- The original sign read: HOLLYWOODLAND.
- The Hollywood Sign was built in 1923 to advertise a housing development.
- Today the sign is protected under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security.
Overlooking the movie capital of the world, the Hollywood imprint has been a symbol of the mythical world of show business for nearly 85 years. And yet, once you know the real history behind the most famous sign on the planet, you will find it to be one of the most unlikely icons ever built.
The Birth of Tinsel Town
The early days of movies were controlled by Thomas Edison and the Motion Pictures Patents Trust. Operating out of New York, Edison and company controlled movie production and ruthlessly stamped out any competitors. To avoid the trust, a few filmmakers headed about as far away from New York as you can possibly get without getting your feet wet – a sleepy little town of orchards and sheep farms known as Hollywood.
A Quiet Little Nowhere
Ironically, Hollywood got its name from the wife of a Kansas prohibitionist named Harvey Wilcox, who had moved to the Cahuenga Valley area to set up a small community that reflected his conservative beliefs. He bought 120 acres of land and built a ranch in the middle of a fig orchard. Wilcox’s wife, Daeida, while returning home by train from an East Cruise trip, struck up a conversation with another woman on the train who called her summer home Hollywood. Daeida liked the name so much, she decided to borrow it as the name of her ranch. By 1897, the area surrounding the ranch became known as Hollywood, and in 1903 the town was incorporated.
Enter the “MoviePeople”
In 1907 the first filmmakers came to Hollywood and set up shop. The sunny climate and grand distance from Edison and the Patent Trust made Hollywood an ideal location for shooting movies. Five years later, over a dozen film companies had moved into Hollywood, but the real boom hadn’t started yet. Films were shot all over town, with many ’studios’ setting up shop in old barns and unused cowsheds. Cecille B. DeMille worked out of a barn on Vine Street.
The New Gold Rush
By 1915, Hollywood was a boomtown. Studios were springing up all over town. Young hopefuls gathered by the hundreds for a shot at breaking into the movie industry. Established stars built glamorous mansions. The town was literally transformed overnight, from a sleepy conservative backwater to a bustling metropolis where fortunes were won and lost every day. As more and more people flocked to Hollywood, the exact estate market exploded.
Here’s Your Sign
In 1923, the Hollywoodland Genuine Estate Group decided to promote some of their prime real estate by erecting a massive sign on the side of Mount Cahuenga. The sign simply read: Hollywoodland, but that was the only thing simple about it. Built at a cost of $21,000 dollars the enormous sign was made of 13 letters. Each letter was 30 feet wide and 50 feet astronomical. The letters were made of metal barn roofing and held up by a framework of pipes and telephone poles. Below the sign was a gargantuan white circle, 35 feet in diameter. The message was meant to say: “Hollywoodland! Period.” The sign originally was studded with 4,000 20-watt light bulbs that blinked “Holly” then “Wood” then “Land” out into the clear California sky and was visible at a distance of 25 miles. As a promotional gimmick, the sign was meant to last about a year and a half. Obviously, the promotion is detached going on. Only the product has changed.
Hard Times
The Great Depression hit Hollywood hard. Salary cuts were implemented; jobs slashed. The Hollywoodland sign stood as a symbol of hope for thousands of actors and actresses struggling to make it in movies. One such hopeful was a Broadway actress named Peg Entwistle who tried desperately to make it into movies but failed. In 1932, she climbed to the top of the 50-foot “H” and jumped off into the night, committing suicide from Tinsel Town’s most famous symbol.
The Depression also forced the real estate developers who built the sign into bankruptcy. By 1939, all maintenance on the sign had stopped. All 4,000 light bulbs were stolen. Vandals removed pieces of the sign, and the elements wore away at its supports. Holes and gaps began appearing in the sign, which was becoming an unstable, unpleasant mess. Many neighborhoods in Hollywood lobbied for the sign’s removal
The rationing during World War Two meant that no resources could be spared to repair or fix the sign. Reach the raze of the war, the bankrupt real estate developer who had built the sign, gave the city of Hollywood his remaining acreage high up in the Hollywood Hills – sitting on a small parcel of this land, sat the rapidly deteriorating sign.
