During the Great Depression, the development the sign advertised struggled economically, and it eventually became defunct. The letters become infamous in 1932, when Peg Entwistle, a 24-year-old British actor and aspiring movie star, died by suicide at the sign, which came to symbolize both the lure and the danger of film industry success. The first passing newspaper references to the “electric” sign, which was originally covered in lights that blinked at night, came in December 1923 the development that it advertised broke ground earlier that year. There’s no precise record of when developers first put the letters, which originally read HOLLYWOODLAND, on the hill housing ads rarely make the news, even though one of the developers, Harry Chandler, was also the publisher of the Los Angeles Times. As with many of its industry colleagues, the process of becoming a star required a partial name change, and, in its later years, regular facelifts in the form of coats of “extra white” paint – plus experts monitoring it for the effects of erosion. Over the decades, the Hollywood sign had to survive tragedy, abandonment, bad press, and outright calls for destruction. The path from gaudy advertisement to grand dame wasn’t easy. But the sign stayed on, successfully navigating the transition from saucy newcomer to icon, and it now presides over the dreamy city with the dignity of Meryl Streep or Judi Dench. Like the Eiffel Tower, the Hollywood sign was originally supposed to be temporary, built to last 18 months as a flashy advertisement for the “Hollywoodland” real estate development. Right: David Livingston/Getty Images for The Hollywood Sign Trust Hollywood facelifts Photograph: Left: Photo Courtesy of the Hollywood Sign Trust and. Right: One of the letters gets repainted ahead of its 100th Anniversary. Left: A helicopter places steel beams for the Hollywood Sign rebuild. Even then, you will be peering down at the letters through a giant wire fence, surveilled by the LAPD. From the Observatory, where parking costs $10 an hour, you can hike across the hot and dusty hills until you reach the vicinity of the sign itself. If you ask Google Maps how to drive to the sign, it will send you to a completely different landmark, the Griffith Observatory, approximately three miles away. Others opt for a semi-illicit shortcut through Beachwood Canyon, a wealthy neighborhood in the hills beneath the sign, where there are no sidewalks and street parking is forbidden. Some choose to hike to the sign via one of several miles-long trails that wind through Griffith Park, a 4,000-acre wilderness that the sign sits within. ![]() Your phone may not even give you the correct walking directions. ![]() The letters are near the top of a steep, barren hill, guarded by wild coyotes and the occasional rattlesnake. ![]() The Hollywood sign may be one the most recognizable places on Earth, but the process of getting close can be absurd and torturous. On a sunny morning in January, the trails beneath the sign are crowded with shapely visitors in athleisure doing a kind of Hollywood calisthenics, lifting hands and contorting bodies so that they can appear, in their tiny camera phone pics, to be tapping or lifting the letters. Photograph: Photo Courtesy of the Hollywood Sign Trust and The Hollywoodland sign, originally constructed as an advertisement for a local real estate development, is erected in 1923.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |