Real estate developers built the Hollywood Sign in 1923, and in the decades that followed, it started luring the creative and entertainment class to Southern California. Now the people who oversee those giant block letters on Mount Lee have launched an official Digital Time Capsule, which is meant to contain art, photography, essays, and audio clips about the sign’s history and cultural significance.
“We maintain the Hollywood Sign. We make sure it's painted. We make sure it's looking pristine throughout the ages,” Jeff Zarrinnam says of the Hollywood Sign Trust, which he chairs.
Despite their best efforts, by 1978, the sign had accumulated so much damage that “it became a twisted mess,” Zarrinnam acknowledges. “By 1978, the sign was beyond repair. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, along with a newly formed entity called the Hollywood Sign Trust, stepped in to resurrect a brand new sign before the 1984 Olympics.”
The budget for that replacement sign was $250,000, Zarrinnam explains, so the Trust leaned on celebrities to help cover the costs.
“What they decided to do was to auction letters off. And you had the likes of Alice Cooper and Gene Autry and Hugh Hefner stepping up to the plate and donating money to build this new sign,” says Zarrinnam.
“By 1978, the sign was beyond repair,” says Hollywood Sign Trust Chairman Jeff Zarrinnam. Photo courtesy of The Hollywood Sign Trust.
Now with a new capsule, how does it actually work? “We were brainstorming … how do we gather experiences from people around the world? And the major theme is: What does the Hollywood Sign mean to you? … Those are the stories that we, the Trust, want to collect in order to share in one place.”
For actor Tobias Jelinek, the sign is “purely iconic.” He saw it for the first time when going to an audition for Hocus Pocus. He recalls, “Seeing the sign for the first time on the 101 freeway, it surprises you, and you only get a glimpse before it's gone. … The best part of this memory is we made it to the audition, my first anything, and I booked the job. I got to be a bully in a Bette Midler film. And the Hollywood Sign has always embodied the chaos, the dream, and the magic possibility of our city.”
The Hollywood Sign Digital Time Capsule will be accessible for many years, and Zarrinnam points out that it may be in a physical form down the line. “It's not written in stone yet, but the Hollywood Sign Trust may very well soon have a Hollywood Sign Visitor Center, where we can then take a physical time capsule and bury it at the Visitor Center.”