By 1949 the sign was in extreme disrepair – the letter H had fallen face down. Something had to be done. Later that year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the novel owners of the sign removed the “Land” part of the sign and repaired the remaining letters.
I’d Like to Hold a Vowel
In 1973 the sign was declares a historical monument by the cultural heritage Board of Los Angeles. It’s new, official status as a monument, meant that much-needed restoration and repairs would take place. The repairs would be expensive, so to raise money, the new Hollywood Sign trust put together a star-studded fund raiser, during which, individual letters of the sign could be “adopted” for $28,000 each. The fundraiser was hosted by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion and featured a unique mix of celebrities rallying around the sign. Gene Autry adopted one of the L’s. Alice Cooper bought an O. Paul Williams sponsored the W. With fresh financial backing, the Sign Trust unveiled a new Hollywood sign in 1978.
Sign Sponsors:
H — Terrence Donnelly, Publisher of the Hollywood Independent Newspaper
O — Giovanni Mazza, Italian movie producer
L — Les Kelley, Creator of the Kelley Blue Book
L — Gene Autrey, singing cowboy, Owner of KTLA
Y — Hugh Hefner, Creator of Playboy magazine
W — Paul Williams, Singer/composer * (some sources attribute this to Andy Williams)
O — Warner Brother’s Records
O — Alice Cooper, rock legend (in tribute to Groucho Marx)
D — Dennis Lidtke
The Sign Today
In 1992, Dan Lungren, California Attorney General specified a view to possess the sign. Under the plan, The Hollywood Sign Trust was to preserve and promote the sign as a symbol of the entertainment industry. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce was entrusted with protecting the image of the sign, ensuring that any images of the sign are properly licensed. The City of Los Angeles was required to maintain and protect the restricted position of Griffith Park that’s home to the sign. They also provide park rangers and security for the sign.
The entire station around the sign is restricted and monitored by a state-of-the-art security system. External alarms, motion sensors and digital surveillance cameras constantly monitor the entire sign area.
In 2006, the Hollywood Sign Trust integrated the sign’s security system with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the sign is protected as a national treasure.
You can see the view from the sign’s webcams and security cameras HERE.
Only in America – Fate of the Original Sign
When the current sign was torn down the pieces were purchased from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce by Hank Berger, a nightclub promoter for $10,000. Berger prick up small sections of the impress and sold them as framed collectables. Sales were slow and Berger eventually gave up on the project. The crumbling, original sign then sat in storage for 25 years.
Dan Bliss, who knew Berger through business dealings, purchased the sign for an undisclosed six-figure amount in 2003. Bliss auctioned off larger pieces of the sign on eBay, including a 5′x3′ section of the H to the Hollywood History Museum for $11,766. The rest of the sign sat stacked in a storage building. In 2005, Bliss auctioned off the rest of the sign on eBay. He opened the bidding at $300,000. Bliss wanted to use the money to fund a documentary to sight if Elvis was still alive. On December 6, 2005 the remaining sections of the original Hollywood sign sold for $450,400. Ah, only in America.
You can see the original ebay listing for the sign HERE.
From a real estate ad to federally-protected icon of the American entertainment industry, the Hollywood sign has endured as a lasting tribute to the dreamer in everyone.
Sources: City of Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, CBC.ca
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Filed under Stock Bankruptcy by on Jan 23rd, 2012. Comment. 
The Bush administration’s proposal to “rescue” Social Security is currently on the back burner, but you can bet that we haven’t heard the last of this cornerstone of the Republican agenda. Giving few details, they have proposed to divert at least 2% – and possibly as much as 4% – of the current 12.4% Social Security tax to some vaguely defined mandated investment account. Leaving aside for the moment the very pertinent question of whether Social Security really needs rescuing, let’s just look at the proposal as sketched out so far. Anyone familiar with sixth grade math and compound interest can see that this proposal will devastate the Social Security trust fund over a relatively short period. The administration is really proposing to deprive the Social Security trust fund of between 15% and 30% its annual revenues from the FICA tax. Of course, the fund will lose not just the diverted revenue, it will also lose all future treasury bond interest on the missing funds.
