185.30.35.39 Five years after the groundbreaking on Mulholland Highway, the deadly collapse of the St. Francis Dam, which claimed more than 400 lives, forever-after sullied the reputation of the renowned civic engineer William Mulholland. According to Adweek, Hollywoodland was actually a subdivision of tract houses and the sign was a billboard for the development. You dont need to crowd the Griffith Observatory to get postcard-worthy views of the iconic landmark. Ladies in a steam shovel bucket, behind the Hollywoodland sign, 1923. Original Sherman Hollywoodland Tract era 1923 overlaid on the 2014 City of Los Angeles's Map and Guide to Griffith Park You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. But the hubris was bound to hit; the bubble was bound to burst. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), Jan. 6, 1924, p. D2. A Sign Is Born - 1923. Sources: In classic Hollywood fashion, newsreel and press cameras were on the scene to watch at a safe distance as the hill literally melted under the force of the tremendous explosion. In fact, some have praised the fact that the types of construction equipment available today were not in existence at the time of the Hollywoodland development, otherwise the hills may have been completely flattened altogether. The sign is lit for the first time on December 8, 1923. The Hollywood sign was still in bad shape even after a refurbishment during the 1940s. 1998 - 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. | All Rights Reserved. And for much of the 20th century Hollywoodland remained a white spot--cartographically and racially--looking down its nose on the dark spots of the city below. By signing up you are agreeing to our, How Black Filmmakers Are Reclaiming Their History Onscreen. Lee in Los Angeles, is unveiled after its dedication, Nov. 11, 1978. More than two decades later, the last four letters would be dropped . Web. And the Hollywoodland developers figured it would about a year to sell the remaining plots, at which point the billboard would be dismantled, according to Gerald Schillers It Happened in Hollywood. The Hollywoodland sign was first illuminated on Saturday, December 8th, 1923 so going by the fact that there appears to be only one house in sight, I think we're safe in saying that this photo is from 1924. The most recent paint job was in 2012. Beachwood Plaza (date unknown). Magazines, Digital Amid laser beams and searchlights, the new "Hollywood" sign near the top of Mt. But what really caught my eye was that big white dot. Griffith Observatory features close-up views of the Hollywood Sign as well as the City of Los Angeles. The Hollywood Sign, originally the "Hollywoodland" Sign, was first erected in 1923 on Mount Lee to promote an upscale subdivision in the Beachwood Canyon area of Los Angeles. 24 Sep. 2018. The Hollywood Sign was completed by 1923, acting as a high-profile beacon for the growing city of Los Angeles. During this time, LA real estate moguls, Eli P. Clark and Gen. Moses H. Sherman, who were instrumental in the development of the electric railcar system in LA, owned a large tract of land at the base of the Hollywood Hills which they dubbed the Sherman & Clark Ranch. With the growing population of LA, Sherman and Clark seized the opportunity to subdivide their then-undeveloped land into a new residential district. The sign lit up . Plus, you help me cover costs so I can continue the coverage of Gadget tech, music tech, and geek culture through the shows. The first real studio, Nestor Film Company, soon followed from New Jersey, cranking out three pictures a week one western, one eastern, and one comedy for a grand total of $1,200. As the War progressed, Hollywood pulled together to feed, shelter and entertain returning soldiers. Photo via Los Angeles Public Library (1942). Initially reading HOLLYWOODLAND and emblazoned brightly above the City of Angels, the Hollywood Sign is one of LAs most recognizable landmarks, and possibly the most famous advertisement in the world. It was more than just an eye-catching decoration; it was a political statement. The Sign itself featured 4,000 20-watt bulbs, spaced 8 inches apart. Please attempt to sign up again. Old barns were turned into sound stages and Hollywoods quiet time was over.+ Read More, By 1915, America was officially film crazed, and Hollywood was shaping into the glamorous landscape weve come to know and love. Ironically, according to the History website, a letter was mailed to Entwistle a day before her death, offering her the lead role in a film about a woman who kills herself. But a review of local newspapers from the era (i.e., The Los Angeles Times, Holly Leaves, Los Angeles Record, Los Angeles Examiner and the Hollywood Daily Citizen) clears up any confusion. 