July 13 – A Sign is Dedicated

nPostednon July 13, 2015

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nHavenyou ever seen the famous Hollywoodland sign?

nInknow, you’re probably thinking – wait, Hollywood-LAND?

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nNow,nthe sign looks more like this:

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nItnlooks deceptively small in those photos, but the letters are 45 feetntall, and the current sign is 350 feet long. n

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nButnwhen it was created as an advertisement for a new housingndevelopment, in 1923, it was not only four letters long, each letternwas larger – 30 feet wide and 50 feet high. Also, it was studdednwith light bulbs. The sign flashed:

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nHOLLY

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nWOOD

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nLAND

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nThennthe entire sign lit up. Below the sign there was a searchlight.

I read that, once maintenance of the sign stopped,
every one of the 4,000 lightbulbs was stolen!

nIt was a pretty amazing (and large) ad, wasn’t it?

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nThenwhole thing cost around 21 thousand dollars (which, translated intontoday’s dollars, is about 300 thousand). It was dedicated on thisndate in 1923 (although some sources say that the exact date ofndedication isn’t known). It was only intended to be up for a year andna half. But Hollywood became a big thing with the rise of the movienindustry, and the sign became an internationally recognized symbol,nand so the sign stayed up.

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nOfncourse, the sign deteriorated. And was vandalized. And wasnaccidentally damaged (the sign’s official caretaker accidentally rannhis car into the letter “H,” for example). n

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nInn1949, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce updated the sign by removingnthe word “LAND,” so that the sign would reflect the famousnHollywood district rather than the Hollywoodland housing development.nThe Chamber of Commerce also paid to have the “H” rebuilt and thenrest of the sign repaired. The decision was made not to replace thenlight bulbs.

However, the wood-and-metal letters continued tondeteriorate. This is what the sign looked like during the 1970s:

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nInthink that, at that point, it read “Hullywo d.”

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nInnthe late 1970s, nine singers, actors, movie producers, and publishersndonated $27,777.77 each to replace the “Hullywo d” sign with anslightly smaller but brand new sign. And in 2005, the new sign wasnrepainted.

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Itnwas presumed by many that the deteriorated original 1923 sign hadnbeen destroyed. But it turned out that some collector had it, and hensold it to artist Bill Mack. The artist used the scarred, hole-ynsheet metal that made up those huge letters to paint stars from then“Golden Age” of Hollywood. And recently Mack restored (or built anreplica of?) the letter “H” and is touring it about.

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