The Hollywood Sign is one of the most photographed landmarks in the world. It’s been blown up in movies, kissed by drones, perched above celebrity scandals, and immortalized in everything from postcards to rap lyrics. Most people see those towering white letters and think of film studios, Oscar dreams, and red carpet fame.What they don’t realize is that the sign had nothing to do with movies when it first went up. In fact, it was just a very large, very expensive billboard for a housing development.The fact that it ended up becoming one of the most iconic images in the world is one of those strange historical detours you couldn’t script better if you tried.This is the true story of how a sign meant to sell homes ended up selling the dream of Hollywood itself.The Birth of an Icon: Hollywood in the 1920s L.A. Roadways, 1922Credit: Automobile Club of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles on the RiseIn the 1920s, Los Angeles was the new playground of American ambition. The railroads had already connected it to the rest of the country, the climate was a sunny dream compared to the icy East Coast, and oranges grew like weeds. But what really set the city buzzing was the feeling that it hadn’t been built yet—not fully. L.A. was still in the business of inventing itself, and for entrepreneurs, that meant endless possibilities.Hollywood, just a sleepy suburb a few years earlier, was suddenly becoming a name people recognized. Not just for its film studios—though they...
Published By: NoFilmSchool - Yesterday