24 Sep. 2018. With a showmanship worthy of her Hollywood neighbors, she staged elaborate morality plays for her flock, and soon broadcast on her own radio station, and ushered her Foursquare brand of Pentecostalism into the big tent of American Protestantism. Its a billboard on the side of a road that screams with reassurance that whatever youre doing is OK. You are OK. It is a cynical, yet powerful and realistic reminder of the power of advertising--that an eye-catching ad can convince you to ingest poisonous tar that kills you slowly, or even purchase a home in a new neighborhood development, set precariously on the side of a hill. He announced that they were splitting Netflix streaming from DVD rentals. Intended to last just 18 months, the Sign has endured nearly 100 years.+ Read More, Mount Lee, the home of the Hollywood Sign, is named for an entrepreneur who transformed a ridge in Griffith Park into one of the most important sites in television history. It basks in the glow of 3,700 20-watt light bulbs. This L.A. was the self-invented mirage city of unflagging ballyhoo. It was originally a clever electric billboard advertising an upscale suburban neighborhood in what is now the Hollywood Hills. It's uncertain who came up with the idea to erect the large advertising sign for the Hollywoodland tract. Sie knnen Ihre Einstellungen jederzeit ndern, indem Sie auf unseren Websites und Apps auf den Link Datenschutz-Dashboard klicken. People bought there, people built there, and when the real estate company folded, the sign that was meant to stand for 18 months soldiered on into decrepitude for years. The event was organized byBob GeldofandMidge Ureto raise funds for Ethiopian famine releif. A little over a year later in November 1924, Woodruff stated that [a]pproximately $3,000,000 in sales have been consummated since the inauguration of Hollywoodland and homes to the value of another $2,000,000 have been constructed or planned. Though aided by the onslaught of publicity Burrud had generated, the success of Hollywoodland was also completely circumstantial. Fitted with 3,700 lightbulbs, the famous sign began illuminating the Hollywood hillside in December 1923. But of course, the crown jewel of all the advertising efforts was the "HOLLYWOODLAND" sign placed on the hillside high above the neighborhood in 1923. L.A. is not alone in resisting its landmarks. Web. Your IP: On investigation, I found that while Hollywoodland is but a few moments from downtown Los Angeles, and only a few blocks from Hollywood Boulevard; its beautiful setting in the hills gives it the clean, pure atmosphere and the safety for children of a country estate. This news caused their stock to fall, which continued when Hastings announced the DVD division was to be rebranded as Qwikster, and sold (which, of course, didnt happen). 1923 held out other promises, too. "Display Ad 263 -- no Title." Geekazine covers consumer tech, enterprise tech, music tech, and video tech. In eastern cities the fine residential areas change very slowly; in fact in most of the eastern cities, the fine home section has not changed to any great extent in many years. If you want something reviewed, Contact Me. The housing development was meant to capitalise on the growing movie industry in the . Eventually, in 1949 the LAND portion of the sign was removed and the Hollywood portion was restored. You can stop in for a cup of coffee at the Beachwood Cafe, say hello to a neighbor, and check the bulletin board outside for a missing cat or neighborhood event. Web. Photo via Los Angeles Public Library (1923). The view behind the Hollywood sign at dusk. My last $20.00 donated for restoration of my favorite Hollywood landmark and just look at it nowa DECEASED Hollywood Sign lover., The signs been much pranked, altered to read HOLLYWEED and HOLYWOOD and other, more obscure iterations. The famous sign was originally longer and not designed to last. Thankfully, some of showbizs biggest names came to the rescue. It was designed in a storybook style by John DeLario, principal architect of Hollywoodland in the 1920s. The Biltmore showed up in the 1960s in the Green Book of places welcoming Black travelers. 8 Oct. 2018. Built by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler as an epic $21,000 billboard for his upscale Hollywoodland real . Studios, meanwhile, sprung up like wildfires and engaged in a cutthroat battle for survival. 26 Nov. 2018. The rise of the film aristocracy meant new restaurants, nightclubs and extravagant movie palaces in Hollywood.+ Read More, Hollywood, which by now represented not just a city, but also an industry, a lifestyle and an aspiration, was crowned when the Hollywoodland sign was erected in 1923. Hollywood Sign Timeline 1923: The sign is built as a huge advertisement for the Hollywoodland real estate development. The dedication of the Hollywoodland Sign in 1923 Photograph Courtesy Bruce Torrence The Hollywodland Sign illuminated by thousands of tiny light bulbs in the 1930s Photograph Courtesy Bruce. 