Voice -- The Road to Hollywoodland

HOLLYWOODLAND

The idea of “Hollywoodland” has always seemed to evoke fond sentiments and nostalgia of Los Angeles’s previous life. The name itself seems to say it all: Hollywoodland. Not just a destination on a map, but a ‘land’, creating a sort of mythology behind it. But the Hollywood we know today seems to differ from the Hollywoodland that once was. The famous letters remain resting on a hill, yet the ‘land’ no longer exists. Even though this four minor letters have disappeared, more developments have taken its place. Rather than the depiction of an isolated Hollywoodland hills at the end of a dirt road, today we find the Hollywood sign to be surrounded by shops, tourists and vehicles. This all takes away from the simplicity of where this sign once was viewed from.

The Hollywoodland sign in the picture represents the idealized Hollywood, perhaps what was even planned for. It could be a destination for many yet still maintain a professional amount of simplicity. It appears to be a desirable place where you can leisurely walk and take the surroundings of a city that is still in the cusp of development. Where only two vintage cars took residence, you would now found vehicles of all sizes lined up for rows. Where patches of grass once were you may find a coffee shop or tourist kiosk. The Hollywoodland that was once a “city on a hill” for many has now become engulfed by itself. Yes, the final four letters were lost to an accident, but it seems to be symbolic in a sense – four letters down, how many to go until Hollywood is indistinguishable from how it was first intended? Many may continue to view Hollywood as it stands today, four letters short, without really acknowledging the way the city once was.


TINSEL TOWN
The iconic image of the “Hollywoodland” sign represents both a sophistication that never existed and an attitude that still permeates the area today. Originally an advertising gimmick for the expensive new track of houses on the nearby Hollywood hills, the sign has become such an important part of L.A.’s identity that public donations were gathered in the mid-2000s when it was announced that the letters needed either a facelift or removal since they had deteriorated to the point of danger. “Hollywood,” as the sign now reads, stands out a brilliant white against the green hills that are its backdrop.
Both the word and the sign itself have an image that is hard to define. To most non-California natives, Hollywood is a magical city in Los Angeles where starlets both work and play. They imagine that the sign announces the border of this city where movies are made and the elite are privileged enough to live. The reality is very different. Hollywood is not a real city – it is as fake as the sets of the movies filmed on lots nearby. “Hollywoodland,” the housing district the sign originally announced, has made way for newer and flashier properties in the true L.A. fashion that even the grandest is not grand enough. Though the majority of films and TV shows credited to Hollywood are actually filmed throughout the vast Los Angeles County, the sign will stand for the ability to sell an image, and idea begun by the L.A. boosters in the late 19th century and perfected today by countless talent agents.
-- Andi Edgett