Why put the Social Security accounts of millions of Americans at risk, when we can adequately fund Social Security and nick the tax rate at the same time? The Social Security tax corrupt is currently capped near $90,000.00 of earned income. At the official IRS web site (www.irs.gov/taxstats) you will see that about 90% of taxpayers pay the full rate. The 10% of taxpayers with incomes over $100,000.00 pay at an ever-decreasing rate once over the cap. Here’s a modest proposal: let’s prefer the cap and lower the rate for everybody. Aggregate adjusted gross income to individuals in 2002 from all sources amounted to about $5.6 trillion. Lowering the rate to 10.4% on all sources while removing the cap would generate about $580 billion in annual Social Security contributions. This is almost $50 billion over the $533 billion annual net contributions most recently reported, easily enough to extend the solvency of the fund. Over 90% of U.S. taxpayers would pay less, a few wealthier taxpayers would pay a little more, and all would benefit from a strengthened Social Security.
This is a non-partisan come. South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham has gone some way towards this solution by suggesting a raise in the cap to $200,000.00. Some Democrats in Congress have also discussed raising the cap. We can do better by removing the cap entirely, applying the tax to income from all sources, and lowering the rate. By doing so we will finally institute a truly flat tax, favoring neither end of the income scale. We will also be practicing sound Reaganomics by applying the Laffer Curve to the real world, lowering the rate and raising more revenue.
A attractive, flat and lower tax will also put more money directly into the hands of the majority of Americans. If funds are to be diverted, why limit the individual’s choices to some government mandated investment scheme? For many people, the best investment of those funds will be a current expenditure for capital equipment, education or medical care.
The stock market is for fun and profit, not security. The wealthiest among us can be instantly reduced to bankruptcy by one serious illness, accident, or financial reverse. That’s why we have a Social Security system. It is the best guarantee we have against ending up in the gutter in our old age, or even in relative youth if we are suddenly disabled. A strong Social Security system underpins the economy by reducing the need to hoard earnings in fear of a penniless old age, freeing up more money for investment or consumption. A handsome Social Security tax that puts more discretionary funds in the hands of the vast majority of Americans is a winning strategy for everybody.
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Filed under Stock Bankruptcy by on Jan 20th, 2012. Comment.
Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures, which deem those cultures, and, in turn, affect them. The visual elements of cinema give motion pictures a universal power of communication.
The history of film spans over a hundred years (from the latter part of the 19th century to the beginning of the 21st). And since the birth of cinema, motion relate films have had a substantial impact on the arts, technology, culture, politics, and society.
Motion pictures were purely visual art up to the late 19th century, but these innovative peaceful films gained a hold on the public imagination. Around the turn of the 20th century, films began developing a narrative structure by stringing scenes together to tell narratives. The scenes were later broken up into multiple shots of varying sizes, angles, and cuts. Other techniques such as camera movement, camera tricks, and special effects were utilized for effective ways to portray a story on film.
The Birth of the Moving Picture
With the development of celluloid film for still photography, it became possible to directly capture objects in motion in exact time. With the captivating picture, it is formed with a celluloid strip containing a sequence of images. These images with incremental movements from each other are shown in succession onto a screen; thus, seeing the quiet images as challenging images. The early motion pictures were static shots that showed an event or action with no editing or other cinematic techniques. Film cameras were handcranked (and the usual speed of cranking is the speed seen with the classic films we see now sharp faster than ordinary human movements).
The early versions of the technology required a person to perceive into a viewing machine to see the pictures that were separate paper prints attached to a drum and turned by a handcrank. The pictures were shown at a variable speed of about 5 to 10 pictures per second depending on how rapidly the crank was turned. Some of these machines were coin operated.
After a while, the development of a motion portray projector to shine light through the processed and printed film and magnify these “moving picture shows” onto a screen for an entire audience became the norm.
