Saving The Sign

Hugh Hefner — the man responsible for countless fantasies — worked to preserve America’s symbol of dreams

- Cat Auer

At all hours of the day, every day, nearly three dozen security cameras cover Los Angeles’s most well-known star, a celebrity that has managed — with significant help from a special friend — the feat of growing old in Tinseltown, turning 95 this year. The VIP is none other than the famed Hollywood sign, and PLAYBOY founder Hugh Hefner the benefactor who helped save it not once but twice.

Instantly recognisable as the geographic marker denoting the world’s entertainment capital, as well as a symbol of hopes and dreams, the sign’s origin story is relatively unglamorous. In 1923 real estate developer Harry Chandler wanted to lure buyers to the steep, scrub-covered plots north of downtown. His associate John Roche sketched what would be a hillside ad — 13 enormous block letters spelling out the planned neighbourhood’s name: Hollywoodland. Built for $21,000 (the equivalent of more than $300,000 today) in the days when television was still in its infancy, the wood and steel billboard was meant to come down after 18 months. Yet through the Great Depression and World War II, the letters remained. By 1949 the Hollywoodland subdivision had flopped, television had become part of American life, and the sign was still standing — albeit with a crumbling H and other obvious signs of decay.