The Hollywood Sign

Reaching My Goal

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One of the things I could see prominently from my berthing was the Hollywood Sign. Back in 1975, the internet wasn’t available, so I went to the Chamber of Commerce. There I got educated on the history of the sign.

Originally erected in 1923, it was a billboard for a new real estate development community. It originally spelled out the word “HOLLYWOODLAND” in 50-foot-tall white uppercase letters. The original sign was 450 feet long. It had 4,000 lights.

The intention was to leave the sign up for 1.5 years. However, it caused so much of a stir that it was left up indefinitely. In 1949, the last 4 letters were removed, leaving the HOLLYWOOD sign as it reads today.

A couple of months after I arrived in LA, I decided I wanted to see the sign. In 1975, you could still get up close and touch it. I was not yet worn totally down by too little food and sleep and too much work.

I managed to rope another green recruit into making the trek with me. Back then, it was more guesswork than planning. On the first day we got liberties, we planned to go. Shortly after breakfast, we set out. Here’s a map of how you can hike up and get close to the sign these days (no touching).

We were dressed in the only civilian clothes we owned. No sunscreen, no water, no snacks. Plain old tennis shoes. Our only mode of transportation was our feet.

By noon, I was hot, dirty, hungry, and over it. Had I been alone, I would have turned back. It was obvious Sea Org life had started to take a toll on my body. Although I remember the experience, I don’t remember the name of the person I was with. I do know he’s the only reason I made it to that sign.

He pointed out that we were closer to the sign than we were to our berthing. He convinced me I would be disappointed in myself if I gave up. In the 1970s, the path was not marked or well maintained. It was rough going. It was obvious that fewer people made it to the top than turned back. I based this on the deteriorating condition of the path higher up.

Finally about 2:30 pm, we reached the sign. I didn’t have my camera. I didn’t want to spend the time it would have taken to get it from where I had it stored. That’s ok. It may have been too much for me to carry by the end.

The sign was an anticlimax. By the 1970s, it had fallen into disrepair. Pieces of letters were missing and an entire letter was gone. I did do something the people who visit it now can’t do. I touched the sign.

This picture is a close representation of what I saw after all that work getting there. The top of the first O was missing. The last O was completely gone. Pieces of each of the wooden letters had fallen out.

A year or two after we visited, Hugh Hefner did fundraising to fix the sign. By 1978, the sign was entirely replaced with all-steel 45-foot-tall letters in concrete footings and spotlights. But the renovation came at a cost – no one could touch the sign anymore.

We only stayed about 5 minutes. After climbing down and walking to berthing, dinner as over. It was not the first time I had eaten only one meal during the day while in Sea Org. It certainly wouldn’t be the last.

What did I learn from that experience? The human body can do more than we think it can. However, if you don’t listen to your body, you will eventually pay the price. It is a shame I only figured out I could push myself further than I should. Ignoring what my body told me all those years ago has created multiple issues now. Just another step in the direction of total enslavement on Hubbard’s alleged “Bridge to Total Freedom.”