100 years later: detailing the history of the Hollywood sign
One of the most iconic locations in Los Angeles is unquestionably the Hollywood sign. The simply placed letters atop Mount Lee in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Santa Monica Mountains spelling out the word ‘Hollywood’ indicating that, yes, you are indeed amongst the rich and famous of the centre of Western cinema.
The Hollywood sign is featured in several famous movies and TV shows, particularly as a way to set the scene. The iconic status has led to several imitations of the sign cropping up all over the world, but when it comes to the true original, there is only one: the Californian.
The history of the Hollywood sign dates back to 1923 and originally spelt out the word ‘Hollywoodland’ as an advertisement for a new housing development that was being constructed in the hills looking over the Hollywood district in Los Angeles.
The developers of the estate billed ‘Hollywood’ land as a “superb environment without excessive cost on the Hollywood side of the hills”. 13 giant letters were originally erected with flashing bulbs to generate more interest, with the lights left on for ten years.
However, over the next few decades, the Hollywood sign took a bit of a battering. In 1944, the ‘H’ was destroyed in what was later thought to be excessively strong winds, although some claimed that perhaps vandals might have been to blame. By 1949, the sign had become an eyesore and many called for it to be destroyed.
Nevertheless, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce offered to repair it, believing the sign could become a cultural landmark. They agreed on a deal with the LA Parks Department to remove the ‘Land’ from ‘Hollywood’ to reflect the nearby district as a whole. These works went ahead at the end of the 1940s.
Things were looking good for the Hollywood sign for a while, but by 1978, the wind once again damaged it badly. The first ‘O’ looked like a ‘U’, and the third ‘O’ was nowhere to be seen. Where in the world was Hullywod? Nobody knew, and it was beginning to look as though the sign would be taken down once at for all.
But at the last hour, in stepped nine donors, including Alice Cooper and Hugh Hefner, who donated around a quarter of a million dollars in total to rebuild the sign completely, with steel columns on a concrete base. Hefner had once spoken of the importance of the sign, comparing it with another famous global landmark.
He once told The New York Times, “The sign is Hollywood’s Eiffel Tower. This sign represents the dreams and aspirations of people around the world. This town never had a good sense of its own history, never had good signs or markers for the sites and streets where so many internationally famous things have occurred.”
It’s easy to see why Hefner was so keen to cover the repair costs of the sign, given the fact he felt that it served as a signifier of the very history of Hollywood. The new letters have thankfully stood the test of time but are stripped back and repainted every now and again to give them the Hollywood sheen they deserve.
Now a cultural and historical landmark, the Hollywood sign will likely stand for several years to come, just like the iconic L.A. location itself. Often the first thing people think of when they consider contemporary movie stars and blockbusters, today, the site stands as a somewhat underwhelming destination for hiking cinema fans from all across the world. Just like the modern cinema industry itself, the Hollywood sign looks stunning from afar, but the closer you get, the more artifice can be seen, making one wonder whether Hollywood and its fabled sign were ever that spectacular.
