This vintage image was taken in the 1940s and shows the iconic "HOLLYWOODLAND" sign. That's right, readers. The original 1923 sign was intended to be a short-term advertisement for a local real estate development but as we all know, it ended up staying. The reason it was allowed to stay was that in 1949 the City of Los Angeles Parks Department demanded that "LAND" be removed so that the sign would be representative of the district, not the housing development.
While driving through the residential area of the Hollywood Hills in August 2001, I captured a shot of the Hollywood sign that is somewhat close to the vintage shot.
This photo from March 2002 is even closer; I was hiking in Runyon Canyon when I snapped this.
More vintage Hollywood at my main website.
All this time I thought the LAND disappeared because John Belushi shot it to pieces in December 1941.
ReplyDeleteI want to visit the sign someday, in spite of the difficulty getting up there. I figure I can take a cab or an Uber up to the point where turnaround gets difficult and walk the rest of the way.
ReplyDeleteSince we live in a tourist area too, I do feel sorry for people who live up there, having people parking in their street and constantly turning around, parading back and forth, dropping trash etc. But it would be so cool to visit up close.
JG