Celebrities Saved the Hollywood Sign Letter by Letter

The Hollywood Sign you see on that hillside today is not the original. The one it replaced had rotted so badly by the late 1970s that Los Angeles had a real choice to make: let it collapse or find the money to rebuild it from scratch.

A Billboard That Became a Landmark

The sign was erected in 1923 as a real-estate advertisement for a housing development called Hollywoodland. It originally read HOLLYWOODLAND - all 13 letters - and was only meant to stand for 18 months. Decades passed. The "LAND" portion was removed in 1949, and by the 1970s the remaining nine steel letters were rusted through, sagging, and coming apart. A February 1978 windstorm finished the job on one of the Os: it snapped, slid down the hillside, and left the sign reading "HuLLYWO D."

A Playboy Mansion Fundraiser

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce calculated a full rebuild would cost around $250,000 - and had no way to pay for it. Hugh Hefner stepped in. On June 29, 1978, he hosted a star-studded fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion, charging $150 per guest and raising $45,000 in a single night. He then organized a letter-by-letter sponsorship campaign: each of the nine letters could be claimed by a donor for $27,700.

The Letter-by-Letter Roster

The nine donors who stepped forward were a mix of celebrities and local figures. Rock musician Alice Cooper sponsored the third O and dedicated it to comedian Groucho Marx, who had died just a year earlier in August 1977. Cowboy actor Gene Autry and TV station KTLA covered the second L. Singer Andy Williams funded the W. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce sponsored the Y in honor of Hugh Hefner himself. Terrence Donnelly, publisher of the Hollywood Independent Newspaper, paid for the H. Italian film producer Giovanni Mazza took the first O. Kelley Blue Book founder Les Kelley claimed the first L. Businessman Dennis Lidtke covered the D.

The Sign That Stands Today

The original sign was demolished on August 8, 1978. Los Angeles went three months without it on the hillside. The new version - built from steel frames and corrugated metal, set in concrete footings rather than telephone poles - was dedicated on November 14, 1978. It stands five feet shorter than the original but is built to last. The sign that became one of the most photographed landmarks on Earth was saved, letter by letter, by nine people who each put up $27,700 to make it happen.