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The Hollywood sign, the famous 45-foot-tall letters spelling out 'Hollywood,' has undergone several transformations since its debut on Mount Lee in Los Angeles in 1923. It was nearly lost in the 1970s due to damage from the environment and vandalism, but the sign was saved and restored in 1978. Though not entirely restored to its original form, the sign used to read 'Hollywoodland' with four extra letters.
Though synonymous with the entertainment industry today, the sign originally promoted a real estate development. In March of 1923, real estate developer and Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler began work on the upscale Hollywoodland project. Later that year, he spent $21,000 to build the iconic sign. According to the Hollywood Sign Trust’s official website, "Each of the original 13 letters was 30 feet wide and approximately 43 feet tall, constructed of 3×9′ metal squares rigged together by an intricate frame of scaffolding, pipes, wires, and telephone poles… All of this material had to be hauled up steep Mount Lee by workers on simple dirt paths."
The sign featured 4,000 20-watt light bulbs, blinking in sequence to spell out “HOLLY”…”WOOD”…”LAND.”
Chandler’s original “Hollywoodland” sign was only intended to stand for a year and a half, but it lasted for decades before it became worn and deteriorated by the 1940s. Due to its iconic status in the growing entertainment hub, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Los Angeles parks department (who owned the land) decided to restore the sign, though they removed the “land” part of the name.
