Perched high above Los Angeles, blocky white capital letters spell out a name seared into popular consciousness – Hollywood. As an iconic global emblem for the entertainment industry’s beating heart, the landmark Hollywood Sign ranks among the most recognizable manmade symbols worldwide.
Yet behind its boxy simplicity lies an intriguing history intertwining ambition, adversity, celebrity saviors and the ever-changing face of a neighborhood turned mecca.
The Hollywoodland Fantasy
The sign’s origins surprisingly have little to do with cinema. When erected in 1923, the Los Angeles Times trumpeted it as the “largest signboard in the world.” But it was conceived just as a massive billboard marketing available homes in a new development called Hollywoodland.
Built by Crescent Sign Company, the sign spanned 350 feet across Mount Lee. Its 50-foot tall letters gleamed atop the hill thanks to a lavish array of 4,000 lightbulbs. These illuminated sequentially, flashing “HOLLY,” “WOOD,” and “LAND” individually before uniting to blaze the full “Hollywoodland.”
Rise of a Neighborhood – and Its Alter Ego
As Hollywoodland’s houses filled, a thriving film scene simultaneously exploded at the sign’s feet. Major studios clustered in the once-quiet Hollywood district just north of Fort Lee mansion estates turned lavish celebrity homes.
Soon the icon now synonymous with cinematic dreams towered figuratively as well as literally over burgeoning moviemaking enterprises. Its enormous LAS VEGAS-like illumination made the sign an ideal background element in films establishing Los Angeles.
So despite starting as a humble real estate promotion, the sign increasingly assumed mythic status as the movie industry imprinted itself on global consciousness from studios down below.
Falling Apart, Fading Out
Yet the bright lights and glory days couldn’t keep the deteriorating sign structurally sound. As neglect set in, the “H” tumbled down Mount Lee in 1943. And in 1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce removed the last four letters to abbreviate the damaged eyesore to simply “Hollywood.”
By 1978, decades of neglect left only a few steel panels remaining. But good fortunes turned when a “Save the Sign” committee mustered celebrity donations to rescue the forlorn icon. Hugh Hefner, Gene Autry and Alice Cooper were among donors whose combined $250,000 restored the landmark to its former glory.
Today that sign still presides over Los Angeles, the movie industry’s epicenter and forever intertwined with its own dramatic, only-in-Hollywood history. All thanks to a fast-fading real estate gimmick that serendipitously ascended into a Tinseltown emblem for the ages.