*THREAD*

The history of the Hollywood sign

Real estate developers Shoults & Woodruff created an exclusive hillside community called Hollywoodland.

Opened on 31 March 1923 and promoted as the first themed hillside residential development in the United States

#Hollywood

They designed a small series of shops at Hollywoodland's entrance that featured markets, a cleaners, a barbershop & a beauty salon.

Two stone gates were constructed below Beachwood Drive.

At the top of Beachwood Drive, developers built Hollywoodland Stables

#Hollywood

Putting green and tennis courts were built near the top of the area.

Landscape architect Theodore Payne was hired to plant wildflowers to beautify the area.

Exclusive buses whisked the residents into Hollywood or downtown Los Angeles

#Hollywood #LosAngeles #California

Thomas Goff, born in London, England on 15th August 1890.

In the 1920's he moved to #LosAngeles and opened Crescent Sign Company.

In 1923 he designed the Hollywoodland sign

He was also a prolific painter of over 5000 paintings with favourite subjects being old barns & rocks

Billboards were always used to promote real estate developments, but Hollywoodland's sign was designed to outshine all of them.

The letters were constructed out of chicken wire, telephone poles & sheet metal 50 feet high & 30 feet wide in July 1923.

#Hollywood #LosAngeles

4000 light bulbs were put on the sign and timed to blink so that the words “HOLLY" “WOOD” and “LAND” each lit up consecutively, followed by the entire word.

This was not considered tacky but progressive and modern.

#Hollywood #LosAngeles #California

The sign was really expensive to build, especially considering it was just an advert for a real estate development.

The cost was about $21.000 dollars in 1923

That is about $320.000 in today's money

#Hollywood

They hired a full time caretaker called Albert Kothe to look after the sign.

One of his jobs was the replace the lightbulbs on the sign when they burnt out, which was a huge task given the number of bulbs & the height of the signs.

Peg Entwistle, an aspiring actress was distraught when her part in the film Thirteen Women was cut.

She climbed to the top of the letter H on 16 Sept 1932 & threw herself to her death

She was 24

Newspaper articles are cruel in their description

#Hollywood #PegEntwhistle

Albert wasn't the greatest caretaker because one day whilst driving under the influence, he headed to the top of Mt Lee, lost control of his vehicle & drove it off the cliff directly into the letter H.

Luckily he was unharmed, but the letter H & the car destroyed
#Hollywood

Real estate development halted during the stock market crash in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression.

Illuminating the Hollywoodland sign was no longer a priority.

Albert, the caretaker stripped all the copper wiring from the sign and sold it for scrap.

#Hollywood

In 1944, the City of Los Angeles bought the land which the sign sat on

They didnt want the sign, so tried to tear it down

Residents protested & the City agreed to salvage it on the provisor that the "land" would be removed, so the sign represented the community & not the estate

California introduced a more relaxed marijuana law and on 1st January 1976, Danny Finegood turned the sign from Hollywood to Hollyweed to commemorate this occasion.

He hung curtains over the last two O's on the sign to create the effect.

#California #Hollywood

Danny Finegood then submitted this as an art project & received an A

The sign has been changed many times since

HOLYWOOD during Easter
OLLYWOOD to protest Oliver North's Iran testimony
OILWAR to protest the Persian Gulf war

#Hollywood #California #LosAngeles

By 1978 the sign was really dilapidated

Hugh Heffner of Playboy magazine held a fundraiser & each letter was auctioned for $28,000

Benefactors included Alice Cooper, Warner Bros Studios, Andy Williams, Gene Autrey.

#Hollywood #Playboy @alicecooper

The Hollywood sign is now looked after by the Hollywood Sign Trust.

@netflix have just released the brilliant drama series #Hollywood which includes the tragic story of Peg Entwistle.

#netflix #hollywoodsign #California #netflixandchill

We were lucky enough to get to see the Hollywood sign a few years ago.

A trip we will never forget.

#Hollywood #LosAngeles #California #roadTrip