The Silent Era
Inventors and producers had tried from the very beginning of entertaining pictures to marry the image with synchronous sound, but no practical method was devised until the late 1920’s. And so, for the first thirty years of film history, movies were more or less silent, although they were usually accompanied by musicians and sometimes sound effects, and with dialogue and narration presented in the so-called intertitles.
During the 1900’s, the word “art” was mentioned more and more in connection with films. And as a result of the increasing artistic ambitions of filmmakers, poems began to be transposed directly into these moving picture endeavors. Symbolic effects taken over from conventional literary and artistic traditions started.
The rise of European cinema was interrupted by the breakout of World War I while the film industry in the United States flourished with the rise of Hollywood.
Experimentation with sound film technology, both for recording and playback, was virtually constant throughout the peaceful era, but the problems on accurate synchronization and sufficient amplification was still quite difficult to overcome.
The Sound Era
By the 1920’s, new technology allowed filmmakers to attach to each film a soundtrack of speech, music, and sound effects synchronized with the action shown on screen. These sound films were initially noted by calling them “talking pictures,” or “talkies.”
The industry impact of sound made a remarkable swift. By the end of 1929, Hollywood was almost all-talkie, with several competing sound systems – which would soon be standardized.
Sound films emphasized and benefited different genres more than silents did. During this time, the musical film was also born.
The 1940’s: The War and Post-war Years
The desire for wartime propaganda became a serious agenda during the war and post-war years. The onset of US involvement in WWII also brought a proliferation of movies as both patriotism and propaganda.
Wartime also brought an interest in more fantastical subjects. And the era also produced a series of atmospheric and influential small-budget horror films.
The 1950’s: Post-war Years
During the immediate post-war years, the film industry was also threatened by television. The increasing popularity of the unusual medium caused the bankruptcy and closing of a number of theaters, especially the petite ones.
However, in the Philippines, this decade fulfilled the so-called “Golden Age of Phlippine Cinema.” During the 1950’s, Many Filipino films were internationally-acclaimed and reaping awards in the international scene.
The 1960’s: Foreign Films, Black-and-white vs. Color, Self-Expression and Propaganda
During the 1960’s, the studio system in Hollywood declined because many films were now being made on location in other countries, or using studio facilities abroad. Unlike Hollywood, other countries are unprejudiced starting to peak in their filmmaking industries. Hollywood movies were still largely aimed at family audiences, and it was often the more old-fashioned films that produced the studios’ biggest successes.
The growth in independent producers and production companies and the increase in the power of individual actors also contributed to the decline of traditional Hollywood studio production. There was also an increasing awareness of foreign language cinema. The nuclear paranoia of the age, and the threat of an apocalyptic nuclear exchange (including the 1963 close-call with the USSR during the Cuban missile crisis) prompted a reaction within the film community. Films like Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” and “Fail Safe” with Henry Fonda were produced in a Hollywood that was then known for its overt patriotism and wartime propaganda.
The next major step in the development of cinema was the introduction of color. While the addition of sound fleet eclipsed silent film and theater musicians, color was then adopted more gradually. As color processes improved and became as affordable as black-and-white film, more and more movies were filmed in color. After the end of World War II, as the industry came to plan color as essential to attracting audiences in its competition with television, most films remained in the black-and-white medium until the mid-1960’s. By the end of the 1960’s, color had become the norm for filmmakers.
The 1970’s: The ‘New Hollywood’ and Post-classical Cinema
Since the decline of the studio system in the 1960’s, the succeeding decades saw changes in the production and style of film. The rise of film school educated independent filmmakers became a distinguished part of the changes the medium experienced in the latter half of the 20th century.
‘Post-classical cinema’ was also a term ragged to describe the changing methods of storytelling of the “New Hollywood” producers. The unique methods of drama and characterization played upon audience expectations were further utilized: tale chronology could be scrambled, storylines could already feature unsettling “twist endings,” main characters could behave in a morally ambiguous fashion, and the lines between the antagonist and protagonist may be blurred.
A new group of filmmakers also emerged during this time: Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, and Brian de Palma. This coincided with the increasing popularity of the auteur theory in film literature and the media, which posited that a film director’s films express their personal vision and creative insights.
