About

The Hollywood Sign is an iconic billboard sign situated on Mount Lee, Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, California that spells out "Hollywood" in white capital letters. Since its erection in 1923,^[5] the sign has become a historic monument of American pop culture and a popular subject of various parodies and imitations online.

Origin

According to Wikipedia,^[1]The sign, which originally read "Hollywoodland," was built in 1923 by a group of L.A.-based real estate developers as a billboard advertisement^[8] for an upscale residential housing project with the same name. At 45-foot-long (13.7 meters), 350 feet (106.7 meters) wide and studded with nearly 4,000 20-watt light bulbs, the sign was initially intended to be displayed for 18 months, but it became a permanent fixture with the rapid expansion of the area in the following decades. In 1949, the Los Angeles Parks Department commissioned a major restoration of the sign, which had sustained heavy damage in the absence of regular maintenance since the Great Depression. In the process, the letters LAND were removed in order to reflect the entire neighborhood.

Spread

Depiction in Pop Culture

As the neighborhood transformed into the world's capital of filmmaking and TV entertainment during the Golden Age of Hollywood, the sign quickly rose to prominence^[2] through its frequent appearances in various films and TV programs, beginning with the inclusion of the original sign "Hollywoodland" in the opening montage of Robert Florey's 1936 comedy film Hollywood Boulevard.^[14]

Alterations

Due to its iconic status, the sign has been physically altered^[11] by various pranksters and vandals without authorization on numerous occasions since as early as the 1970s. One of the earliest notable modifications to the sign was made by Daniel Finegood^[9], a L.A. furniture business owner and neon sign artist, who hung curtains over the letters "OO" to make it read "Hollyweed" on January 1st, 1976,^[10] the day when California's relaxed marijuana law took effect. Months later, Finegood and his friends returned to the site and obscured one of the two Ls to make the sign read "Holywood" in observance of Easter. On January 1st, 2017, the sign was altered by unknown pranksters to read "Hollyweed" for the second time.^[6][7]

Notable Episodes

- January 1976: HOLLYWeeD (Marijuana decriminalization)

- April 1977: HOLYWOOD (Easter)

- December 1983: GO NAVY (Army-Navy football game)

- January 1985: RAFFEYSOD (The Raffeys prank)

- April 1987: FOX (Primetime launch of Fox TV network)

- May 1987: CALTECH (Senior prank)

- July 1987: OLLYWOOD (Iran-Contra hearings)

- September 1987: HOLYWOOD (Pope John Paul II's visit)

- October 1992: PerotWood (Ross Perot's presidential run)

- November 1993: GO UCLA – (UCLA-USC football game)

- February 2010: SAVE THE PEAK (Anti-real estate development protest in Hollywood)

- January 2017: HOLLYWeeD (Marijuana legalization)

Parodies

Beginning in the early-to-mid 2000s, a variety of digital parodies and other customized renditions of the sign began surfacing online with the aid of image generator sites.^{[3][4][13][12]}

Search Interest

External References