The Hollywood Sign

If there is one image that represents everything that is the glitz and glamor, fame and fortune (and misfortune) of Hollywood, it is the giant letters of its name, strung along a hillside above the city.

Though no longer the original letters (they were sold on EBay in 2005), The Hollywood Sign is the stuff of legend (including the disappointed starlet who leaped to her death off the letter “H” in 1932 and the drunken caretaker who crashed his car into the same letter, setting it on fire and destroying it in the 1940s).

The Hollywood Sign is a star in its own right, having appeared in dozens of movies, including:

• Earthquake with Ava Gardner
• Superman, starring Christopher Reeves
• 1941, John Belushi
• Ruthless People, Danny DeVito
• Bugsy, Warren Beatty
• Austin Powers in Goldmember and Shrek II, Mike Myers
• The Italian Job and Mighty Joe Young, Charlize Theron
• Ed Wood, Johnny Depp
• The Truman Show, Jim Carey
• The Black Dahlia, Hillary Swank
• The Rocketeer and Career Opportunities, Jennifer Connelly

In 1978, nine sponsors donated $27,700 each to replace the sign with letters crafted of Australian steel. Among the donors were Hugh Hefner, Gene Autry, Andy Williams and Alice Cooper (in memory of Groucho Marx).

Do you know?*

• How did Hollywood get its name?
• When was the sign erected – and why?

* Think you have the answers? Find out during your exciting Sunseeker tour!