10:10 AM on Jul 13, 2012 CDT. If your child will play baseball or softball this spring, youll need to stock up on appropriate clothing and equipment. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Angelus Temples congregations were integrated. The 50-ft.-tall lettering, which was lit by thousands of flashing light bulbs, was erected as an advertisement not for the movie-making mecca, but for a housing development called Hollywoodland. But in 1932, she jumped off the H, despondent over a going-nowhere film career. Please try again later. The 'Hollywoodland' sign is dedicated. The 50-foot high and 400-foot long sign was replaced by donations from nine public donors totaling $250,000. You can also Contact Jeffrey: Tech History Blog & Podcast 365 days a year, July 13, 1923: HollywoodLand Sign is Dedicated, January 30, 2004: Gateway Acquires eMachines, January 29, 2014: Google Sells Motorola Mobility, Ulanzi BG-3 Battery Handle for my Insta360, GoChess, Cooler Master, Paula Abdul Geekazine CES 2023 Shorts, Microsoft is found to violate the Sherman Antitrust Act, Staten Island girl falls into a manhole after IMing on her phone. Happiness is the smell of a new car. 1985: Live Aidwas firstheld. In 1973, the City of Los Angeles Cultural Heritage Board gave the Sign official landmark status but during the 70s, the top of the D and the entire third O toppled down Mt. 26 Nov. 2018. Mt. Photo via Hollywoodland: Established 1923. Photo Courtesy of the Hollywood Sign Trust and HollywoodPhotographs.com. The whole shebang land and sign was given or sold to the city, which didnt have as much regard for the monument as the tourists did. The old landmark sign it replaces was built in 1923, but deteriorated and began to fall apart recently. Although the $21,000 . The sign was erected in 1923 and originally read "HOLLYWOODLAND". Hollywoodland was no different, and specifically restricted deeds only to Caucasians for over 50 years. The 45-foot,. 26 Nov. 2018. Klicken Sie auf Alle ablehnen, wenn Sie nicht mchten, dass wir und unsere Partner Cookies und personenbezogene Daten fr diese zustzlichen Zwecke verwenden. However, Hollywoodland cannot simply be reduced to the pastoral and idyllic community that it touted itself to be. The Hollywood Sign 's been through some stuff. For instance, a Hollywoodland ad in the Los Angeles Times (June 10, 1923) states that the real estate development launched in late March of that year and that by June, 200 men were employed, 7 miles of road had been cut and 300,000 cubic yards of dirt had been moved. ProQuest. L.A.s political and artistic leaders were inclined to sanitize the deep Mexican/Californio historical presence, and repurpose it into a romanticized version of itself. The contract stipulated that "LAND" be removed to reflect the district, not the housing development. Lee in Los Angeles, is unveiled after its dedication, Nov. 11, 1978. By 1910, the place was already known as "Hollywood". The irony of these grand ambitions is the enduring legacy of the Hollywoodland Sign itself, which represented a rather crass relief to the high-quality houses and roads snaking up lush canyons below. It was flimsily made with wooden panels anchored by telephone poles, so it regularly blew over. When the Hollywood Sign was built in 1923, there was little hint that it would become an iconic emblem. Still, it included structural upgrades, like steel footing instead of telephone poles that held up the old sign, according to the History website. Some notable fake sign destructions occurred in Superman (1978), The Rocketeer (1991), and Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010). Web. The First 40 years of 20th cent | The "HOLLYWOODLAND"-sign was erected in 1923 and lost the "-LAND"-bit in 1949 during a restoration This was way back when before any houses dotted the hillside and the land was simply covered with oak . In 89, Disney Studios began a museum-grade rehabilitation of the El Capitan Theater. The great Los Angeles architectural historian Robert Winter told me, The river is nothing, but the bridges are sensational.. It was erected in 1923 for $21,000 and originally meant to last. Hollywood Sign Hollywoodland Sign Mount Lee ""HOLLYWOOD4514 . Designed by English artist and company owner Thomas Fisk Goff, the original sign was constructed in the year 1923. In most of her few headshots, her smiling lips are closed. Actors and actresses came to the city to turn dreams into reality. Butler was a child of the influential City Beautiful movement of the early 20th century, a civic philosophy that believed that beautiful public buildings and spaces helped to elevate people and institutions to be beautiful themselves aesthetically, socially and morally. Newspaper display advertising, he said, is the foundation of all publicity used to bring business., Hollywoodlands extensive use of print