Do Go On - The Hollywood Sign - Do Go On Mini

Episode Date: May 26, 2020

This is the podcast version of episode one of our new web series that we made with Stupid Old Studios. You can watch the video of the episode complete with animations, props and lots and lots of regret face right now on The Stupid Old Channel YouTube page (link below). Episode one is all about The Hollywood Sign and how a giant billboard accidentally became the most famous sign in the world.Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/6xo-33ISjkISubscribe for more episodes.Our website: dogoonpod.comSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader Thomas Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenja Amana, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Welcome to DoGoOn Presents. We're all sitting back here.

Me, Matt Stewart, him, Dave Wernocky, Wernicki, and her, Jeece Parkins. Hello, it's me, Jeeze. Hello, it's me Wernickie. We're all sitting here in a darkened room, its little library. It's an open fireplace. You can't see it.

It's just off screen, off camera. But that's the sound of it flickering. Oh, flick, flick, flick. We've got a guy playing a stand-up. up banjo in the corner. Steve Martin, I believe his name is. Yeah, and he's playing some smooth jazz, banjo jazz in the corner. But we're all here just to briefly introduce a whole new show we're doing.

It's a spin-off show to Do Go On. We're calling it Do Go On. Wow. Where do they get their ideas? We put it through a few different target groups. Oh, yeah, focus groups. I couldn't think it either. I wanted to help you.

couldn't think of it. They all went, ah, two good ones, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah, it's perfect. How can you improve perfection, they said? That was the unanimous feedback, and we thought, my goodness gracious, that is kind. So then we tried a different focus group because we thought that first one had obviously been bribed by Matt or Dave or me.

And then the second group, same thing. Yeah. I bribed them as well. And we thought, geez, if they kept getting bribed and answering the same way, it's got to be right. So we've gone with it. But what this episode is is of a series that is a collaboration between us and Stupid Old Studios. And it's a web series, basically. But this is it in audio podcast form.

But if you want to get the full audio visual experience, get it all in all three days, audio, visual and in the dick. Then you can watch it at the link in the show notes. There's a bunch of visual gags, including some animated sections, photos and whatnot. And you get to see us sitting here. in our leather bound chairs. Mm. This week's episode, the first one, Dave tells us the story of the Hollywood sign.

And it is even more exciting than it sounds. I know, it's one of those things where you're like, oh yeah, but it is actually, you know, a pretty surprising story. We found anyway. Yeah, absolutely fascinating. I knew absolutely nothing of its origins or history. Or how much Dick Van Dyke was involved.

So much. We love you, Duke. Thank goodness. We love, he's the fourth. and the fifth in Dijk. So if you want to watch it in all five D's, click on the link below. But yeah, if you're driving or something,

feel free to listen to the audio version. You'll get most of it. But if you want to get those extra four Ds. I reckon the 4D, the full experience, on the stupid old channel YouTube page, free to watch. Why don't give it a bloody look? Give it a world.

And while you're there, why not subscribe to the channel? Because this is the first of nine episodes that are going to be coming out. over the next couple of months. We may, we're not sure if we'll put the audio version in the feed, probably will. And yeah, so listen and then watch and then listen again. And then watch again.

And then have a little nap and listen again. Yeah, because it's only like half an hour or so. So you can definitely do it all in a day a few times with a nap. Sit back, grab yourself a cognac and take your pants down. Just right. And enjoy this episode of Do Go On. It's the most famous sign in the world, but it started life as little more than a giant billboard. Since then, it survived neglect and pranks, witness suicide, and was saved from destruction by Alice Cooper and Hugh Hefner.

Twice. Today we're talking about the Hollywood sign. Hello and welcome. My name is Dave Wonki and I'm sitting here with Jess Perkins and Matt Stewart. And today, we're talking about the Hollywood sign. What? I know. It's a surprise to all of us. Mostly me. I've never read this before. Okay. No. The first question is, have you ever been to Hollywood and seen the famous sign?

Yeah, I went when I was eight. And I'm sure I saw it. Right, so tick, done. Yeah, done. No need. I don't particularly remember it. But I'm confident I saw it. All right. Well, spell it then. Okay. All right. From memory, H. Oh, H.

