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Short Stuff: Hollywood Sign · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck in Hollywood. Dave c is not here, but
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: he's here in spirit. I was going to make a
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: tasteless joke, but we'll just send it there.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we are talking today about the Hollywood Sign, which
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: this year, the year twenty twenty three at which time
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: we're recording, is celebrating its centennial. Right there at the
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: top of Mount Lee and Griffith Park in Central Los Angeles,
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Central Hollywood. That iconic sign is turning one hundred.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Did not realize it was that old, because
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: you don't think of Hollywood that old.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Doe, No, do you. I used to think Hollywood was
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: not a place but a mere euphemism for the film industry.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: It's both.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: It's both, for sure.
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: But the whole idea of Hollywood, at least with the sign,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: was that it was initially constructed and built all the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: way back in nineteen twenty three as essentially a big
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: billboard for a real estate development called Hollywood Land, and
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: the original Hollywood sign originally said Hollywood Land.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and by the way, thanks to Kate Morgan and
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: houstuffworks dot Com for this one. This is something I
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: talked about in a Movie Crush episode. Occasionally, on the
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: many episodes, Nola and I would go over like it
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: just a little bit of like Hollywood history, and this
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: was one of them. And it's funny. I mean, I
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: know people, some people may have seen the original Hollywood
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Land sign that said Hollywood Land and kind of thought, like,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: what is that even all about? But that's what it was.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: It was a real estate company. It was just an
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: advertisement to go buy houses in that development. And it
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: was lit up with light bulbs at the time, about
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: four thousand of them that blinked all night long. Because
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: the Hollywood Sign is not lit up at night, you
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: might falsely picture it in your head as something that's
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: like up in the hills all night. That's not the case.
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: No, And by the way, before we move any further forward,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: I did an entire episode on the Hollywood Sign in
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: the End of the World with Josh Clark.
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: Did you really know? Jeez, man, you were getting me
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: I know so much lately Left and right?
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Is my delivery even drier than usual?
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: No, it's just it's so earnest and I'm just falling
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: for it. Man.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: That's how I get you because I thought it might.
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: Have been in a part of another I just I'm
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: so dumb.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: No you're not. I'm just that earnest.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: You're a good actor these days. Thanks. I wish you
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: would have been when we were on our TV show.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Hey hey, zing I did great. But anyway, no, you
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: did great. So Hollywood Land. It was originally the sign
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: this billboard, and the Hollywood Land developer spent I think
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: it's twenty one grand to build it, which I believe
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is in nineteen twenty three dollars, which would make it
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: about almost four hundred thousand dollars. And despite that price,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: they just expected it to last about eighteen months. But
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: the crazy thing about it is, even though it was
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: built of essentially plywood, it outlasted the Hollywood Land development
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: itself well into the forties.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I did. It had gone through a couple of
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: stages of disrepair over the years. In the late nineteen forties,
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: it was looking pretty rough. That company, that Hollywood Land Company,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: was long gone and it was sort of a thing
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: in the city. They were like, should we tear this
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: thing down now? Is it kind of dumb to have
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: this old billboard up? And then the Hollywood Chamber of
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: Commerce stepped in and said, you know what, let's rebuild
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: this thing. Sure, let's drop the land and let's just
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: have a sign that says Hollywood. And it was going
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: strong again for about three decades until the nineteen seventies
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: when it was in very bad shape once again.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: Yes, and who of all people stepped in? Well, we'll
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: tell you right after this commercial.
• 3:58
  Speaker 3: Break, Josh and.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Things, Jock and job all right, Chuck, Who have all
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: people stepped in to save the Hollywood sign from being bulldozed? Uh?