The phenomenal success of “Jaws” and “Star Wars” in particular, led to the rise of the recent “blockbuster.” Hollywood studios increasingly focused on producing a smaller number of very large budget films with massive marketing and promotional campaigns.
During the 1970’s, some filmmakers increasingly depicted explicit sexual content and showed gunfight and battle scenes that included graphic images of bloody deaths. Moreover, by the mid-1970s, more pornographic theatres, euphemistically called “adult cinemas,” were established. The legal production of hardcore pornographic films also began.
The 1980’s: Sequels, Blockbusters and Videotape
During the 1980’s, audiences began increasingly watching movies on their home VCRs. During the early part of the decade, movie studios tried apt action to ban home ownership of VCRs as a violation of copyright, which proved unsuccessful. Eventually, the sale and rental of movies on home video became a significant “second venue” for exhibition of films, and an additional source of revenue for the movie companies.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg started dominating Hollywood for much of the era – leading to much imitations. Two follow-ups to “Star Wars,” three to “Jaws,” and three “Indiana Jones” films helped to perform sequels of successful films more of an expectation than ever before. Lucas also launched THX Ltd, a division of Lucasfilm in 1982, while Spielberg enjoyed one of the decade’s greatest successes in “E. T.” the same year. The success of Tim Burton’s version of Bob Kane’s creation, “Batman,” made box-office history.
The porn cinemas died out during the 1980’s, when the popularization of the home VCR and pornography videotapes allowed audiences to watch sex films at home.
The 1990’s: New Special Effects, Independent Films, VCDs and DVDs
Cinema was increasingly dominated by special-effects films such as “Terminator 2: Judgment Day” (1991) and “Titanic” (1997), independent films like Steven Soderbergh’s “Sex, Lies, and Videotape” (1989) and Quentin Tarantino’s “Reservoir Dogs” (1992). They had significant commercial success both at the cinema and on home video.
The major studios began to create their own “independent” production companies to finance and produce non-mainstream fare.
Animated films aimed at family audiences also regained their popularity, with Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast,” “Aladdin,” and “The Lion King.” During 1995 the first feature length computer-animated feature, “Toy Story,” was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Disney. After the success of “Toy Story,” Disney returned to traditional animation and made three more popular films: “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” (1996), Hercules (1997), and Mulan (1998).
During the late 1990s, another cinematic transition began, from physical film stock to digital cinema technology. Meanwhile DVDs became the new standard for consumer video, replacing VHS tapes.
The 2000’s: Documentary, Fable, Dismay, Fantasy, Adaptations, Animations, Digital Filmmaking and 3D
Documentary films rose as a commercial genre with the success of films like “March of the Penguins,” “Bowling for Columbine,” “Fahrenheit 9/11,” and “An Inconvenient Truth.” A new genre was created with Martin Kunert and Eric Manes’ “Voices of Iraq,” when 150 inexpensive DV cameras were distributed across Iraq, transforming ordinary people into collaborative filmmakers.
The success of “Gladiator” led to the revival of the interest in fable cinema. “The Lord of the Rings Trilogy” and “300″ were the most successful sage films during this era. Horror films, mostly inspired by Asian Cinema, also made its way to the trend. A number of Asian films from various genres also got heads up for Hollywood remakes like the Korean “My Sassy Girl,” the Japanese “The Ring,” the Thai “Shutter,” the Chinese (Hong Kong) “The Departed,” and the Philippines’ “The Echo.” Fantasy and superhero films became the most bankable. Film adaptations from comic books, novels, and even short stories also became a norm. There came the big franchises of “Spiderman,” “Superman,” “X-Men,” “Batman, “Ironman,” “Sin City,” “Chronicles of Narnia” and a lot more. War films went back to the scene with a number of films from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq like “Kite Runner” and “The Hurt Locker.” Small budget films also made their way towards critical acclaim like “Slumdog Millionaire” and “Once.”
From the classic Disney 2D and frail animation format to stop-motion to 3D, enchanting films took advantage of the technology offered by the times. “Kung Fu Panda,” “Shrek,” Corpse Bride,” “Wonderful Mr. Fox,” “Wall-E,” “Up” and lots of other offers became blockbuster hits.