advertising is evident throughout the early years of development. Unknown today, Paul D. Howse was a pioneer in early entertainment and ballyhoo promotional methods. By the end of 1923, the Sign was fully erected, a high-profile beacon for the fast-growing metropolis. Harry Chandler, a former Los Angeles Times publisher, built the "Hollywoodland" sign in 1923 to advertise an upscale real estate development company with the same name. W hen the Hollywood Sign was built in 1923, there was little hint that it would become an iconic emblem. The city wanted the destroyed, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and saved it. Ever been on a plane flying into L.A. and seen that rush of foreign tourists unbuckling themselves in spite of the fasten seat belts sign to scuttle across the aisle for a look at the Hollywood sign? It was erected in 1923 for $21,000 (17,000) and originally. No doubt aided by having LA Times magnate, Harry Chandler, as part of the syndicate, ads in the LA Times constantly touted the community as the supreme achievement in community building!, the perfect choice when seeking a home place, superb environment without excessive cost, and combining the luxury of metropolitan living with the glorious freedom of the hills., Advertisement via Los Angeles Times (1924). By 1923, nearly 75 years after California became a state, the civic profile of Latinos had been marginalized, melded inaccurately into a single population of Mexicans, as they were officially referred to in the 1930 census. Mulholland Hwy. At the end of the day, the Hollywoodland sign was intended to shine as a beacon only for white Angelinos. "Display Ad 5 -- no Title." Tracy E. Shoults and S. H. Woodruff, the developers, envisioned Hollywoodland as an elegant throwback to old California. In 1924, L.A.s headcount would mark 1 million. The year 1923 amounted to a civic Big Bang, a pinpoint event whose reverberations reach us today. In 1938, the Don Lee Network purchased a 20-acre site behind the Hollywood Sign and built a state-of-the-art broadcast studio and transmission tower that could reach the San Fernando Valley and more. By 1920, 40 million Americans were going to the movies each week. The Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles has been an international landmark since its debut in 1923. Hollywoodland: Established 1923. ProQuest. The Hollywood Sign, created in 1923 to promote the new real estate development Hollywoodland, is the most visible representation of an elegant neighborhood now known as Beachwood Canyon. 2011 CEO Reed Hastings announced a bombshell that, in turn, brought on Netflixs single worst year ever. Driving or walking through the stone gates that still mark the entrance to Hollywoodland, transports you back in time to a small storybook town that seems out of place within the confines of Los Angeles. 06, 1926, p. 1. In 1930, a Black man sued seven L.A. restaurants, El Cholo and the Brown Derby among them, for refusing to serve him when he accompanied his elderly, infirm, white employer into the cafes. In one advertisement from January 1924, Hollywoodland is shown as an open expanse gleaming above the congested streets of downtown with the slogan above the turmoil of the city. This combination of the natural beauty of the Hollywood hills, while still being close to the conveniences of the city made Hollywoodland an easy sell. As the iconic sign undergoes a slight refurbishment for its 100th anniversary, a stroll down memory lane reveals how those nine letters became synonymous with the Golden State. L.A.s famous sign after pranksters altered its message in 2017. During the 1940s, the signs regular upkeep stopped and became the citys property after the Hollywoodland real estate development went under, mainly due to The Great Depression. The freshly painted Hollywood sign on Oct. 4, 2022. Over its history, the sign has been vandalized and public access has been restricted. HOLLYWOODLAND SIGN'S CONCEPTION As mentioned earlier, the Hollywoodland sign was completed in 1923 and was to help promote the sale of lots in the Hollywoodland subdivision. The last four . All things Spanish became ranked as superior to all things Mexican, which probably explains why El Cholo served classic Mexican food but called itself a Spanish cafe., Endeavour and the Hollywood sign: How we got the photo. Hollywood, which by now represented not just a city, but also an industry, a lifestyle and, increasingly, an aspiration, was officially crowned when the Hollywoodland sign was erected in 1923. Photo via New York Public Library Digital Collection (c. 1923). The Hollywoodland housing development was under construction with its eponymous sign in the background at the time of this photo, circa 1925. Web. Only a few years ago Figueroa Street was the exclusive residential section, then West Adams, then Wilshire Boulevard. Amid laser beams