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Josh Clark, creator of End of the World with Josh
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: Clark wrong? Hm hmmm uh. Oh, I don't know. Bob Guccioni,
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: who ran Penthouse Magazine.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: Very nice, or maybe Larry Flint who ran Larry Flint. No,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: or maybe Jim Bob Jones who ran Club.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Now see is that a real guy? I no anymore? Okay, God,
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: we should do a you know what I want to
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: do an episode of Gullibility. Okay, No, I don't see.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Oh man, you got me.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I actually do. Hugh Hefner stepped in, obviously Playboy magazine
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: founder in chief, and he raised money by throwing a
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: big party in nineteen seventy eight at his very famous,
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: so may say, infamous playboy mansion. And what he did
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: was he said, is, hey, are you a company, are
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: you a rich person? And you want to sponsor a
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: letter and had that thing restored? You can do that
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: for twenty seven grand.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, he held an auction and invited all of his
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: famous rich friends and apparently the guy who sponsored or
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: purchased the o was none other than Alice Cooper. Yeah,
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: and he got the o in honor of Graucho Marx,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: which I thought was really cool.
• 5:57
  Speaker 2: That's right. And hey, shout out to Nita strap Else.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, Hurricane Hurricane Nita. I don't know if she's
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: still playing with Alice Cooper, but she was kind enough
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: to invite us to that concert when she came through Atlanta.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: And it was great.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: It was really awesome. But Alice Cooper bought one Warner
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: Brothers Records, or rather sponsored one. Gene Autry did, of course.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: Andy Williams sponsored one and it was restored and it
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: was They actually didn't restore it, they tore it down
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: and rebuilt it. Yeah, which was a smart thing because,
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: like you said, that plywood and sheet metal was just
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: not very hearty. So this time it was steel, steel
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: on steel.
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah. They built it bigger, stronger and faster.
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And steel and Steel was also a record by
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: Mega Death I think, right, I don't know. No, Okay,
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: it's possible.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It sounds like it would be a Mega Death record.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Elsie, Now you're afraid to agree with something.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: No, I'm just yeah, I'm just gonna be wishy washy
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: for the rest of our career.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: So so here's another little a few more little interesting tidbits.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: There was another threat that came along later because and
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: this wasn't that long ago. It was in twenty ten
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: when it was found out that all that land, I
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: think because it's in Griffith Park on top of Mount Lee,
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: everyone just figured it's like the city owns it. And
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: that is not true because Howard Hughes actually owned land
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: just to the left of the H And I'm sure
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: some people knew this, but not many did until years
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: later when someone was like, Hey, we're going to sell
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: this land and develop it, and the city went, you
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: can't develop next to the H.
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: They said, yeah, we can. Have you ever heard of capitalism? Suckers?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: And the Los Angeles City Council went to the dictionary
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: and they're like, oh my god. And apparently the developer
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: bought that parcel for one point sixty seven million dollars
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: in two thousand and two and put it up eight
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: years later for twenty two million dollars, which is quite
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: an inflated price, but they knew that the city was
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: going to scramble to do to put it together.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: Uh huh.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: And you said that it was owned by Howard Hughes.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: He bought it so he could build a mansion for
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: his fiance at the time, Ginger Rogers, but she refused
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: to move up there because she said that basically, this
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: guy's off his nut and he will hold me prisoner
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: up there, so I'm not even gonna go up there.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: And it just kind of like fell into disuse and
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: was forgotten and became part of the Hughes estate. I'm
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: not sure how it was rediscovered and put up for sale,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: But when the city of Los Angeles was basically presented
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: with either losing the land just to the left of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: the Big h in Hollywood or coughing up twenty two
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: million dollars, they really went and tried to raise that money,
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: and they couldn't quite do it, but luckily someone stepped in.
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: Who was it, Chuck.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: Pob GUCCIONI Nope, that would have been great if it
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: was Gooch on that second go round. Sure, but it
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: was Hugh Hefner again.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: I think he felt like, you know, I did this once.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I'd probably look like a heel if I didn't do
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: it second time.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Or he could have been like, I'm tapped out you.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I helped you once.
