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The Sign and the City.
Like many chapters in the history of Los Angeles, the Hollywood sign began as a real estate promotion. A gigantic billboard was commissioned in 1923 to promote the development called "Hollywoodland." Mules hauled telegraph poles, sheet metal, and 4,000 light bulbs up the side of Mount Lee to create the sign.
Several years later, a landslide destroyed the last four letters. Time and weather ravaged the rest of the sign, until the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce started the "Save the Sign" campaign in 1978. Patrons paid $27,700 per letter to rebuild the sign, now an internationally known landmark. |