Damn it. Sorry. Sorry, mispronounced. mispronounced, got you on a technicality. All right, well, I was there last month, and here's a photo of me eating an apple pie in front of it. That's as close as I got. And if the tax office is watching, that was the sole reason I went to L.A.

was for this report. Right. Perfect. Great. Written that off, okay. Great. Okay. Wait, where is the Hollywood sign there? Yeah.

Is that dot? If we could just enhance and enhance. Okay. And there it is. That's a big pie. Yeah, the pie was bigger than my face. That's a big pie. Yeah, yeah. There's actually debate as to how Hollywood, as we know it, got its name.

What we do know is that a real estate developer called H.J. Whiteley bought 500 acres of land in the area now known as Hollywood. And later on in 1887, the name Hollywood was recorded on the land's deed. But one story that I like to believe is true. That's strong. You'll see this. Whitley, apparently, saw a man carrying wood in a wagon and asked what the man was doing. And he said, hauling. wood. But because he had a thick accent, Whitley misheard and thought he said, Harley Wood. Okay. I did not see where that was going. I'm like, what a boring story. This feels pointless. Get to Hollywood. Well, I'll strap in for the next few minutes. I enjoy any story where you mishear an accent. Oh, yeah. It happens so often. So, often. Either way, that became the name of the area, which in 1907 became home to a film industry

when a small Chicago film company headed west for a film shoot. Ah, from the windy city. Oh, Chicago. By 1912, 15 studios had set up and the industry boomed. Americans went cinema crazy and Hollywood and the dreams and aspirations of that star-studded lifestyle that we all still want so badly. exploded. Some of us want, some of us get, am I right? We are sitting in our mansion.

Hollywood, for maybe for context, Hollywood is kind of like the Silicon Valley for film. Now I get it. Yeah, okay. Thank you so much. I just wanted to put it in a term to nerd like you would understand it. Thank you. I hear Silicon and I'm into it. That's weird.

So Hollywood exploded. And, uh, skipped it. How did you? Luckily, they recovered from the explosion. No, the, I've got here, the local population exploded and it more than doubled in the 1920s. More than doubled. More than doubled. Wow. Tripled? It didn't quite triple. But it, it, somewhere between double and triple.

We need a word for that. Triple? Double and a half? Yeah, double half. No. It's more than double. Double and a half. I'll say double and a half. Stick with more than double. So was it just farmland before this?

Yeah, pretty open area. So Los Angeles didn't exist. I still don't. I haven't got my head around the difference between Los Angeles and Hollywood. Well, yeah, there's still people there, but what caused the city to really take off was this industry. Really? Los Angeles is the biggest city in America because of movies. Well, it's not the biggest city in America. Wow. I'm learning so much.

I believe New York has more people. Whoa. And possibly more soul. Well, what you need to know is a bunch of people moved to Hollywood to start making films. and as is often in the way, people saw this and wanted to cash in. Yeah. So a syndicate of investors led by the publisher of the L.A. Times, Harry Chandler, decided to launch a real estate venture.

Could he be any more real estate venturing? It was an upscale development underneath where the sign is today. They were basically selling house and land packages marketed as an escape from the bustling city. Oh. That was how they were selling Hollywood. That's fun. Well, this is how they were selling Hollywood. They needed to advertise the development, and early on it was a bit wordy.

They placed an ad, and this is what I read. See if you would buy it from this ad. Okay. Will your family enjoy a delightful home in the clean, pure mountain air of Hollywood land? Yes. With its wonderful climate? Broad open spaces and plenty of elbow room? Yes.

Or will you live in a dwelling? In the flat, uninteresting houses in a row sections of the city. Your family's freedom hampered by this mouse. of human existence. I don't want that. Wow. Hey, do we really need to big ourselves up by pushing down others? Hollywood?

You fucking, are we swearing on this? We are now. Well, I was about to say the big swear. So. Thank you for your restraint. Thank you for thanking me. Is this what this is meant to be? We're just two hours of us thanking you.

Thank you and thank you. So that was the ad that they placed. Surprisingly, it didn't really capture the public's imagination. So they decided to think outside the box. It's again debated as to who had this thought, but someone suggested a giant billboard. But not just a billboard, a sign that would put the name of the housing estate on the map.

The estate was called Hollywood Land, and in 1923, they built the giant letters that we all know today. So originally it had four more letters and read, Hollywood Land. What was the four more letters? Uh, hole. So they says it's just Lee Woodland. Hollywood land. So it was literally a billboard for real estate.

