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The Los Angeles City Council celebrated the 100th year anniversary of the iconic Hollywood Sign, and commemorated the milestone by declaring Oct. 31 as “Hollywood Sign Day” in the city.
Councilmember Nithya Raman, who represents the 4th District, which includes Mount Lee where the Hollywood Sign is located, led a presentation during Tuesday’s City Council meeting and praised the work of the Hollywood Sign Trust, a nonprofit aimed at maintaining, repairing and securing the famous sign designated as a historic cultural monument in 1973.
The council passed a resolution introduced by Raman on Oct. 10 to honor the sign’s 100th year anniversary.
Workmen prepare to take down the letter “D” in the famed “Hollywood” sign, the last one to be removed from the sign that has stood in the Hollywood Hills overlooking Los Angeles for 55 years, on Aug. 12, 1978. The old sign, made from telephone poles and plywood, had gradually succumbed to high winds and dry rot and is to be replaced with a new one. The new sign is being financed by several fund raising projects. The Mulholland Highway sign is shown in the foreground. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)
Alexandra Gedda, 17, of Virginia Beach, takes a picture of her mother Stella with the iconic Hollywood sign on Wednesday, June 29, 2022 in Los Angeles. The famous sign will be a 100 next year. (Photo by Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
With a touch of show-business flair, Endeavour, riding on the back of a modified Boeing 747, flies close enough to have its picture taken with the Hollywood Sign en route to LAX on Friday. 9/21/2012 (John McCoy, L.A. Daily News/SCNG)
The Red Arrows, the Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team makes a flyby the Hollywood Sign and then onto the Queen Mary on Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019 The Red Arrows, Snow Birds and the USAF Thunderbirds will all be performing during Great Pacific Airshow in Huntington Beach. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
The famous Hollywood sign reads “Hollyweed” after it was vandalized, January 1, 2017. Police said unidentified thrill-seekers had climbed up and arranged tarps over the two letter “O’s” to make them look like “E’s,” CBS affiliate KCAL reported. Each letter is 45 feet (13.7 meters) high, so the feat would have required not just bravado but considerable athleticism. / AFP PHOTO / Gene BlevinsGENE BLEVINS/AFP/Getty Images
Environmental activists cover the Hollywood sign with letters Thursday, February 11, 2010 in Hollywood,CA. When completed the sign will read “SAVE THE PEAK”. The activists are promoting a campaign to raise $5.5 million to help buy the land around the landmark to prevent it from becoming the site of a residential development. The Hollywood sign was built in 1923 to promote the Hollywoodland Housing Development and now an international symbol of Los Angeles. (Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer)
The Hollywood Sign sits above hilly neighborhoods between Griffith Park and the 405. (Photo by Dean Musgrove, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
A person takes photos of the Hollywood sign from the Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood as clouds roll by. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)
The Presidential Advance Team for President Joe Biden flying over the Hollywood sign into Burbank airport Sunday. Hollywood Hills, CA/USA, March 12, 2023. (Photo by Gene Blevins/ Contributing photographer)
The Hollywood sign undergoes a fresh paint job Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Work started on Monday and painters will apply nearly 400 gallons of paint to the sign over the course of eight weeks. The project is expected to be completed in November. This year marks a centennial for the iconic sign. Sherwin-Williams, which last refurbished the sign in 2012, will run the project again. Duggan and Associates, a Los Angeles-based painting company, will paint the 45-feet-high sign. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, contributing photographer)
A hiker nears the top of Mt. Lee behind the Hollywood sign, Monday, January 5, 2015. A hiking trail that affords unobstructed views of the Hollywood sign has reopened, giving pedestrians access but closing the roadway to motorists. A new electronic gate at the park’s Beachwood Canyon entrance limits vehicle access to all but the Sunset Ranch Horse Stables. Hikers can reach the iconic panorama during the hours of 5:00 a.m. to sunset. The entrance was closed in March after residents complained of traffic nightmares from visitors trying to reach the sign via their narrow and windy streets. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker/L.A. Daily News)
Dylan Morgan, from Oceanside, Calif., a painter for Bay Cal Commercial Painting, removes stickers from the Hollywood sign as he prepares the landmark for a fresh coat of paint Friday, Nov. 11, 2005, in Los Angeles. Like almost every other star in town, the Hollywood sign is getting a makeover. They’ll coat the 45-foot-high (14-meter) letters with 300 gallons (1,135 liters) of a specially formulated paint in “Hollywood White,” said David Codde, president of Bay Cal, which is donating the makeover work together with Red Diamond Coatings. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
Dylan Morgan, from Oceanside, Calif., a painter for Bay Cal Commercial Painting, chips paint from one of the letters of the Hollywood sign with the Los Angeles city skyline in the background as he begins repairs on the 82-year old landmark Friday, Nov. 11, 2005, in Los Angeles. Like almost every other star in town, the Hollywood sign is getting a makeover. They’ll coat the 45-foot-high (14-meter) letters with 300 gallons (1,135 liters) of a specially formulated paint in “Hollywood White,” said David Codde, president of Bay Cal, which is donating the makeover work together with Red Diamond Coatings. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
The Hollywood sign undergoes a fresh paint job Wednesday, Sept. 21, 2022. Work started on Monday and painters will apply nearly 400 gallons of paint to the sign over the course of eight weeks. The project is expected to be completed in November. This year marks a centennial for the iconic sign. Sherwin-Williams, which last refurbished the sign in 2012, will run the project again. Duggan and Associates, a Los Angeles-based painting company, will paint the 45-feet-high sign. (Photo by Michael Owen Baker, contributing photographer)
