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Hollywood sign LIGHTS, CAMERA, AUCTION!
A STAR IS BORN
COMPILED BY OLIVER SMITH. PHOTOGRAPHS: C EVERETT COLLECTION/REX, HELEN KING/CORBIS, PHOTO COURTESY OF THE HOLLYWOOD SIGN TRUST AND HOLLYWOODPHOTOGRAPHS.COM. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Hollywood sign is synonymous with A-list glamour and blockbuster movie studios. Which is odd, because it originally had nothing to do with the film industry – it didn’t even say Hollywood. The HOLLYWOODLAND sign was erected in 1923 to promote a nearby property development, but it soon became an accidental icon for the movie business (the ‘LAND’ bit was dismantled in 1949). By the ’70s however, the sign had decayed to the point that it read ‘HULLYWO D’, and was replaced by a slightly smaller structure after a fundraising campaign from Playboy-founder Hugh Hefner.
FATAL ATTRACTION The ‘H’ has the grimmest backstory of all the letters: English movie actress Peg Entwistle jumped to her death from the top in 1932, aged just 24. More recently, fans have gathered close by for alfresco screenings of her movie, Thirteen Women, with proceeds going to suicide prevention charities.
When the sign was rebuilt in 1978, each of the letters was donated by a different sponsor. Hugh Hefner paid for the ‘Y’, Alice Cooper ‘O’ and singer Andy Williams the ‘W’. The original letters, presumed lost, turned up in an eBay auction in 2005, fetching $450,000 (£250,000 at the time).
SPECIAL EFFECTS Though the wording appears rather wavy when seen from the foot of Mount Lee, the Hollywood sign is in fact straight when seen from a viewpoint of equivalent height.
IT HASN’T ALWAYS BEEN ‘HOLLYWOOD’…
The original sign was hauled into place with the help of mules, and was only meant to last about 18 months
Prankster Danny Finegood made a few sign amendments, including this 1976 reference to looser state marijuana laws
Virgin Atlantic later came up with a different way to promote its flights from Los Angeles to London
May 2015 Lonely Planet Traveller
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