For real estate. So it may as well be like Taylor's Lakes or something. Yeah. Caroline Springs. That's what Hollywood was. It was just a, it was a Henley Properties estate. Come over look. With elbow room.

That's wild. I had no idea about that. You could just say display homes here and then an arrow. Yeah. That would have done the job too. I saw a sign like out about half an hour out of Melbourne for a new, uh, new display village thing.

And it said, do you want to live in the middle of everywhere? And I'm like, yeah. So why are you advertising living in a different place? It was literally in the middle of nowhere. They're having brackets don't live here. They're like,

no, we're going to put in a BP, so got everything you need. Yeah, surely the selling point is, do you want to live away from everything? Yeah. Yeah, kind of.

Yeah, A bit of peace and quiet? Hey, do you want a backyard? Oh my goodness. Want to read of that? Well, do you want to live in the maelstrom of human existence? Oh, my God. That sounds good, too.

Poetic words, really. That's bleak. I'm surprised by this. So, LA is an existing place and Hollywood is like an estate on the outskirts. Well, there's an area called Hollywood, but then to capitalize on people wanting to move to Hollywood, they've bought this land and said, let's market it as Hollywood land. Right. Yeah, right.

And it's actually a long way. At the time, it's like, come here for a quiet break from the rest of the city. Yeah. But obviously over time, it's expanded. But a road had to be built to get the materials to the sign of the site. But the last bit of the journey was so inaccessible that the materials had to be carried up the mountain by mules.

Yep. That means it's inaccessible. Yeah. Only mules will do. Get them to swallow condoms full of drugs and send them up. These mules have. to carry 60 telephone-sized poles that would support... And if they burst in their rectums, that's bad news.

That's bad news. But that's on them, they will be disarmed by the drug dealer in question. They had to carry 60 telephone-sized poles that would support the signs letters. Sorry. They are the size of telephone poles or the size of telephones. That is a good question. Because I know it was a long time ago, telephones were a bit bigger, but still, I could carry a couple of telephones, I reckon. Easy.

Like telephone poles, massive poles. Telephone, big, big time. What year is this again? 1923. Oh, good year. Very good year. So the letters were 45 feet high and were made up of 1,320 pieces of thin sheet metal

and the media stunt cost a pretty penny. Back then it cost $21,000, which is over a quarter of a million US dollars now. Okay. That feels like a good investment in an icon. Well, they didn't know it's going to be an icon. The plan was to put it up for 18 months.

Right. Sell the properties, tear it down. Kind of like Eiffel Tower was meant to be a temporary thing, but it became so much more. So much more. What is it? The list goes on. Big spike in the sky. Yep.

Hat stand. Hat stand. Place to meet people. I think someone's married to it. A groom. Australians get engaged there. Australians do. Only Australians. Mainly Australian.

Well, the only ones in my Facebook feed. You can put magnets on it? You can? Is that true? Could you put a magnet of the Eiffel Tower on the Eiffel Tower? That's meta. That's illegal. That is illegal.

Something I didn't realize was the sign originally was covered with nearly 4,000 lights. And at night, the billboard flashed in four stages. It would say Holly, then wood, then land. And then Hollywood land. Oh, love it. It's like it's really. regressed as a sign. Yeah.

I mean, now, at night, you can't see it at all. It's become super analogue when it was born in Dolby Digital Surround sound. Yeah, it's pretty boring now. Yarn. Well, you yawn, but for many, the sign was a symbol of the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. But as for others, it came to represent the tough industry it towered over. Peg Entwistle was an actor that will be forever associated with the sign. Yeah, you know, that name we all.

no, Peg and Twistle. Sorry, I'm misprouncing that, Peggy, Entwistle. Peggy, yes, Peggy. You know that name? Endwistle. I don't know the name, but I love that name. It's a great name. Sadly, that name is associated with the sign for all the wrong reasons.

Oh. Oh, no. Okay, yep. Go on. She was a young actor in the 1930s. Change your name then. If you're an actor. No, that is her stage name.

That's her stage name. That honestly is her stage name. I have not written down her full name. Peggy Entwistle. The name's like Mary or something. people call it peg. Yeah, Peg, I can see that. She's punched it up there, married a peg.