and searchlights, the new \"Hollywood\" sign near the top of Mt. Despite its complicated racial history, theres no doubt that even to this day, Hollywoodland has always maintained the feeling of a small town enclave tucked away from the sprawling city. Built by Los Angeles Times publisher Harry Chandler as a $21,000 billboard for his upscale Hollywoodland real estate development, the Sign soon took on the role of giant marquee for a city that was constantly announcing its own gala premiere. A historical postcard of the Hollywoodland residential district. The earliest found mention of the Sign appeared on December 14, 1923 in a Holly Leaves article about the Mulholland Highway soon to be built, which would extend from from the western end of the (Griffith Park) road, under the electric sign of Hollywoodland, around Lake Hollywood and across the dam., Just two weeks later another Los Angeles Timesarticle (December 30, 1923) with the headline Hollywood Electric Sign Reached by Car, reported on actor Harry Nevilles epic, experimental trip to test whether a motorcar could reach the Sign on the unpaved grade, and whether the cars brakes would work on the precipitous path down. When his name was removed from the Caltech library in 2021, Caltechs president noted that Millikan had lent his name and prestige to a morally reprehensible eugenics movement that already had been discredited scientifically during his time. As Caltech president, Millikan never put a woman on the faculty, and once wrote that giving Black people the vote was an unthinkable disaster.. "Hollywoodland Residences." Elsewhere, the 20s roared. 8 Oct. 2018. It originally read HOLLYWOODLAND, a 50-foot-high sales pitch for a ritzy 1923 real estate development at the top of Beachwood Canyon. Lee by laborers on simple dirt paths. The Hollywood area was relatively quiet until 1907. Though some found this characterization to simply refer to keeping LA economically prosperous, its difficult to separate the racial implications when put in this historical context. Once the landscape was prepared, construction began on homes which were restricted to styles with a European influence--French, Tudor, Mediterranean, and Spanish. Photo via California State Library (1928). The sign was shortened to Hollywood where it stands overlooking LA. We interviewed our tech expert, Jaime Vazquez, to learn more about accessible smart home devices. ProQuest. Los Angeles, however, is different. Web. The Roosevelt Hotel and Pantages Theater all received well-deserved makeovers during the last decades of the millennium.In short, Hollywood was moving forward, in part by wisely reinvesting in the monuments of its past.+ Read More, Hollywoods civic restoration, which began in the 1970s, picked up steam in the ensuing decades, fueled in part by a growing reverence for a monument that had become a universal metaphor for ambition, success, glamour and an industry and dream called H-O-L-L-Y-W-O-O-D. And as Hollywood re-blossomed, so too did the Sign, which benefited from a range of new preservation efforts. According to the Hollywood Sign website, other companies followed, including the Nestor Film Company, which is regarded as the first real studio in the area, according to a Hollywood sign history timeline. But these towering letters among the Hollywood Hills, which only recently celebrated their 95th birthday, originated simply as an advertisement for a new housing community known as Hollywoodland. Indeed, the history of Hollywoodland is as dynamic and complicated as its now-famous sign. Very slowly. After Shoults death, the syndicate continued on with Woodruff at the helm. Los Angeles Times (1923-1995), Jun. To attract attention, though, they decided to put up a gimmickliterallyand the Hollywoodland sign was born. Full Day in Tech History podcast show notes forJuly 13. Hollywoodland worked to restrict minorities from buying within the development and not-so-subtly advertised itself as a safe haven of sorts above the turmoil of the city. Another ad sought out the Old Timer of Los Angeles, stating: You .. Who have seen the fine residential districts of Los Angeles despoiled by metropolitan development--must realize now that Los Angeles is destined soon to be a city of millions. An early enclave of Storybook Style exists right here in the heart of Los Angeles. The Hollywood Sign is an American landmark and cultural icon overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles, California.Originally the Hollywoodland Sign, it is situated on Mount Lee, in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Santa Monica Mountains.Spelling out the word Hollywood in 45-foot-tall (13.7 m) white uppercase letters and 350 feet (106.7 m) long, it was originally created in 1923 as a temporary . Hopeful actors and actresses filled the streets, dazzled by a new American dream: film stardom. Just after the town of Hollywood was incorporated into the city of Los Angeles in 1910, much of the Hollywood Hills were still rural and sparsely populated, despite the booming real estate market and increasing population elsewhere in the city. 26 Nov. 2018. The red neon letters spelling Outpost mark the original birthplace of Hollywood as a performers town. The "HOLLYWOODLAND"-sign was erected in 1923 and lost the "-LAND"-bit in 1949 during a restoration BELLE EPOQUE to ART DECO. In 1923, Harry Chandler, a Los Angeles Times publisher, also ran a real estate development company, and this time, they are setting their sights on luxury clients. