Recognizing the 100th Anniversary of the Hollywood Sign

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the iconic Hollywood Sign in Hollywood, California. This year, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and Hollywood Sign Trust will celebrate the Hollywood Sign on its Centennial Anniversary as one of Los Angeles's memorable historical landmarks.

The Hollywood Sign will celebrate its centennial on December 8, 2023. In December 1923, a large sign spelling out the word Hollywoodland was illuminated by an array of lightbulbs on top of Mount Lee in Hollywood. The sign, with its over-forty-foot-tall letters, was created as a revolutionary form of advertising for a new housing development in the Hollywood Hills.

Although the Hollywood Sign originally represented a new beginning for residents of Los Angeles up in the gleaming Hollywood Hills, the sign also began to capture the limelight, a symbol of the emerging film industry within the area and throughout California.

In 1938, the sign was reflective of positive change when the 20 acres behind Mount Lee, which is named after renowned entrepreneur Don Lee, became the location of the Don Lee Network that broadcast a vast range of televised programming including remotely filmed and in-studio shows. After the Hollywoodland housing development fell through, the sign fell into disrepair, stirring debates about tearing it down. Fortunately, as owners of the sign, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped up to repair and reimagine the sign by removing the last four letters--at which point the Hollywood Sign was born.

Thirty years later in the mid-1970's, the Hollywood Sign, which had been made a cultural landmark, began to fall apart again. However, with a renovation fund campaign led by Hugh Hefner and others in 1978, the Hollywood Chamber once again restored the sign to its now amazing stature.

Other memorable moments in the sign's history include the 1997 photoshoot of Michelle Yeoh, who daringly performed a stunt in a helicopter over the sign for a National Geographic cover story. Then in 2013, the sign became the backdrop for a photo of the beloved mountain lion, P-22, who was captured roaming the trails in the Hollywood Hills.

The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and Hollywood Sign Trust will celebrate the Hollywood Sign on its 100th birthday throughout 2023 and 2024. These celebrations will highlight the transformation of the sign from a real estate marketing effort to a cultural monument, beloved community icon and global symbol of glamor and imagination.

I am proud to recognize the Hollywood Sign upon its 100th Anniversary and I ask all Members of Congress to join me today in honoring this timeless icon.

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