Where did she come from to get to Entwistle? Entwistle. Because I love it. It's clunky. Well, I think I need to make that clear. I love it. She was Welsh. Originally born in Wales. So it was probably a lot longer.

Is that a Welsh name? Originally born in Wales. Yeah, then she was reborn. Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, you're all reborn once you're in Hollywood. Oh, yeah. Rebrand. Sorry, rebrand. That's what I'm looking for.

Young actor in 1930s and for a time the future looked bright. She'd had a tough start in life, moving from Wales to America, to live with her aunt and uncle after her parents had died. Her aunt and uncle were in the theatre business, and Pegg started acting. He picked up their scripts. A bit of jazz hands. Yeah, she had a talent. That's so rare these days.

What am I playing the bagpipes? I don't know what I'm doing. You try to hold a book and do jazz hands. It's not an easy thing to do. But with my training... Yeah, I reckon you can get me there. It looked like to me that you were trying to get something out of the mule. Hang on, give a sec.

Don't move. Do not move. And I cannot stress that enough. So she started performing in plays in New York and then back in L.A. Things looked really up when she was offered an acting gig in a movie. Ooh, that's where you want them. Yeah. Not on a street.

Well, it was so tempting that she skipped out on two plays that she was booked for to take the job. She skipped out. That's happy. That's the happiest. way to leave a play. That's a happening to leave anything, I reckon. That's true. Or if you've got access to a hoverboard, hover the fuck out there. Imagine if you could skip on a hoverboard. Stop it. That's the future. Well, sadly, this would blacklist her from the theatre scene because she bailed on the plays that she was, the professional plays. She said she'd be in them,

rehearsed and everything, but then got this movie and said, I've got to do the movie. Because at the time, wouldn't have theatre been the more respectable thing? Well, yeah, and I think it was sort of, And two separate scenes, you know, the theatre scene and the movie scene. But she's transitioning to film, or so she thinks. The movie role turned out to be not the big brag that she'd hoped for. Oh, no. She played a woman in a lesbian relationship, but due to the motion picture production code at the time, thinking that this was too controversial to show to the American public,

the studio was forced to drop that storyline, and Pegg went from a main role to a small background cameo. She was just a barista in a Starbucks in the background of a scene. That was, yeah, and that was actually the first time Starbucks existed. It was a fictional. Yeah. Baristory. It actually started, yeah, it actually started as like a bit of a... Which is also a, that's what they used to call cafes.

Baristory. Baristries. Love that. I love history. Yeah. I love baristory history. I love barristery history. I could read and write a book on it.

And he has. And there are in a person, I'd read the page. You can read a passage for us. That would be most welcome. I didn't want to steal your thunder, but. Okay. Any page in particular? Page 10 is my favourite. Okay.

Yeah, I remember all my favourite pages of books. Yeah, get a photographic memory, I believe, don't you? Yeah. There you go, turn up the right way for a bit of a challenge. Okay. The baristory industry was getting hot. Much like the milk that they frothed. People were moving to town.

Which town? Sorry, you don't ask questions that someone is reading a book? I'm reading a book. I'm assuming the book will get to it. Do you want me to get to page 12? Sorry. Choose your own adventure, is it?

All the men and women loved living in the foam, which is what they called barista, Phil. And they ate little bickies. Oh, right. And they couldn't have been

happier with their choices, because they were living it up and they were wring and wrong. Wow, I mean, you could have gotten edited but you didn't. And that's fine. I wrote it. I wrote a stream of consciousness and I have no regrets. Yeah, wow. Like all the greats, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Matt Stewart.

I ate little biggie. Is that available in audiobook form? It is, yeah. It is. Great. Who reads it? Is it you or Stephen Fry? No, it is me.

Couldn't get Stephen Frye. No, could. But I refused to me. He begged. He begged to me involved and said, Stephen. Could, but wouldn't. This is my book. How dare you try and usurp me?

Yeah, good call. You know nothing of the barisserie. You haven't done any of the research, Stephen. He's only good to slide in and take the glory. Classic fry. Well, if I can slide in here to take us away from fun and into tragedy. Please. Okay.

