Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/38228
RIGHT: Cars drive past Beachwood Village stores, circa 1926. Courtesy of Holly- wood Heritage, Inc. BELOW: Horse- back riders enjoy Hollywoodland bridle trails, circa 1925. Courtesy of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Theodore Payne was hired to plant wildflowers. The partners also inaugurated a jitney service to ferry residents from their homes to Hollywoodland’s entrance, where they boarded buses that whisked them into Hollywood or downtown Los Angeles. Promotion Billboards promoting real estate develop- ments proliferated around Los Angeles, but Hol- lywoodland’s outshone them all. Advertising man John Roche designed letters 50 feet high and 30 feet wide spelling out the name Hollywoodland to dwarf any other sign in the area. The Hollywoodland Sign was constructed of Hollywoodland’s entrance that featured two mar- kets, a cleaners, barbershop, and beauty salon. In addition, two stone gates were constructed below 2690 W. Beachwood Drive. Granite quarried in the area was employed in constructing hillside and roadway retaining walls and neighborhood stairways. At the top of Beachwood Drive, developers built Hollywoodland Stables, a place where residents could board or rent horses. Miles of bridle trails were constructed connecting to Griffith Park trails. Putting green and tennis courts were built near the top of the area. To beautify the neighbor- hood, horticulturalist and landscape architect 36 DISCOVER HOLLYWOOD / SUMMER 2011 lightweight materials such as chicken wire, pipes, telephone poles, and sheet metal, and was com- pleted in July 1923. The Sign was lined by 4,000 20-watt light bulbs placed eight inches apart that spelled out “Holly,” “Wood,” “Land,” “Hollywoodland” contin- uously when lit at night. On clear nights, it was supposedly visible all the way to Catalina Island. The Hollywoodland Sign became notorious on September 18, 1932, when actress Peg Entwistle committed suicide by jumping off of it. Maintenance of the Sign ended in 1939, and it soon grew disheveled from peeling paint and missing sheet metal sections. The Los Angeles Parks and Recreation Department, owners of the land around the Hollywoodland Sign since 1945,