Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeartRadio. Hey Brainstuff, Lauren bolbabaum Here. The Hollywood Sign is California's most famous billboard turned landmark. It's turning one hundred this year, so today, let's look back at its first century of history. Perched at the top of Mount Lee in Griffith Park above the sprawl of Los Angeles, the Hollywood Sign appears in the background of countless film scenes and tourist photos for the article. This episode is based on How Stuff Work.
Spoke with Casey Schreiner, author of the guidebook Discovering Griffith Park, a locals guide. He said, it's hard to think about LA and not picture the Sign. I'd be hard pressed to think of a more iconic landmark. Angelino's think of it the way Parisians think of the Eiffel Tower. People are drawn to it because it symbolizes a dream and
a kind of ambition that only exists in LA. But while it now has iconic status that's helped it last a century, the Hollywood Sign had much more humble beginnings. When it was first constructed in nineteen twenty three, it was basically a billboard. It served as an advertisement for the Hollywood Land neighborhood, and it spelled out Hollywood Land with those four extra letters not present today. It was also covered in light bulbs, roughly four thousand of them
that blinked all night. It cost twenty one thousand dollars to build that's over three hundred and eighty thousand in today's money, and was designed to last just eighteen months. Instead it stood for decades. Schreiner explained there was a guy whose job it was to screw in the light bulbs when they went out. He lived in a shack below the sign. By the late nineteen forties, the sign had fallen into disrepair and the Hollywood Land real estate
development had folded. Some said the sign should be bulldozed, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and had it rebuilt, this time without the land. By the nineteen seventies the sign needed help again. Rather than an advertisement, it was an Hugh Hefner, the founder of Playboy magazine,
stepped in to raise money. He threw one nineteen seventy eight gala at his famous mansion and auctioned each letter of the sign to a different celebrity or corporate sponsor, including gene Autry, Andy Williams, Alice Cooper, and Warner Brothers records the price tag of just over twenty seven thousand dollars a letter was enough to fund a total restoration. That's over one hundred and thirty thousand per letter in today's money, in total, around three times what the original
sign cost to build. The old sign was torn down and three months later a new one went up. Unlike the wood and sheet metal construction of the original, the new version was made of steel, mounted to steel columns and sunk into a sturdy concrete foundation. Since the new sign was unveiled, it's been repeatedly powerwashed and repainted to keep it in good condition. However, there have been other
threats to the iconic view of the sign. It turns out the beautiful undeveloped land around it wasn't part of Great Park, which is the huge public park that now also houses the Los Angeles Zoo, the Griffith Observatory, and the Autrey Museum of the American West. A Scheiner said it turned out it was private land tied to Howard Hughes. He wanted to build a mansion up there for some starlet and she basically said, if I go up there,
I'm never coming down alive. The starlet was Ginger Rogers. Hughes, the fabulously rich businessman, bought the parcel of land when the pair were engaged in nineteen forty and planned to build a massive castle with sweeping views of the city. He even went to court with the city over the right to build an access road and one before anything was built. However, the relationship dissolved and the parcel became a forgotten piece of the Howard Hughes estate until after
changing hands a number of times. In twenty ten, a developer put a big parcel on the market just to the left of the signs h The city scrambled to pull together money to buy it, but only raised by about six of the twenty two million dollar asking price. Enter Hugh Hefner again, as Shiner said, he helped again and gave the city some of the money it needed to buy the land and add it to Griffith Park. Griffith Park is one of the largest suburban wilderness parks
in the country. It's four times bigger than Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. It's right in the middle of the city. From there you can see Universal Studios and Warner Brothers Studios. You're near a lot of stuff, and there is a huge amount of wildlife and native plants. In honor of the Sign centennial, the Hollywood Sign Trust has announced plans to build a visitors center for now. There are a number of ways to experience the landmark,
including hiking up Mount Lee. Keep in mind that the trail ends behind the sign, so while it's a great vista of La it's not a good view of the sign itself. Shiner said. You can drive to a viewpoint, but it's in a residential neighborhood. The roads were built in the twenties and they're narrow. But there are dozens of places to see the sign. He cited the views from the Lake Hollywood Reservoir and from the West Observatory Trail as his favorites, but said it's always well worth
a look. Quote. It's big. It's bigger than it looks. I think most people when they come to Hollywood are a bit disappointed at how small things look in real life. The sign is the opposite it over delivers. Today's episode is based on the article Stardust and Scandal. The Hollywood Sign turns one hundred on how Stuffworks dot Com, written by Kate Morgan. Brain Stuff is production by Heart Radio in partnership with how Stuffworks dot Com and is produced
by Tyler Klan and Ramsey. Youm four more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.