Home theater systems became increasingly sophisticated with HD and digital surround sound technology – as well as the special edition DVDs designed to be shown on them. Competing with piracy, special features, theatrical versions back-to-back with special extended versions intended for home cinema audiences became a viable trend. Soon came the blu-ray technology providing HD quality movies for the family’s home theater system. Buying digital copies of movies, pay-per-views and movie rentals through internet sites and cable companies became prominent including the employ of the iTunes Store, Netflix and a number of satellite TV companies.
Alongside the Hollywood tradition, the “underground film” tradition of small-budget, often self-produced works were created outside the studio system. With new technological breakthroughs, digital filmmaking started to provide more venues to filmmakers from shooting on HD, using memory sticks, firestore, and hard drives attached to cameras instead of using tapes, and having post-production hardware and software becoming as easy as having a regular home gadget. And movie theaters all over the world started investing on digital cinemas offering HD projection.
3D films promoted a steady rise of film theaters offering IMAX 3D and RealD 3D movies. From animated films including “Polar Express,” “Beowulf” and “Monsters vs. Aliens” to documentaries and concerts like “Hubble 3D” and “U2 3D” to live action films like “Harry Potter” and the legendary “Avatar,” the 3D technology became a new trend. Companies also started developing 3D TVs as well.
The Film Industry Now
Profit and sustainability are the key forces in the film industry of today. And yet, many filmmakers strive to create works of with artistic fulfillment and/or lasting social significance.
Digital technology has been the driving force in filmmaking history throughout the 1990’s and into the 21st century. The said era also marked the beginning of film and video distribution online. The demand for audio-visual content is consistently rising with internet venues like the historical Youtube.
Indeed, from its birth until now, film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful method for educating and indoctrinating the people.
Tim Dirks, “Film History by Decade.” Filmsite.org.
Paul Burns, “The History of the Discovery of Cinematography.” Precinemahistory.net.
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Filed under Stock Bankruptcy by on Dec 3rd, 2011. Comment.
- The original sign read: HOLLYWOODLAND.
- The Hollywood Sign was built in 1923 to advertise a housing development.
- Today the ticket is protected under the auspices of the Department of Homeland Security.
Overlooking the movie capital of the world, the Hollywood sign has been a symbol of the mythical world of show business for nearly 85 years. And yet, once you know the precise history slack the most famous imprint on the planet, you will find it to be one of the most unlikely icons ever built.
The Birth of Tinsel Town
The early days of movies were controlled by Thomas Edison and the Motion Pictures Patents Trust. Operating out of New York, Edison and company controlled movie production and ruthlessly stamped out any competitors. To avoid the trust, a few filmmakers headed about as far away from New York as you can possibly get without getting your feet wet – a sleepy little town of orchards and sheep farms known as Hollywood.
A Quiet Little Nowhere
Ironically, Hollywood got its name from the wife of a Kansas prohibitionist named Harvey Wilcox, who had moved to the Cahuenga Valley station to set up a itsy-bitsy community that reflected his conservative beliefs. He bought 120 acres of land and built a ranch in the middle of a fig orchard. Wilcox’s wife, Daeida, while returning home by train from an East Coast prance, struck up a conversation with another woman on the negate who called her summer home Hollywood. Daeida liked the name so much, she decided to borrow it as the name of her ranch. By 1897, the area surrounding the ranch became known as Hollywood, and in 1903 the town was incorporated.
Enter the “MoviePeople”
In 1907 the first filmmakers came to Hollywood and status up shop. The sunny climate and expansive distance from Edison and the Patent Trust made Hollywood an ideal location for shooting movies. Five years later, over a dozen film companies had moved into Hollywood, but the real jabber hadn’t started yet. Films were shot all over town, with many ’studios’ setting up shop in former barns and unused cowsheds. Cecille B. DeMille worked out of a barn on Vine Street.