She tried to return to the theatre. This is Peg and Twistle after. being put in the background at the baristry, but was not looked upon kindly for skipping out on the previous theatre role for cinema, and she was blacklisted. Sadly, on Friday, 16th, the 1932 at the age of 24, she hiked up to the Hollywood sign and took her own life by jumping off the top of the age. Oh, wow.

That is why she's forever associated with the sign. Right. I wonder if you'd specifically choose a letter, or you wouldn't think about it. Yeah, I guess. I mean, D for Dave Yeah, is what she could have thought. But there's a bit of an rounded edge.

At least the age you've got, you've got that middle level and then you can sort of get up. The D, you've just got a big sort of empty void in the middle. And then, you know, much like Dave, yeah, an empty void in the middle. From here to here is empty. Yeah. So as I said, originally this time I was only meant to be out for 18 months and they planned to tear it down.

But it stayed standing, becoming a bit of a landmark, but no one wanted to pay for the upkeep. Right. In 1933, the owners had stopped their maintenance. They only paid for that first 18 months. The marketing purposes had long gone and were starting to cost money, and over the years, the sign fell into disrepair. For a time, it actually became a bit of an eyesore, visible from all over Los Angeles.

In 1936, the second O fell over. Fell over. Before two more letters joined it on the ground. How did they fall? In the wind. Get out. It's up on the hill. Did nobody bolt it down?

Well, they didn't build it properly. because they thought we don't, we're going to spend too much money on it. Yeah, and it's only going to be up for a short time. Yeah, it's crappy wood at the time. Yeah. Much like the arthur tower. Yeah. Fell over.

Fell over. Feltie wood. Crappy wood. Yeah. That's why the magnets in stick. Yeah. Don't know why we thought they would. Because the wood was crappy.

Not that sweet magnetic wood. Yes. Oh, man. So three letters have fallen over and the company that built it gave into public pressure and paid for small fortune to have it repaired. In December 1944, the owners of the sign, sick of having to pay this upkeep, donated it and the 425 acres around it to the city of LA for the token price of a single dollar.

The city then added it to Griffith Park. Wow. A dollar. That's an absolute bargain. Yeah, it's funny when deals like that get done and it's just for legalities, right? They have to pay something. Got to pay something, yeah.

But you think now it was under the control of the city, this is where its icon status really took off? It would surely get the respect it deserves. Yeah. And it's still got land? Still got land. But not long after acquiring it, the H was knocked over in the wind and then lay on the ground for nearly six years.

What? So for six years it read, Ollywood Land. Hollywood Land. I like it. All right, Governor. Welcome to the Hollywood Land. Do you just black out for a bit there? Come back to us.

Come back to us, Matt. And you're back in the room. Well? Yeah. Sorry about that. In 1947, the City's Recreation and Parks Commission suggested the whole sign be torn down, but residents luckily rallied against this decision.

Really? So they... But they liked it even though it had fallen over and it had been not saying Hollywood for a long time. For six years it said Hollywood Land and people are like, I love Hollywood Land. I love it. Wow.

That's cool. Dick Van Dyke. I love it. Dick Van Dyke actually played. There was a man whose job was to live up next to the sign and he was his job for many years when it had lights to change the nearly 4,000 lines. And Dick Van Dyck actually played that guy in a film.

What? Seriously, yeah. Wasn't going to include that, but there it is. Bit of a bonus. So what film was that? It was a short film. Okay. Very short.

Possibly educational. So 4,000 globes, he's got to change. Hmm. And they're not all going out at once. Do you reckon every day at least one of them's out? I reckon. God, that'd be annoying. That's your full-time job.

Oh, did I've got to change one globe. Great. I'm Dick Van Dyck. Fantastic. Actually, that's pretty good. Happy to be Dick. I always say that. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce President John Kingsley

entered the argument by offering, on behalf of the chamber, to finance the resurrection of the H, provided the last four letters, land were removed so it would represent the whole city. Oh, okay, yeah, that's smart. So there was years of debate,

but this finally happened, and this is when the sign went from Hollywood land. Just plain old Hollywood. Hollywood. As we know it today. As we know it. What are we up to now? Yearwise. Well, that was the 1940s. And it went through a couple of small facelifts and minor repair jobs over the next two decades. And despite being recognised as a historical cultural monument by the city of L.A. in 1973, by 1978, it was obvious that the sign had seen better days. It was never designed to last for this many decades. And the wood supporting the letters had rotted away and was further damaged in a storm.

