advertising
an unlikely hollywood export
the hollywood sign is undoubtedly one of the most well-known landmarks on earth and the fact that it exists, proudly sitting on hollywood hills advertising the world’s movie industry, has never seemed strange to most people. what is strange (to me at least) is the fact that the 50ft high sign was originally an advert of a different kind in a couple of ways. check out the photo above. up until 1949 the sign had an extra 4 letters and was created as an enormous marketing tool to help sell a housing development of the same name which sat in the hills above los angeles. eventually in 1949, after the properties were sold and the sign was redundant, control was assumed by the hollywood chamber of commerce who agreed to maintain the sign without the ‘l-a-n-d’ attached and minus the 4,000 power-hungry flashing lightbulbs.
what intrigues me more though are the numerous imitations of the structure across the globe. i managed to find a few (below) after seeing a list on wikipedia (see here), if you know of any other photos let me know. i won’t label the photos as i’m assuming you can all work out the locations from the signs.
(cheers to reader adam for this mammoth example in pennsylvania)
seeing these makes me wish that all communities were clearly labelled in a similar fashion, preferably at mid to high altitude using the same typeface. even better still, towns and cities should erect these gigantic adverts in neighbouring areas so as to advertise the place to outsiders.
here’s hoping.
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and where are some funny signs?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVFQ2sVEJnQ
slovakia - zilina
sign HOLY UD - which means “naked penis”
The town I grew up in, Murrysville, Pennsylvania, has its name spelled out 150-feet high and 800-feet wide with trees on a hillside overlooking town.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05157/516504.stm
I drove past the one in South SF the other day… and I must say it did not evoke any similarity to the Hollywood sign, because of its very different “font” - it uses thin lines flat down rather than fat letters standing vertically. The others you show do seem like knock-offs of the one above LA…
there is one in my home town area. Pismo Beach, CA has one on the cliff under the Middle School. It is visible if you are going south bound on hw 101. Oddly I can’t find a picture of it online.
Here’s another sign http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/94861.jpg
The picture is from Deva, Romania
http://www.postimees.ee/foto/0/6/4506044c65036285a8.jpg Estonia, Laeva.
People is not original anymore, if it works, it must be copied.
http://www.juzamdjinn.blogspot.com
Man.. Mosgiel is such a hole. That always used to make me laugh driving through there.
It’s like the poor people’s retirement village of New Zealand.
lol - they might actually do it in spare time! great pics.
Here i a sign from Fredrikstad, Norway.
http://f-b.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080308/SPEILET/444975396/1071/AKTUELT#
Little known factoid - I worked with a guy who (as he told me) grew up in the area below the sign. When he was a kid the …land sign had gotten very dilapidated. He and a friend went up there often, and one day pushed the ‘LAND’ part down. This caused a big commotion, the result of which was the adoption and restoration of the shorter version by the Hollywood Chamber.
Of course, being a Coloradan I have to mention the “M” at the Colorado School of Mines at http://explorer.altopix.com/map/d8l8d/M_for_the_Colorado_School_of_Mines.htm
Here is a version in Second Life http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k154/dvdd/Kissling_001.jpg