Happy Birthday, Hollywood Sign!
The Real Estate Gimmick that Became the World's Most Beloved Landmark
The name “Hollywood” dates to 1887 and comes to us from Mrs. Daeida Wilcox, wife of town founder Harvey Wilcox. (Interestingly, the Wilcoxes founded the town as a community for their fellow Temperance Movement followers, a far cry from the orgiastic bacchanalia depicted in the 2022 film, Babylon).1 While traveling, Mrs. Wilcox met a woman who referred to her Florida summer home as “Hollywood.” Mrs. Wilcox proposed the name to her husband…and the rest is history.2
Today, Hollywood is synonymous with the American film industry but that wasn’t always the case. At its onset, most film making took place in New Jersey, headquarters of the Edison Company. In 1893, the company’s inventor founder, Thomas A. Edison (1847 - 1931) established the first U.S. movie studio near his laboratories in West Orange, New Jersey. Edison’s Motion Picture Patents Company controlled almost all patents related to movie production.3
I last wrote about Edison in my post on early 20th century It Girl, Evelyn Nesbit. You can read that post here.
In 1897, Edison began suing rival producers for using filmmaking projection devices that were based, or so he claimed, on his proprietary Kinetoscope technology. Rather than face the inventor’s litigious wrath, most of these movie makers fled New Jersey, first to Cuba, and then to Southern California to wait out the 1913 expiry of Edison’s patents.4
By 1912, at least 15 independent studios were shooting in Hollywood. A burgeoning real-estate industry kicked off to meet the skyrocketing need for homes.5
In 1923, Los Angeles Times publisher, Harry Chandler put up a $21,000 temporary billboard for his upscale real estate development: Hollywoodland. Construction was completed in late December. Each of the original 13 letters was 30 feet wide and approximately 43 feet tall, constructed of 3×9′ metal squares held together by an elaborate frame of scaffolding, pipes, wires and telephone poles. Intended to stay up for just eighteen months, the sign has endured a centenary — and counting.6
Over the years, the sign has been the site of celebrations and suicides, champagne toasts to dreams-come-true and the backdrop for bitter disappointments. In 1932, 24-year-old Peg Entwistle, a New York stage actress who’d failed to translate her Broadway success to films, climbed to the top of the “H” and then dove 50 feet to her death.7
During the 1940s, the sign’s regular upkeep stopped, and it became the city’s property. The city proposed destroying it, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and saved it. The sign read “OLLYWOODLAND” briefly when the “H” fell over. In 1949, the “LAND” portion was removed and the “Hollywood” portion was restored.8
By the late 1970’s, the sign (rusted and graffiti-spattered) mirrored the decline of the motion picture industry overall. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce determined that the Sign required a complete rebuild – to the tune of a quarter million dollars. Some of the entertainment industry’s biggest names rallied to the cause. In 1978, Hugh Hefner hosted a gala fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, where individual Sign letters were “auctioned off” at $27,700 per letter. Glam-rocker Alice Cooper ‘bought’ an “O” (in honor of Groucho Marx), singing cowboy Gene Autry sponsored an “L,” and Andy Williams sponsored the “W.”9
The old Sign was scrapped in August ’78, and for three months Hollywood had no Sign. It took 194 tons of concrete, enamel and steel to birth the new Sign. For the 90th anniversary in 2013, Sherwin Williams donated special eco-friendly, long lasting Emerald Exterior Acrylic Latex paint and the labor for a 10-week facelift.
Throughout the decades, the Hollywood sign has appeared in dozens of movies. Directors seem to delight in destroying it. In Earthquake (1974) the sign’s letters fall down Mount Lee one by one. In Superman (1978) it bends during a quake. In 1941 (1979) a pilot shoots it up. In The Rocketeer (1991) a villain with a faulty rocket pack crashes into it. In Escape from L.A. (1996) it appears on the cusp of catching fire. In Mighty Joe Young (1998) a gorilla breaks off an “O.” In The Day After Tomorrow (2004) a tornado trashes it. In Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010) a zombie apocalypse leaves it in tatters.10
In real-life, however, the Hollywood sign is intact and ready for its closeup. :)
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https://www.history.com/news/90-years-later-8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-hollywood-sign
https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history-timeline
https://www.nps.gov/edis/learn/kidsyouth/motion-pictures.htm
https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2021/03/thomas-edison-the-unintentional-founder-of-hollywood/
https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history-timeline
Ibid.
Ibid.
https://ktla.com/news/local-news/the-100-year-history-of-the-hollywood-sign/
https://www.hollywoodsign.org/history/
https://www.history.com/news/90-years-later-8-things-you-may-not-know-about-the-hollywood-sign
I enjoyed learning more about the sign. Hope to see it one day.
Happy Holidays!