So in 1978, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce launched a Save the Sign campaign with a goal of raising $250,000 to replace the old sign with an exact replica built out of stronger materials. Right. Rock and Royal legend, Alice Cooper, pledged $27,700 to repair the third O. 27,700. We need a amount of money. Well, I think it's kind of one ninth. He basically bought one letter.

I said, you request it. Okay, I still hate it. I love it. It's such a weird number. Like, give 25 grams. And he said, give 30, 27,700. Oh, sorry. I just explained it so perfectly, and you want to accept that?

I said that I get it, but I still don't like it. It just doesn't sound like you get it. I'm not sure if you get it. Do I need to get the calculator out? So he said, I want to rebuild the third O in honor of Groucho Marx. the legend who had died the previous year. Yeah, classic third O. He was the third O of the Marks brothers. We've all said it.

Yeah. Bruno and Cedric were the other two O's. Yeah. They the other Marks brothers? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Zippy Jippy, Cedro and guacamole. Water Brothers records announced they would also contribute

27, 700 for the replacement of the second O. Playboy magazine founder Hugh Heffner held a fundraising night at the Playboy Mansion to support the sign. at the event, Moon River singer Andy Williams announced that he would have pledged to rebuild the letter W. For Williams. Moon River Lobby dooby-doo. I didn't think he would play it and then bam.

Second encore. It's a Simpsons reference. Thank you so much. Hefton's event raised over $45,000 and the letter Y was dedicated to him. So now all these letters are dedicated to these celebrities. What's going to be the last letter chosen? The poor little last kid picked for the number.

the sports team. People got to step up. I mean, we all have favourite letters, sure, but aren't they all necessary? It's the second L. It's just a stick. Oh. Good point. Good point. They only use sticks? Yeah, well, that's part of why they need to rebuild

it, because they literally just put sticks up. Other donors came forward including Terence Donnelly, a publisher of the Hollywood Independent newspaper, Italian movie producer Giovanni Matsa, an actor Gene Autry and eventually the money was raised. The old sign was ripped down and for the first time in 55 years, Hollywood had no sign.

It took three months for the new sign to fully go up, this time supported by steel girders, dropped in by helicopters. That makes all sense, the mules. Was mules on the end of a helicopter? Lowered down. But wearing hard hats this time because we've learnt and our safety is better now. We respect animals. And it being Hollywood, they also had bellies full of coke.

Classic mules. This time with ad content. And they also had big dreams. Yeah. It was Hollywood. That's why they were there. Belly full of dreams stuffed into condoms. Yeah.

Swallowed one by one. It was unveiled in November 1978. 78. Cool. This new sign was built to stand the test of time, and the only real threat to it since has been commercial development around it. In the 2000s, it looked like housing could be built close to the sign, but a fundraiser called Save the Peak was launched to raise the money to buy the land. Hugh Hefner again came to the rescue,

and it was his $1 million dollar. donation that got the $12 million fundraiser over the line. Hugh Heffner later said, it represents Hollywood dreams. Oh, that's beautiful. Heff. It does seem like it'd be short-sighted to muck with that with housing, right? Just places where people can live, you know? Yeah. This is letters on a hill. Yeah. This is so much more than that. Yeah. He makes such a good point. This is letters on a hill with a small shackney about where a man used to live that was later played by Dick Van Dyke. Yeah. Please, bitter respect.

I like to think it was Dick Van Dyke. Who looks after it now? Dick Van Dyke's son Barry Van Dyke, who was also his son in diagnosis murder. Which is one of the greatest shows of all time, which Jess would be aware of. I'm sure you're aware of that. Of course. The son Barry Van Dyke was a cop. Dick was a doctor.

Yeah, Dr. Mark Sloane, his son. The two of them solved a crime every week. Yes. Dr. Dad, cop son coming together. Beautiful. It's real nice. Beautiful. And makes sense.

Of course the doctors solving the crime. Of course. And they also got nearly every other one of Dick Van Dyck's relatives to play characters on the show. I think they're... Cedric Van Dyke, Bruno Van Dyke. Guacamole Van Dyke. I believe that Barry Van Dyke's son, so Dick's grandson, whose name is Shane Van Dyke, played, I think, eight or nine separate characters on the show throughout the series.

