A Guide to the Best of Southern California : LANDMARKS : Tinseltown Trivia

‘Actually, I didn’t think it would be up there for more than a year and a half.” So said John D. Roche of his 1923 creation, the Hollywood--nee Hollywoodland--sign, which, to this day, has endured and come to symbolize all things tinsel.

This trivia tidbit and just about everything else you would ever want to know about our hilltop icon--plus rare photographs--can be found in a surprisingly compact, bus schedule-sized brochure called “The Hollywood Sign.” The price: about $2.

Find out who built it, who paid for it, who restored it, even how the light bulbs were changed in the days when the sign was illuminated. And those interested in Tinseltown’s tarnish will enjoy the many details lavished on the story of Lillian Millicent (Peg) Entwistle, the actress who achieved immortality not on the stage or screen but by leaping to her death from one of the sign’s 45-foot-high letters.

“The Hollywood Sign” is available at Mann’s Chinese Theater gift shop, 6925 Hollywood Blvd., (213) 463-9576; The Missouri Trader, 2699 1/2 N. Beachwood Drive, (213) 465-4066; or the Larchmont Pharmacy, 217 N. Larchmont Blvd., (213) 464-5115.