| The Hollywood Sign is a famous landmark in the Hollywood hills in Los Angeles, California. It represents the word “HOLLYWOOD” (area place), written in big white letters. The sign was created as part of an advertisement in 1923, but subsequently got wide popularity becoming the trade mark of the film industry in USA. It is located on the southern slope of a mountain at a height of 491m above sea level.
For its entire history, the Hollywood Sign has often been the target of various jokes and vandalism. The Hollywood Sign was restored and put under the protection of a modern safety system. The sign often appears in various films and television programs which are being filmed in Hollywood or somewhere near Hollywood. Signs of a similar style but with other names often appear in parodies.
History:
Initially, the word “HOLLYWOODLAND” was written on the sign and it was created with an aim to advertise new living apartments on hills over the Hollywood area of Los Angeles. Each letter was 9m broad & 15m in height and contained about 4 thousand bulbs. The sign was officially opened on July 13, 1923. It was assumed that the sign would stay there for about one and a half years, however, with development of the American “Dream Factory” and since it acquired popularity worldwide, a decision was taken to keep the sign.
The sign began to associate so much with Hollywood that in September, 1932, actress Peg Entwistle committed suicide jumping off from the letter “H” expressing her protest towards Hollywood which rejected her.
The official support and repair of the sign was completed in 1939 and it began to fall to the ground quickly. In the beginning of the 1940s, official caretaker of the sign Albert Kothe met with an accident, which led to the destruction of the letter “H” in the sign. Albert Kothe was driving a car on Mount Lee in an inebriated condition, lost control of the car and rammed into the letter “H”. Albert Kothe was not injured but his 1928 Ford car and the letter “H” were destroyed.
In 1949, the Chamber of Commerce in Hollywood together with the Department of Parks in Los Angeles repaired and restored the sign and according to the contract, the last word “LAND” in the sign was removed. Despite restoration work the condition of sign (which was made out of wood and metal sheets) continued to deteriorate. Eventually, the first “O” was damaged and looked like the capital letter “U”, and the third letter “O” had completely fallen and the sign looked like this: “HuLLYWO D”.
In 1978, partly thanks to a public company for restoration of sign conducted by shock rocker musician Alice Cooper (who sponsored the complete restoration for the missing letter “O”), the Chamber of commerce replaced the deteriorated sign. Nine donors have offered $2, 7777 each, which made the total $250 000 for the creation of new letters and made of durable Australian steel.
The sizes of the new letters were 13.7m high and 9.3 to 11.8m wide. The new version of the sign was opened on November 14, 1978 on the 75th Anniversary of Hollywood. 60 million viewers could watch the opening ceremony live on TV.
Subsequent renovation of sign was sponsored by company Bay Cal Commercial Painting, which took place in November, 2005 and concluded in a complete repainting of the letters of the sign. Also in 2005, producer Dan Bliss put the original 1923 sign on auction on eBay and sold it for $450 000.
Donors:
Presently, letters in the sign are short by 1.5 m than the letters in the original variant.
* H – Joel Ruiz
* O – Giovanni Mazza;
* L - Les Kelley
* L – Gene Autry
* Y – Hugh Hefner
* W – Andy Williams
* O – Warner Bros. Records
* O – Alice Cooper, in the memory of Groucho Marx
* D – Greg Brigham Carlson
Alterations:
The unapproved alteration of the sign is illegal. However, sometimes the sign has been altered, which always gets great attention from the public. Some such altercations are listed below.
* In January 1976 the sign was altered to “HOLLYWEED” (“sacred weed”) in honor of the new law of the State of California relating to marijuana;
* In May 1987, celebrating a hundred years of Hollywood, students from the Institute of Technology in California changed the sign to “CALTECH”, covering portions of letters;
* In 1993, before the American football match between the University of California (Los Angeles) and the University of South California, the sign was altercated to “GO UCLA”.
Around 2000 the Police Department of Los Angeles installed a safety system equipped with motion detectors and a CCTV surveillance system. If someone comes within 50 yards (45.72 meters) of the sign the alarm system activates and informs the police department.
During the new millennium celebrations on January 1, 2000, the Hollywood Sign was decorated with numerous multi-colored blinking bulbs.
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