The New Gold Rush
By 1915, Hollywood was a boomtown. Studios were springing up all over town. Young hopefuls gathered by the hundreds for a shot at breaking into the movie industry. Established stars built glamorous mansions. The town was literally transformed overnight, from a sleepy conservative backwater to a bustling metropolis where fortunes were won and lost every day. As more and more people flocked to Hollywood, the staunch estate market exploded.
Here’s Your Sign
In 1923, the Hollywoodland Genuine Estate Group decided to promote some of their prime real estate by erecting a massive sign on the side of Mount Cahuenga. The sign simply read: Hollywoodland, but that was the only thing simple about it. Built at a cost of $21,000 dollars the enormous sign was made of 13 letters. Each letter was 30 feet wide and 50 feet tall. The letters were made of metal barn roofing and held up by a framework of pipes and telephone poles. Below the sign was a large white circle, 35 feet in diameter. The message was meant to say: “Hollywoodland! Period.” The sign originally was studded with 4,000 20-watt light bulbs that blinked “Holly” then “Wood” then “Land” out into the clear California sky and was visible at a distance of 25 miles. As a promotional gimmick, the label was meant to last about a year and a half. Obviously, the promotion is still going on. Only the product has changed.
Hard Times
The Tremendous Depression hit Hollywood hard. Salary cuts were implemented; jobs slashed. The Hollywoodland sign stood as a symbol of hope for thousands of actors and actresses struggling to make it in movies. One such hopeful was a Broadway actress named Peg Entwistle who tried desperately to make it into movies but failed. In 1932, she climbed to the top of the 50-foot “H” and jumped off into the night, committing suicide from Tinsel Town’s most famous symbol.
The Depression also forced the real estate developers who built the sign into bankruptcy. By 1939, all maintenance on the sign had stopped. All 4,000 light bulbs were stolen. Vandals removed pieces of the sign, and the elements wore away at its supports. Holes and gaps began appearing in the sign, which was becoming an unstable, grisly mess. Many neighborhoods in Hollywood lobbied for the sign’s removal
The rationing during World War Two meant that no resources could be spared to repair or fix the sign. Near the end of the war, the bankrupt real estate developer who had built the sign, gave the city of Hollywood his remaining acreage high up in the Hollywood Hills – sitting on a slight parcel of this land, sat the rapidly deteriorating sign.
By 1949 the ticket was in crude disrepair – the letter H had fallen face down. Something had to be done. Later that year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, the new owners of the sign removed the “Land” part of the mark and repaired the remaining letters.
I’d Like to Buy a Vowel
In 1973 the notice was declares a historical monument by the cultural heritage Board of Los Angeles. It’s new, official status as a monument, meant that much-needed restoration and repairs would take place. The repairs would be expensive, so to raise money, the fresh Hollywood Sign trust put together a star-studded fund raiser, during which, individual letters of the sign could be “adopted” for $28,000 each. The fundraiser was hosted by Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion and featured a unique mix of celebrities rallying around the sign. Gene Autry adopted one of the L’s. Alice Cooper bought an O. Paul Williams sponsored the W. With new financial backing, the Sign Trust unveiled a fresh Hollywood mark in 1978.
Sign Sponsors:
H — Terrence Donnelly, Publisher of the Hollywood Independent Newspaper
O — Giovanni Mazza, Italian movie producer
L — Les Kelley, Creator of the Kelley Blue Book
L — Gene Autrey, singing cowboy, Owner of KTLA
Y — Hugh Hefner, Creator of Playboy magazine
W — Paul Williams, Singer/composer * (some sources attribute this to Andy Williams)
O — Warner Brother’s Records
O — Alice Cooper, rock fable (in tribute to Groucho Marx)
D — Dennis Lidtke
The Sign Today
In 1992, Dan Lungren, California Attorney General specified a plan to acquire the notice. Under the plan, The Hollywood Sign Trust was to preserve and promote the sign as a symbol of the entertainment industry. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce was entrusted with protecting the image of the sign, ensuring that any images of the sign are properly licensed. The City of Los Angeles was required to maintain and protect the restricted area of Griffith Park that’s home to the sign. They also provide park rangers and security for the sign.
