The land behind the Hollywood Sign was in the process of being developed for luxury homes, but
The Trust for Public Land wanted to stop it and needed to reach $12.5 million to do so. For the last year they have been trying to raise the money and with the deadline approaching on April 30th and almost $1 million short of the goal, it was looking like the land that was sold to a developer in 20002 from the Howard Hughes estate would remain in their ownership. That was until yesterday when the ultimate Playboy Hugh Hefner forked over the final $900,000 they needed to make the land that was originally bought for Ginger Rogers theirs. I wonder if thought he was buying the two biggest breasts every time he looked two O’s like that. Or that is what his many girlfriends say when they are in bed with him…O O. Or maybe because Holly Madison always gave him Wood and he wanted something that would remind him of it. Either way what he did was a great thing and I am glad that the land was saved from being developed because even though I have lived in LA since 2001, I still get a thrill every time I see that sign. It really is a true Hollywood landmark and needs it own land even if that word disappeared from the infamous sign decades ago.
Hugh Hefner was not the only Hollywood type to donate money to the cause, here is a list of the others The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, CBS Corporation, The Entertainment Industry Foundation, Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, the Lucasfilm Foundation, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Steven Spielberg, Twentieth Century Fox, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. and Time Warner Inc., and The Walt Disney Company Foundation. Other Hollywood contributors include Creative Artists Agency, Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson, and Norman Lear.
BTW here is a little Hollywood Sign trivia, this is not the first time Hugh Hefner saved Hollywood. Chris Baumgart, Chair of the Hollywood Sign Trust, said, “The Sign you see today exists because Hugh Hefner raised the money in 1978 to re-build it. Now, 32 years later, the Sign’s number 1 fan has come forward again with the closing gift to ‘Save the Peak’ and thus the view of Mt. Lee and the Hollywood Sign.” Hugh Hefner paid $27,777 in 1978 to convert the letter Y from wood into steel. Alice Cooper owns the second O in memory of Groucho Marx, how crazy is that?
