Video: 'Hollywood Sign History - Decades TV Network'

(Friday, July 13, 1923) — A sign consisting of 50-foot-tall letters spelling out “HOLLYWOODLAND” was dedicated today in the Hollywood Hills to promote a subdivision in Los Angeles, California.

Real estate developers Woodruff and Shoults called their development “Hollywoodland” and advertised it as a “superb environment without excessive cost on the Hollywood side of the hills.”

They contracted the Crescent Sign Company to erect thirteen south-facing letters on the hillside. Crescent owner Thomas Fisk Goff (1890–1984) designed the wooden sign in 30-foot-wide and 50-foot-high white block letters.

Video: 'Part 1 A History of the Hollywood Sign, 1923 2009'

Studded with around 4,000 light bulbs, the completed sign alternated between flashing in successive segments “HOLLY,” “WOOD,” and “LAND” and as a whole.

Below the sign was a searchlight to attract more attention. The poles that supported the sign were hauled to the site by mules. The project cost $21,000, equivalent to $360,000 in 2022.

The sign was officially dedicated in 1923, intended to last only a year and a half. The rise of American cinema in Los Angeles during the Golden Age of Hollywood gave it widespread visibility, causing it to be left beyond that, eventually dropping the last four letters in 1949.

The sign would be replaced in 1978 with a more durable all-steel structure.