couple of her singing friends," says Diamond. "We had a great time doing it and at the end of the session Ellie offered to introduce me to her husband Jeff Barry. Maybe she thought 1 had promise." Soon Diamond was meeting with Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller who were the owners of the publishing company that Barry and Greenwich were writing for, as well as songwriting and record producing legends in their own right. "Before 1 knew it, I had a one year contract to write for their company with a guaranteed salary of $150 a week," Diamond recalls. "I thought I'd died and gone to heaven." One year later-having written what he himself calls "maybe half a dozen mediocre songs," Diamond was let go from his contract with Leiber and Stoller. "I was back on the streets again only worse, I was now married and had a baby coming," Diamond remembers.