A collaboration between Santa Clarita residents Bill West and the husband and wife team of E.J. and Kim Stephens has culminated in the publication of “Images of America: Newhall’s Walk of Western Stars.”

Since 1981, the Walk of Western Stars in Newhall has commemorated beloved performers from Western film, television, radio, and music. Over the years, nearly 100 honorees have been memorialized in the sidewalks of Old Town Newhall with bronze saddles and terrazzo tiles.

Each April, new inductees are added to the walk during the Santa Clarita Cowboy Festival. Santa Clarita, which includes Newhall, has a century-long history of Western film and television production that continues to this day.

Newhall is the site of William S. Hart Park, where silent cowboy superstar William S. “Two Gun Bill” Hart, the first Walk of Western Stars inductee, had his retirement home. It is also the home of such Western gems as Melody Ranch, a film ranch once owned by Gene Autry that is still in operation. Melody is where Matt Dillon first stared down the bad guys in Gunsmoke, where Al Swearengen ruled over Deadwood, and where the hosts first became sentient in television’s Westworld.

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About the authors:

Bill West is a longtime Walt Disney Imagineer, a board member of Friends of Hart Park (FOHP), and a nominee for “Santa Clarita Valley Man of the Year.” He cohosts SCV in the Movies, a television program that highlights films and television shows made locally, with coauthor E.J. Stephens.

Kim Stephens has worked for the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, for over 30 years. She and her husband, E.J., have lived in the Santa Clarita Valley for decades and have written over a dozen books on Southern California film history.