The entire area around the mark is restricted and monitored by a state-of-the-art security system. External alarms, motion sensors and digital surveillance cameras constantly monitor the entire mark area.
In 2006, the Hollywood Sign Trust integrated the sign’s security system with the Department of Homeland Security to ensure that the sign is protected as a national treasure.
You can see the conception from the sign’s webcams and security cameras HERE.
Only in America – Fate of the Current Sign
When the original trace was torn down the pieces were purchased from the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce by Hank Berger, a nightclub promoter for $10,000. Berger cut up small sections of the sign and sold them as framed collectables. Sales were slow and Berger eventually gave up on the project. The crumbling, modern sign then sat in storage for 25 years.
Dan Bliss, who knew Berger through business dealings, purchased the sign for an undisclosed six-figure amount in 2003. Bliss auctioned off larger pieces of the sign on eBay, including a 5′x3′ section of the H to the Hollywood History Museum for $11,766. The rest of the ticket sat stacked in a storage building. In 2005, Bliss auctioned off the rest of the sign on eBay. He opened the bidding at $300,000. Bliss wanted to exercise the money to fund a documentary to see if Elvis was still alive. On December 6, 2005 the remaining sections of the recent Hollywood tag sold for $450,400. Ah, only in America.
You can see the new ebay listing for the sign HERE.
From a true estate ad to federally-protected icon of the American entertainment industry, the Hollywood sign has endured as a lasting tribute to the dreamer in everyone.
Sources: City of Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, CBC.ca
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Filed under Stock Bankruptcy by on Nov 29th, 2011. Comment.
The nation’s largest kosher meat processing plant, Agriprocessors, Inc., located in Postville, Iowa, has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The company states that the raids encourage in May 2008 are partially to blame. However, there are other problems lurking. Financially, Agriprocessors is in big concern. They owe approximately 200 creditors somewhere in the neighborhood of $50 to $100 million dollars. First Bank is looking to foreclose on the plants in Postville, Iowa and Gordon, Nebraska. Jacobson Staffing has pulled all of its staffers from the site. Estimates say that this results in just 250 workers remaining at the Iowa plant.
What will this mean to the many Jewish individuals who rely on kosher meat products from Agriprocessors? There has been no talk of shutting down operations. Whether or not bankruptcy protection is offered will have a big impact on that decision. With only 250 workers, a significant decrease in production is eminent. There are other sources in the US for kosher meat. These sources do not equal the output from Agriprocessors. Prices for kosher meat products will surely rise. Consumers do not need a price increase for essentials in these tough economic times. Worst-case scenario is that the plant closes. This will result in a tremendous kosher meat (beef, veal and bison) shortage. People may actually start buying now and freezing the meat in case of shortages later on. The supply of kosher chicken will not be as adversely affected.
Did the raid in May 2008 push Agriprocessors over the edge? Perhaps. It was one of the largest raids ever in US immigration history. Defending allegations made in the raid has cost Agriprocessors a bundle, not to mention the $10 million fine. Loss of this plant is not fair another casualty in the food processing industry. Agriprocessors is the largest employer in the tiny town of Postville IA. Loss of this plant will wreak financial hardship on the town as a whole. With resources already stressed from the May raids, there will be little help for former employees and their families if the plant were to close. Not a happy thought with the onset of the holidays. The town of Postville will lose valuable revenue should the plant go into foreclosure. Overall, it is a bad situation for everyone.
In this particular situation, there are no winners. Unless Agriprocessors comes up with alternate financing, there will be a guaranteed diminished supply of kosher meat on the market. It is unlikely that more employees will be hired to replace those that have left from Jacobson Staffing unless they are critical to the plant’s operations. The current estimates of 250 remaining workers are fair a part of the 800 individuals that were employed prior to the May 2008 raids. It appears that individuals who rely on an abundant supply of kosher meat will have to become more resourceful.
To read more articles on food or Judaism by this author, click on the links below:
Parenting Tips For Families That Do Not Celebrate Christmas
LaBriute Offers Instant Hot Kosher Meals – No Oven or Microwave Required
Sources:
http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/Agriprocessors
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