Attack on the Hollywood Sign

Attack on the Hollywood Sign

By Alex Von Roon

Hardly anything in Hollywood is sacred, but the huge white letters that spell “Hollywood” high up in the Hollywood Hills are certainly an exception. And it is precisely this shrine that’s in danger of being torn down.

It’s no joke. I just confirmed it with Tom LaBonge, a Hollywood city councilman. The land on which the sign stands belongs to an investment group that wants to sell the parcel for 22 million dollars.

The Hollywood sign is our Eifel Tower. Should the land become private, it’s possible the sign will disappear, fears LaBonge

Out of the question. L.A. without the Hollywood sign? That would be like Berlin without the Brandenburg Gate or Bavarians without Luca Toni. How often I’ve been up there. You can almost drive your car right up to it. How often we’ve taken pictures up there with friends while we enjoyed the view over the city out to the Pacific Ocean. And now they want to swap our holy site for some modern luxury apartments?

A real estate company put the sign up in 1923 as advertising for home sites in the hills. The first sign said “Hollywoodland” but was later it was shortened to Hollywood. I can still remember seeing this sign with every TV program emanating from Hollywood when I was just a little kid in Hannover. Like a magic signal it beckoned to me and I swore, when I was 10 years old, that I’d someday stand next to that sign.

The most famous letters in the world first came under attack in the 1970s, at that time by termites. They munched the letters into such a sad state that prominent people like Hugh Hefner, Alice Cooper and Steven Spielberg had them renovated.

And likewise this time, many stars seem to be appearing in defense of the landmark. George Clooney (in jest) has already promised to chain himself to the “H” to defend it from destruction by the bulldozers.

Now a petition is circulating through the great studios of Tinseltown: “Save our Landmark!” Hardly any of the superstars dares to refuse signing. And I think that’s right. Because somewhere in the world, another 10-year old sits in front of the television set tonight and looks wide-eyed at the Hollywood sign, a dream in his imagination and, a little later, an itinerary in his pocket.