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he's like, the Internet has killed my nudy magazine business.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: But I don't even think he auctioned off letters this time.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: I think he just stepped in and kind of made
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: them whole, right.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he made of the difference, like you're saying. Yeah,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: so the sign is safe again, including the land around it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: And there's a book that was written by an author
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: named Casey Shriner called Discovering Griffith Park Colon a locals
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: Guide and how stuff Works. Talk to Casey Shiner and
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: he said that you can get all sorts of really
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: good views of the Hollywood Sign. In fact, there's fourteen
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: of them that he describes in detail where to go
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: to get a good view. But one of them is
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: not up at the Hollywood Sign. Which if you stop
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: and think about it makes total sense. But a lot
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: of people don't realize that the trail ends behind the
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Hollywood Sign, So it's not a very good place to
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: see the sign.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: No it's not. Nora is standing right under it. If
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: you can even manage that, Yeah, because it's really big, right, Yeah,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: it's a how taller do we even know that?
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I'm say, I'm sure some people know that feet.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're about fifty feet I think. But yeah, you
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: want to get a little distance, you know, if you're
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: going north on Gower, you get a nice you sort
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: of bisect it. Great view if you're just driving through Hollywood,
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: and I could see it outside of my apartment window.
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: Had a great view of the Hollywood Hills and the
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: Griffith Park Observatory in that sign.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: From your room in the Playboy Mansion.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: From my yea hose, I lived under the grotto, which
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: is weird. It was. It was awesome. Four hundred and
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: fifty bucks a month, which was quite a steel and
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: had a great view and it was just a great
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: little place that I missed so much. I love that apartment.
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: But we should finish, probably by talking about peg Entwinstle
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: who was I featured on movie Crush. A lot of
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: people know this, but there was a young starlett who
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: I guess not a starlett, a Starlette to be that
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: leapt off the h and the Hollywood Sign to plunge
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: to her death. I named peg Entwhistle. And this was
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: in Oh Jeesus, I couldn't even what year was.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: This, nineteen thirty two. I talked a lot about it
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: in the End of the World with.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Oh not this time. She was twenty four years old,
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: and you know, as the story goes, she was went
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: to Hollywood to make it big and had trouble doing
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: that and so took her own life.
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and this wasn't like she went out to Hollywood
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: like a month or six months or you know whatever.
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: Later she failed at it, like she was, she really
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: tried it. She had a bit part in a movie.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: She was in a lot of plays. Apparently Betty Davis,
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: a very young Betty Davis, saw a play that peg
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: Entwistle was in and told her mother she wanted to
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: grow up to be like pag and Twistle. So she
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: really kept that and finally it was just like, I
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: can't do this anymore, and she did. It was at
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: least back then that the letters were fifty feet tall,
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: and they believe that she got to the top of
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: the h by using a ladder that a workman had
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: left behind.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: Very sad it is if you want to end with
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: a funnier note, though, because there's this great story about
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: Betty Davis. I'm not sure if it's true or not,
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: but she reportedly was asked one time what the best
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: way and aspiring starlet could get into Hollywood, and she said,
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: take Fountain, which is a great east west running street
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: through Hollywood, and it was always a great sort of
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: cut through because most people stick to those main streets
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: like Sunset and Santa Monica and Hollywood Boulevard, but if
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: you took Fountain, you could get there quicker.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Well, since we're talking so much about La, I just
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: want to shout out minding you May's friends out there,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: Doc and Truth. Hello.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: Are those real people or am you're gonna fool me again?
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: They are real people. I'll introduce you to them someday.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: They're great.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: Okay, Duck, I look forward to meeting you and Truth.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Don't forget truth, Quest and Truth. Yeah, if you want.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: And by the way, Chuck Hippie Rob was real too.
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: No, but I doubt if he's in La.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: No, there's no telling where he is. I almost ended
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: this one like a regular episode, but instead Chuck, all
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I have to do is say short stuff is out.
• 13:32
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• 13:35
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• 13:38
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