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. In 1949, sometime after the letter H had blown down in a storm, the city agreed to fix up the sign. Are you going to sit idly by and let the March of Progress pass unheeded? The construction cost of the sign was around $21,000, which is roughly the . The river is nothing, architectural historian Robert Winter said, but the bridges are sensational.. Web. The Hollywood sign, like the city at its feet, rambles horizontally, across 400 feet of hillside, its letters at slightly irregular levels. El Cholo, the Spanish Caf, began dishing up Mexican food and drink for the carriage trade, with margaritas so enticing that an ex-con on the lam supposedly dared to come back to his L.A. haunts to drink just one more. It was a year before MGM formed and Columbia Pictures took its name. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can watch on Cox Systems on channel 99. The original Hollywood sign was constructed in 1923, the same year that Rin Tin Tin gained fame as a canine film star. As Hollywoodlands sales manager George R. Hannan stated in 1926: As a result of the tremendous progress and the growth of Los Angeles, its residential districts have shifted more rapidly than in any other city in America. The Hollywoodland Sign Appeared. At night the billboard flashed in four stages: "Holly," then "Wood," then "Land" and then the entire word, "Hollywoodland." Newspaper articles from the time show that the sign was completed in. All Rights Reserved. In 1923, a subdivision of the 500-acre Sherman & Clark Ranch atop Beachwood Drive to be known as "Hollywoodland" was announced in the Los Angeles Times as "one of the most attractive residential sections of the City of Los Angeles". Warner Bros. took the first big leap into talkies, and then into gutsier, more graphic and realistic sex, gangster and war films. The year 1923 amounted to a civic "Big Bang," a pinpoint event whose reverberations reach us today. Ten years later, part of the Egyptian was restored to its glory. In a meeting of the Hollywood Realty Board at the Hollywood Athletic Club in February 1925, Burrud told members that, during the past year alone: 904 stories on Hollywoodland have appeared in various kinds of publications. A view in November 2000 of some of the nine bridges over the L.A. River designed by Merrill Butler. Filmmakers and distributors responded with a series of gimmicks: wider screens, 3-D, Technicolor, stereo sound, even free dishes. In order to build miles of road, as well as the new tracts where houses would be constructed, developers carved the landscape with a combination of mule drawn graders and steam shovels. Dino Williams and Alexa Williams. Crime soared, and the towns storied boulevards were ravaged by urban decay. The late Hugh Hefner, founder of Playboy Magazine, came to the rescue and helped fund the signs refurbishment costs. But its origins actually have very little to do with the glamour it still stands for the sign was erected in 1923 as an advertisement for local real estate. Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum News App. Each of the original 13 letters was 30 feet wide and approximately 43 feet tall, constructed of 39 metal squares rigged together by an intricate frame of scaffolding, pipes, wires and telephone poles. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. By 1915, Hollywood was emerging as an entertainment capital. In 2012, the Trust worked with Sherwin Williams to give the Hollywood Sign a complete makeover. Web. Then, her relentlessly publicized moral tumble an alleged affair and a mysterious five-week disappearance was probably a first for a woman minister of the Gospel, but old-ish news for men of the cloth. Photo via Hollywoodland: Established 1923. Old barns were converted into sound stages and approximately 15 independent studios were shooting various projects in the city. The 50-foot letters were initially intended to spell Hollywoodland, but the ' land ' portion was deleted in 1949. By 1949, with the bulbs long since burned out and the sign battered by weather, the city decided to replace the original with a new sign that was four letters shorter, advertising not housing but the California silver-screen dream. 1923, welcome to 2023.