WALK OF COWBOYS; NEWHALL TO REVIVE WESTERN STAR TRIBUTE.

Byline: Angela M. Lemire Staff Writer

A two-step approach will spur the revival of the Western Walk of Stars program, by roping it into one of the city's most popular western events.

Last held in 1993, the rebirth of the Western Walk of Stars will take place on April 1, 2000, at the Hyatt Hotel Grand Ballroom and will accompany festivities in the next year's Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, organizers said.

Tickets will cost $100 per person for dinner and the awards ceremony and are expected to go on sale in September, officials said.

Mayor Jo Anne Darcy heralded the event's comeback on Tuesday, saying it would ``bring renewed interest to the downtown Newhall area as well as adding a real star quality to the annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival.''

The Cowboy Poetry and Music Festival, held at the Melody Ranch, which serves as an Old West movie location, first galloped into town six years ago.

The most recent festival, held in April, sold about 92,000 tickets. City officials estimated that festivalgoers dropped an additional $640,000 at area retail shops and restaurants during the two-day event.

The two western-themed events were planned together for next year so they would complement each other's success and compound the tourist dollars brought to downtown Newhall, organizers said.

The Western Walk of Stars began in the early 1980s in downtown Newhall, one of Santa Clarita's oldest areas, because of its rich history in western American culture and performing arts.

To honor legendary western film and stage celebrities who once performed in Santa Clarita, the event followed a tradition similar to the Hollywood Walk of Stars, in that the honoree received a bronze plaque and mounted it into a sidewalk.

Community coordinator Andree Walper said two celebrities already have accepted the city's invitations to take part in the Western Walk of Stars, but declined to reveal their names.

Before the program ended in 1993, plaques recognizing such stars as Gene Autry, Chuck Connors, Sam Elliot, Jane Russell and Tom Mix became permanent fixtures in downtown Newhall.

Organizers made several attempts in recent years to bring it back, but none panned out, officials said.

Business leaders agree that the rebirth of the Walk of Stars program couldn't come at a better time, during active efforts to revitalize downtown Newhall.

``Building preservation and marketing go hand in hand with redevelopment,'' said Frank Maga, a Newhall businessman and chairman of the Redevelopment Committee. ``You really can't have one without the other if you want redevelopment to be successful. These types of events expose people. You have to make them want to come downtown.''

Working with city officials, the Newhall Redevelopment Committee recently instituted a facade program that grants business owners low-interest loans to repair the exterior of their properties to fit in with an overall neighborhood theme with American western and Spanish colonial architecture. Recent examples of projects also include reconstructed sidewalks, old-fashioned street lamps, a new Metrolink commuter rail station in downtown Newhall, new park and year-round community events, officials said.

Also, city officials redesigned Railroad Avenue to improve the traffic flow in the downtown area and make the area more attractive to visitors.

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PHOTO Newhall will induct new members into its Western Walk of Fame in April of next year, for the first time since 1993.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News