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Translated and Adapted by John Oseid
Understatement just isn’t Hollywood’s style; it shouts its name from a good 15 miles away via the famous Hollywood sign. The conspicuously huge lettering is propped up in the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains and greets all who approach Hollywood. This year, the sign turns 100 years old, providing ample reason to take a look back at its surprising and dramatic past.
With each letter of the sign standing at 45 feet tall and more than 30 feet wide, you can hardly miss it. A closeup visit is not going to happen, however: “No access to the Hollywood sign,” you’ll read on smaller signs posted in the 4,300-acre Griffith Park on Mount Lee. If you do want to get a little closer to the giant letters, and avoid threat of arrest or a fine, take a hike in the Santa Monica Mountains. You can get a great view of the sign from Brush Canyon Trail, for one.
In 1923, workers used mules to haul wood and sheet metal up the slope. There were originally four more letters than there are today—the sign used to read “Hollywoodland.” It originated largely as a publicity stunt, dreamed up by real estate agents promoting property in the Hollywood Hills. Many wish today that it were lit up at night, as the original version of the sign was. Throughout the sign’s decade of illumination, a German immigrant named Albert Kothe famously maintained its nearly 4,000 bulbs.
The legendary sign used to spell “Hollywoodland.”
The Hollywood sign has never stopped making headlines. In 1932, Peg Entwistle, an actress who was struggling to find work in Depression-era Hollywood, climbed up the “H” and plunged to her death. The Great Depression also took its toll on the sign, which was neglected and weather- beaten. In the 1940s, the City of Los Angeles took pity and assumed ownership. When they refurbished the sign, they removed the last four letters that spelled “-land.”
In 1978, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided to give the sign a makeover, replacing all the original letters with new ones made of steel girder beams and corrugated sheet metal. Holding a successful benefit gala in his mansion, Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner got celebrities to pay $27,700 for each new letter. Rock star Alice Cooper contributed toward a new “O,” while the Chamber itself donated the “Y” in Hefner’s honor.
Over time, the sign has had to endure a lot. It’s survived earthquakes and brushfires as well as vandalism. In 1987, pranksters briefly recast the sign to read “Holywood” for the visit of Pope John Paul II. Other times, versions like “Hollyweed” and “Ollywood” have suddenly appeared in the mountains. It’s also a popular target of destruction in the movies, like in the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow, where a tornado takes it out.
The landmark is being preserved by the non-profit Hollywood Sign Trust, which is also currently planning a visitors center. And, just in time for its centennial, the sign has been given a new coat of 400 gallons of white paint.
This story originally appeared on AD Germany.
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