Hollywood

Hollywood sign

July 13, 1923: Outside Los Angeles, California a sign is dedicated. The white 50 foot high letters spelled out HOLLYWOODLAND. It was created as an advertising stunt but the wood and sheet metal construction became an iconic symbol lasting over 80 years. The sign was placed in the Hollywood Hills area and from the ground appears wavy as it scrawls across rocky terrain. If the viewer climbs to a comparable height, the letters magically straighten out. Hollywood has been the center of the film industry in America since 1911 when the first movie studio was opened there.

While the movies were important, getting people moving into the once sparsely populated farming and mining country was the economic driving force. The region north of Sunset Boulevard was considered useless. Easterners came west for the sunshine and dry weather and the real estate industry boomed. By the end of the 19th century, Hollywood was growing rapidly enough to be a town. By 1907, bad weather in Chicago was driving movie makers westward and by 1912 there were fifteen independent film studios in Hollywood.

By 1920 there were 40 million Americans in theaters each week – at a time when there was a total of 104 million Americans. New construction continued as America’s love affair with movies grew unrelentingly. Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler spent $21,000 ($260,000 in 2009 USD) putting up a sign advertising his upscale real estate development. Each letter was 30 feet wide and there were thirteen letters then. The sign also held 4,000 20-watt light bulbs flashing out “HOLLY,” then “WOOD,” followed by “LAND” and then a giant 35 foot period flashed. The sign was built to last eighteen months.

The sign became so famous it was often copied and sadly, often vandalized. The “H” disappeared when a sign maintenance worker crashed his car into it. In 1949 the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce contracted with the Los Angeles Parks Department to care for the sign. The light bulbs were no longer replaced and the wood began to splinter as the sheet metal rusted. Rocker Alice Cooper began a campaign in 1978 and got eight other donors to each buy a letter at $27,777 each. HOLLYWOOD is now spelled out in 45 foot high steel letters. They are 31-39 feet wide and were once again refurbished in 2005.

“I believe that God felt sorry for actors so he created Hollywood to give them a place in the sun and a swimming pool. The price they had to pay was to surrender their talent.” – Cedric Hardwicke

“We Americans have always considered Hollywood, at best, a sinkhole of depraved venality. And, of course, it is. It is not a Protective Monastery of Aesthetic Truth. It is a place where everything is incredibly expensive.” – David Mamet

“Hollywood is an extraordinary kind of temporary place.” – John Schlesinger

“Hollywood has always been a cage… a cage to catch our dreams.” – John Huston

This article first appeared at Examiner.com in 2009. Editor’s update: Alice Cooper, nee Vincent Damon Furnier, is best known for his shock rock performances. His stage show featured guillotines, electric chairs, fake blood, as well as boa constrictors and baby dolls. With his leadership, Terrence Donnelly (publisher) sponsored the H; Giovanni Mazza (Italian movie producer) the first O; Les Kelley (Kelley Blue Book) the first L; Gene Autry (singer) the next L; Hugh Hefner (Playboy magazine) the Y; Andy Williams (singer) the W, Warner Bros. Records the next O; Alice Cooper replaced the missing O (in memory of Groucho Marx); and Thomas Pooley (in the name of Matthew Williams) the D. In 2005, the original 1923 sign was put up for sale on eBay. Bill Mack purchased the letters and began painting portraits from the Golden Age of Hollywood on the metal.

Also on this day: You’re Out – In 1978, Lee Iacocca is fired from Ford.
Pop Goes the Weasel – In 1812, New York City passes its first pawnbroker ordinance.
Cubed – In 1944, Erno Rubik was born.