Five talents, who have risen to the top of their fields, were honored in a ceremony on Saturday, June 20. The Bronx Walk of Fame inductions topped off Bronx Week’s nine days of festivities celebrating Bronx pride.
Television star Judy Reyes, singer and songwriter Melissa Manchester, D.J. GrandWizzard Theodore, entertainer Tony Orlando, and composer Charles Fox were inducted into the Walk of Fame.
The Walk of Fame stretches south on the Grand Concourse from East 161st Street and sports more than 80 inductees since it’s founding in 1997.
On the evening before their induction, the entertainers were honored at the Bronx Ball, an annual gala held this year in the Great Hall in Yankee Stadium. This year’s Bronx Ball celebrated the 100th Anniversary of the Grand Concourse.
The borough president presented awards to each of the inductees. While accepting their awards, some of the honorees spoke of the revitalization of the borough.
“I have been a D.J. for 30 years,” said Theodore Livingston, a.k.a. GrandWizzard Theodore. “When I first began as a D.J. in the Bronx, it had a lot of run down buildings. To look at the Bronx the way it is now, in 2009 – the Bronx is a beautiful city.”
Diaz also presented awards to the ball’s main sponsors, Montefiore Medical Center, Health Plus and Verizon. He presented the 2009 Bronx Tourism Award to Fran and Lou Zigman, who provided assistance to then Borough President Fernando Ferrer when he began the Walk of Fame.
On Saturday, June 20 Bronxites were treated to the Bronx Day Parade, as bands, floats and thousands of marchers made their way up Mosholu Parkway; the Food & Art Festival, featuring tasty dishes from the borough’s most popular restaurants; the 26th annual “Bronxboro” Golden Arm Wrestling Championships; and the annual Bronx Week Concert, featuring Afro-Cuban jazz by the Machito Orchestra, singer Donnie Klang of MTV’s reality show “Making the Band” and R&B singing sensations The Manhattans.
