Hollywood Sign Hollywood Sign The Hollywood Sign (formerly the Hollywoodland Sign) is an American landmark and cultural icon overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It is situated on Mount Lee, in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains. "HOLLYWOOD" is spelled out in -tall white capital letters and is 352 feet (107.3 m) long. The sign was originally created in 1923 as an advertisement for a local real estate development, but due to increasing recognition, the sign was left up. The sign has been a frequent target of pranks and vandalism across the decades, but it has since undergone restoration, including
Hollywood on the Tiber by Hollywood studios, which reached its height with 20th Century Fox's "Cleopatra" in 1963. The phrase "Hollywood on Tiber", a reference to the river that runs through Rome, was coined in 1950 by "Time Magazine" during the making of "Quo Vadis". Following World War II, Hollywood studios increasingly shifted production abroad both to take advantage of lower costs and to use frozen funds (profits from American films which foreign governments barred from export). These films, known as runaway productions, could also benefit from local subsidies. By the early 1950s, some of the largest-budget American films were being shot in European