If Los Angeles is where dreams are made, and Hollywood is its headquarters, then the Hollywood sign – way up in the hills, atop the sprawling city – is a universal emblem of American fame and fortune. In its 100 years on the southern slopes of Mount Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains, the sign’s become shorthand for dreams aspired to, realized (if you’re lucky) and lost. No wonder it’s so often destroyed to smithereens in disaster flicks like Independence Day and Sharknado. But whatever you see when you look at the Hollywood sign, it’s always gazing back, and ready for its closeup.
A Temporary Billboard
In a city full of paparazzi, no celebrity can compete with Los Angeles’ most photographed subject: the Hollywood sign, which turned 100 in December. As the city was booming in the 1920s, the Hollywoodland real estate company developed 200 hectares at the base of Mount Lee. To catch the eye of drivers on Wilshire Boulevard, the company erected what was supposed to be short-term marketing high atop the hills in Griffith Park: 13-metre-tall letters, made of telephone poles and sheet metal, lit with 4,000 bulbs, spelling Hollywoodland.
A 1949 renovation, the “land” was lost. Photo: MPI/Getty Images
A Legend in the Making
For decades, the billboard was “more eyesore than icon,” says Leo Braudy, a cultural historian and University of Southern California professor who wrote The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon in 2011. For some, it was an aspirational symbol of the American dream; for others, it was a bleak reminder of broken dreams. In 1932, the hopeful movie actor Peg Entwistle trekked up the canyon, climbed a ladder to the top of the “H,” and jumped to her death. Her restless spirit allegedly lingers; a jogger, a hiker and parks staff have reported seeing her ghost on foggy nights or catching a whiff of her signature Gardenia perfume.
A Little Nip & Tuck
The crumbling sign, which the real estate company gave to the city in 1944, was the subject of ongoing debate. “City Parks called it a public nuisance – dangerous, if parts fell down the hill – and people mostly went up there to drink and smoke dope,” explains Braudy. A 1949 restoration rebuilt the “H” and removed the “land,” and in 1978, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, with financial help from celebrities like Hugh Hefner, Alice Cooper and Andy Williams, fixed it up again. “The new sign was built to last, made with metal sheets, finished with white baked enamel, and secured with a concrete foundation,” says Hollywood Signs author Kathy Kikkert. Like all aging celebs, it gets tweaked as necessary, including a major facelift in 2012 and another makeover in 2022 for the centennial, when Sherwin-Williams repainted it in a shade called “Hollywood Sign Centennial White.”
Animal Inhabitants
The sign is in a restricted area monitored 24/7 by the police, fire department and park rangers, but Tinseltown’s wild animals roam free in the hills. Remote cameras set up by researchers in Griffith Park have caught mule deer, coyotes and bobcats strolling by, but none captured human hearts like P-22, a male mountain lion fitted with a GPS collar by the National Parks Service in 2012. While the cougar usually managed to evade the paparazzi – a National Geographic photographer used remote camera traps in 2013 to get a phenomenal night shot of P-22 in front of the sign – it starred in a live news event in 2015, when it was found squatting under a home. At 12 years old, P-22 went rogue and killed a leashed chihuahua. When researchers discovered he had multiple health problems and had likely been hit by a car, they euthanized him in December 2022. P-22’s legacy – and 15,000 Instagram followers of “LA’s loneliest bachelor” – lives on.
Cris Hazzard, a.k.a. The Hiking Guy, suggests the Brush Canyon Trail, which is popular for a bunch of reasons: “There’s a parking area, wide trails that climb gradually, and trail signs that help you navigate to the top.” The 10-kilometre, four-hour trek starts in Griffith Park and brings you to the summit of Mount Lee, where you can take the perfect Instagram shot of the back of the sign and the city spread out below. For experienced hikers, Hazzard recommends the Wisdom Tree Hike, “only 4.2 miles [seven kilometres], but steep and challenging,” which passes the lone pine to survive a devastating 2007 wildfire, and then ends at the back of the sign on Mount Lee’s summit. If the view’s more important than proximity, he says the Lake Hollywood hike is great for beginners and casual strollers, who will appreciate a mostly paved route around the reservoir, and a distant, but clear, shot of the front of the sign.
Whatever route you choose, it’s hot, so Hazzard suggests packing a litre of water and starting at sunrise, when parking is easy, temperatures are cooler, and you’ll beat the crowds.