Riley Forsythe, right, of Bay Cal Commercial Painting, applies a fresh coat of paint on the second “L” of the Hollywood sign as his brother John looks on Friday, Nov. 11, 2005, in Los Angeles. Like almost every other star in town, the Hollywood sign is getting a makeover. They’ll coat the 45-foot-high (14-meter) letters with 300 gallons (1,135 liters) of a specially formulated paint in “Hollywood White,” said David Codde, president of Bay Cal, which is donating the makeover work together with Red Diamond Coatings. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)
The Hollywood sign stands in front of snow-covered mountains after another winter storm hit Southern California on March 01, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
A brilliant lightning bolt and rainbow appear next to the Hollywood sign as monsoon moisture invaded the southland. on Sept. 29, 2010. (Photo by Mike Meadows Contributing photographer)
The repainting of the Hollywood sign is now complete. Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, Governor Arnold Sxhwarzenegger and the Trust for Public Land announced monday that a $900,000 donation from Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Foundation have bridged the gap to save 138 acres near the sign from developers. The parcel of land will be preserved and annexed to Griffith Park. Photo by David Crane/Los Angeles Daily News
In this Saturday August 29,2009 photo showing smoke from the Station Fire billowing up from behind the famous Hollywood sign in the Hollywood Hill in Los Angeles. Wildfire threatened 12,000 suburban homes and rained ash on cars as far away as downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, spreading in all directions in hot, dry conditions. (AP Photo/Anthony Citrano)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 27: People walk past the Hollywood sign on day 106 of the SAG-AFTRA strike against the Hollywood studios on October 27, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. Contract negotiations between the actors union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are expected to continue over the weekend in the strike which began July 14. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
The famous sign that normally spells “Hollywood” has been draped with new lettering to say “Save The Peak,” a reference to nearby Cahuenga Peak, that has been the object of developer interest, seen in the Hollywood Hills above Los Angeles Saturday, Feb. 13, 2010. The new temporary signage seeks donations so the city can purchase land adjacent to the Hollywood Sign, keeping the famous view clear of real estate development. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
(L-R) Rams fans Sebastian Padilla and Josie Banuelos hold their Rams banner as they pose with the famous Hollywood-Rams House sign Wednesday, Hollywood CA, Feb 16,2022. The two came from the LA Rams victory parade to the Hollywood sign to get photos of the hole experience. (Photo by Gene Blevins/Contributing Photographer)
LOS ANGELES, CA – NOVEMBER 16: The Hollywood Sign is illuminated by the spotlight of a helicopter streaking past the sign at night on November 16, 2005 in Los Angeles, California. The historic landmark is undergoing a month-long makeover; erected in 1923 as a giant ad for a housing development and originally read “Hollywoodland”, the sign with letters that are 45 feet tall and 36 feet wide was declared a Los Angeles Cultural Historical Monument in 1973. (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
Setting behind mountains and a thick layer of haze, the sun casts a warm glow on the Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles late Wednesday, June 30, 1999. For a century and a half California has been a destination for every conceivable sort of adventurer. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
“It (the sign) brings so many people here. It brings so much money into the city, and we have to, as we move forward into this next century at the Hollywood Sign, use some of those dollars to ensure that we maintain the park around it and ensure that this sign continues to be a resources for people who are coming to visit it, but not be a bother for the residents who live around it,” Raman said.
Jeff Zarrinnam, chairman of the Hollywood Sign Trust’s Board of Trustees, said as a child he made promise to himself that one day he would be “taking care of that Hollywood (sign).” He also thanked his colleagues for their dedication to preserving the Hollywood Sign, as well as the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, Hollywood United Neighborhood Council, and others involved in the care of the beloved sign.
Adam Burke, president and CEO of Los Angeles Tourism, a nonprofit aimed at supporting tourism in the city, said the Hollywood Sign is helping the recovery of tourism after the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.
He noted tourism is the fourth largest employment sector in the city with approximately 550,000 Angelenos working in tourism related careers. Last year, visitors who came to the city contributed about $34.5 billion to the local business community.
“Everywhere I go around the world, whether I’m in India, stay in Japan or China, the consistent theme is that the reason people come to our city of angels is because it represents a sense of personal freedom,” Burke said. “It’s because we’re a community that truly celebrates diversity and inclusion.”
The sign started as a billboard concept for a real estate development called Hollywood Land in 1923. On Dec. 8 of that year Angelenos looked up and saw the sign lit up by 3,700 light bulbs, Raman said.
The Hollywood Land developers decided to donate the remaining undeveloped housing tracts consisting of 425 acres to the city. The city accepted the offer and added it to park acreage on Jan. 30, 1945.
In 1978, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce launched a “Save the Sign” campaign, with a goal of raising $250,000 to build a new, more permanent Hollywood Sign of the same design and original size. The sign “survived” years of neglect and repair until it was rebuilt in October 1978, according to the resolution.
The Hollywood Sign Trust was honored with a 2023 Preservation Award by the Los Angeles Conservancy.
“As the sign celebrates its centennial throughout 2023, the Hollywood Sign Trust and the city of Los Angeles continue to protect Hollywood’s biggest star and educate the world about Los Angeles’ most-famous icon,” the resolution states. “The Hollywood Sign remains a celestial fixture above a city of constant change and a beacon for aspiring stars from all walks of life, with nine simple white letters.”
Before the City Council meeting Raman hosted a cake-cutting ceremony in the media room behind the Council Chambers to celebrate the occasion and shared brief remarks about the significance of the sign.
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