Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)One of the mistakes in movies I always find funny is the opening scene where the director wants to set a locale in the mind of the viewer, so he might place the words "Washington, D.C." at the bottom of the screen, while at the same time showing the capitol or the Washington Monument, making such a caption unnecessary. Using the symbol is enough, and the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, or the Golden Gate Bridge all suffice for nailing their locales visually. If you want the locale to be Hollywood, though, you have to use a caption because the word is the visual symbol. The famous Hollywood Sign is easily visible as it sits on its steep hillside, looming above movieland. It is a peculiar symbol in many ways, and they are all drawn out by film critic and historian Leo Braudy in _The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon_ (one of the books in the useful Yale Icons of America series from Yale University Press). The sign started as a real estate promotion, and has alternated from eyesore to beloved symbol and back over the decades, and the history and meanings of the sign are all documented here in an amusing, astute, and informative book that is not just about the sign but about Hollywood itself.
Moviemakers were headed westward starting around 1910, to take advantage of the weather and the light and the economy, but they avoided Hollywood itself. This was partially because of the place's reputation, not as a somnolent village, but as a haven for prohibition. In 1923, real estate backers opened up a subdivision near Griffith Park called Hollywoodland, which was supposed to house the wealthy, away from the noise and smog down below (to say nothing of the wrong kind of populace). It was the age when billboards were proliferating, and they wanted their sign to be easily legible as people drove by. Hollywood itself can be seen as big on gimmick and ballyhoo but lacking in real self respect, and that was the sign, too. Maintenance of the letters ended in 1939. They fell to pieces, and because of their superb location, everyone could see it happen. In 1947 the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission wanted the sign razed; it was an unavoidable eyesore, and the subdivision it designated had been forgotten. But the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce protested, and said the sign ought to be restored, which it did, removing the last four letters. The responsibility for the sign and its land was divided up. Currently, the city of Los Angeles owns the sign and the land it is on, and there is a Hollywood Sign Trust that takes care of chores and security, but the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce has the trademark rights to the arrangement of the letters. Unlike the Washington Monument or the Eiffel Tower, the Hollywood Sign is not to be ascended. People have done so; the most famous one was Peg Entwistle, a 24-year-old actress who may (Braudy doubts various parts of this story) in 1932 have thrown herself off the H. There is no point to climbing the mountain to get close to the monument. It is better seen from far away, block letters wiggling across the mountain, familiar to us all and yet strange and very peculiar.
Peculiar or not, there are people who love the sign and have done what they can for its upkeep, or to make the governments involved do so. The last major overhaul, which ditched the telephone poles and replaced them with steel foundations, in 1978 was funded by an odd coalition of Gene Autry, Hugh Hefner, Alice Cooper, Andy Williams, and others. There was a recent threat of development around the sign, but such lights as Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks raised funds to keep the builders away and the mountaintop pristine (except for the antennas; it is too high a location to go to waste for broadcasting, that bane of the movies). Whatever Hollywood means, this will remain a sign of our times.
Click Here to see more reviews about: The Hollywood Sign: Fantasy and Reality of an American Icon (Icons of America)
Hollywood's famous sign, constructed of massive white block letters set into a steep hillside, is an emblem of the movie capital it looms over and an international symbol of glamour and star power. To so many who see its image, the sign represents the earthly home of that otherwise ethereal world of fame, stardom, and celebrity--the goal of American and worldwide aspiration to be in the limelight, to be, like the Hollywood sign itself, instantly recognizable.
How an advertisement erected in 1923, touting the real estate development Hollywoodland, took on a life of its own is a story worthy of the entertainment world that is its focus. Leo Braudy traces the remarkable history of this distinctly American landmark, which has been saved over the years by a disparate group of fans and supporters, among them Alice Cooper and Hugh Hefner, who spearheaded its reconstruction in the 1970s. He also uses the sign's history to offer an intriguing look at the rise of the movie business from its earliest, silent days through the development of the studio system that helped define modern Hollywood. Mixing social history, urban studies, literature, and film, along with forays into such topics as the lure of Hollywood for utopian communities and the development of domestic architecture in Los Angeles, The Hollywood Sign is a fascinating account of how a temporary structure has become a permanent icon of American culture.
0 comments:
Post a Comment