Here is a sneak preview of a forthcoming cultural addition to downtown West Bend.
The Wisconsin Entertainer Wall of Fame (WOF) is taking shape in the Walkway between renovated Main Street and the upgraded Riverwalk. A community vote on the theater’s Facebook page has elicited these five top vote-getters:
- Steve Miller
- Chris Farley
- Gene Wilder
- Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers
- Les Paul
It’s a great start toward ten lighted display boxes on the north exterior wall of The Bend Theater, the sponsor of the project.
The first lighted display is already in place as a prototype. The Bend’s board of directors selected Orson Wells to get this project going. The graphics are a head-turner.
No one else has ever done such a honorific before. It’s a first.
The Bend put 32 names with Wisconsin roots in front of the public for consideration, and the aforementioned five came out on top.
Chris Farley
The next two boxes have been ordered and will be installed shortly for Steve Miller and Chris Farley. The late Chris Farley’s brother, Kevin Farley, also a comedian, will be at The Bend for a performance May 31. Get your tickets now; it will be a fun-packed event.
The theater will continue the voting in the community, including paper ballots at the theater, to determine the final nine entertainers. The plan is to have them in place by the end of 2025.
Steve Miller
The Welles prototype has proven to be a pedestrian traffic-stopper. Shaun Tanner and Bill Buettner, project managers for the theater, have kept the text to fewer than 100 words so the foot traffic in the Walkway doesn’t get too jammed up.
The first 10 honorees are the start. Another 10 will be chosen in the future, and then another 10 will be honored after that. Names like Liberace, Harrison Ford and The BoDeans will surely garner enough votes to be rotated into a lighted display.
Downtown has been designated an official historic district. It is also becoming known as a cultural district, thanks to the presence of the Museum of Wisconsin Art, and more than 25 sculptures placed downtown by West Bend Friends of Sculpture.
The total number of sculptures across the community-wide collection now numbers more than 50. Several more major sculptures are in the works for 2025.
Several business owners have added to the luster of the downtown by dressing up their river-facing facades. The Bend will participate in that emerging trend with a large digital print on what now is a scarred rear wall.
In addition to the growing number of cultural amenities, a lot of other fun and healthy activities are popping up on the river itself. Anglers are catching bass and pike right downtown. People in canoes/kayaks and tubes are enjoying the fast-flowing Milwaukee River. Strollers, walkers and cyclists are enjoying the Riverwalk and the Eisenbahn Trail along the river. The downtown is especially charming at this time of year with displays of Christmas banners, wreaths and, arguably, the tallest Christmas tree in the state at Old Settlers Park.
The downtown is full of shoppers, diners and party people almost every night of the week. The ample parking spaces are never completely full, but they are heavily used. One director of The Bend observed, “There are plenty of parking spaces on both sides of the river; you just have to know where to look for them.” It may take a little bit of walking.
As one urban planner commented, “The only time you have a real parking problem is when you don’t have a parking problem.” It’s all the activities that make a downtown jump.
The cultural amenities, like the new Wall of Fame, are what is proving to be magnets to pull people downtown, not excess parking.
Keep your eyes peeled for the lighted WOF displays in the Walkway. They will command your attention.