They just kept bringing him back. Dick, Shane and Barry. Name a more iconic trio. Groucho, guacamole and zippy. Wow. It's close, but I think Dick, Barry and Shane have got the chocolates. Dick Barry and Shane. Holy shit, that's so good.

That's my favourite fact of all time. The Van Dyke, three generations, Dick Barry and Shane. Yes. That's sort of like an old school version of Fuck Mary Kill. Which one were you dig? Dick Barry and totally Shane. Well, I'm definitely shaining Barry. Funnily enough, I dick dick.

Leaving Barry. for Shane. That's the game every time. You're going to Dick Barry and Shane, Dick Barry and Shane. It's a tough one. The combinations are endless. I'm going to stick with what I said yesterday when we played it last. Dick and Dick.

Barying Shane and Shane and Barry. So these days, it just says Hollywood. And it looks like the letters won't be falling down again anytime soon. But if you look up at Mount Lee, the mountain where it is, it doesn't always say Hollywood. Over the years, there's been some pranksters afoot. Oh! They've changed the lettering.

Oh, what have they done now? In 1976 and 2017, people have pranked it to say, Hollyweed. Both times to mark loose estate marijuana laws being passed in California. It's 420 somewhere, isn't it? How do they do it? How do they make Oaves look like ease? They hang stuff over the.

this over the O's. That makes more sense, yes. Like that. They hang stuff. I was just like, but isn't an O? How do you put the thing in? Yeah, they temporarily knock it down. Yeah, got it.

Other times, Lettus have been hung over the existing characters to change it completely. Other times it said, in 1987, it said Caltech to represent the California Institute of Technology. Okay, that's less funny. Go Caltech.

That would have had to hang a lot of things in front to change it. Yeah. It looks completely different. Honestly, that's just a different sign. Yeah. It was changed. to Perot Wood when Ross Perot was running for US President in the 90s.

Oh. Yeah, and that went real well. And we'll always have President Perot. The man you just said. We all remember in one. Ross Perrault. What a great stint he had there. In the old Oval Office,

which is the place that they do all of their business. They hung a sign over it. It was actually the Square Office. And he was... That's fun. I love Hollywood pranksters. Oh, my personal favourite is when in 1993. it was changed to read Jolly Good.

Oh, that's good. Jolly Good. That was when Dick Van Dyck was in. In my head, Dick Van Dyke is permanently his English character from Mary Poppins. Jolly Good. That was as good of an English accent as he did in the film. That was actually a little too good. That was offensively good.

So it said Jolly Good in 1993, something that Richard Branson would organise again in the year 2000 when Virgin started flying nonstop from L.A. to London. Another man with an unconvincing English accent. Richard Branson. So it said, Jell Good. Hello, I'm Richard Branson. Oh, that's a good Richard Branson.

Oh, let's fly on a plane. I'm a madman. I'm all right, good on me. He is famously evil. Is he really? And mad. That's not true. Don't sue me, Richard.

So, and you know, at first I read that, that it was changed for a media stunt to advertise something. And also Pepsi have had a figurine put up there, a figure put on there. Movies have been launched by putting things up there. And at first I was like, well, how awful they've taken an icon and turns it into little more than a bit of marketing. And then I remember that the whole reason it's there was for marketing in the first place. And marketing something pretty dull too. Land, house and land packages.

Yeah. Unless you're into that. But, I mean, as an artist, you'll never own a home. It's not particularly interesting. artist. That's the issue. This is all the ruse. We're sucking you in.

She did it. We got it. We got it. Well, it is time to wrap it up. Thank you so much for joining me in the library. Thanks so much for having us in your library. It's our library. And our library.

We'll never own a home, but we will own a library. Yes. All of those books are real. Yes. Yes. But that is it for the Hollywood sign. If you want to hear more from us, this is the spin-off from our podcast, Do Go Wine.

which has over 200 episodes. We've covered other classic Hollywood topics like Marilyn Monroe, the drowning of Natalie Wood, the Black Dahlia murder, and who could forget, the life of Hugh Hefner. Subscribe for free on your favourite podcast app,

and be sure to subscribe to this channel to check out our other episodes. I reckon he nailed it. Well done, Dave. Thank you. Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave, Dave's a loser. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing this so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're

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