California Culture
Hollywood Sign
Warmer Material
Madonna’s Hollywood Video: Link
Red Bull Fly By: Link
Vocabulary
- to commit (v) suicide (n)
- decline (v) steadily (adv)
- cultural (adj) icon (n)
- to blow over (phrasal v)
- to fall into disrepair / to fall apart
- to be carried off (phrasal v)
- a crumbling (adj) wreck (n)
- to pull (v) a prank (n)
- to sponsor (v) something/someone (pronoun)
- mansion (n)
- condominium (n)
Matching
_______________________ to provide money or emotional encouragement
_______________________ to be removed, taken away
_______________________ a large home owned by someone rich
_______________________ a apartment in a large building that is owned by each resident
_______________________ to become wore and worse over time
_______________________ to kill oneself
_______________________ to play a trick on someone
_______________________ something that represent a society and is easily recognizable
_______________________ to fall from pressure such as wind
_______________________ something that has become damaged over time, in bad condition
History
History Part 1: Link
Directions: Listen and answer the following questions.
1) What are some thing that the Hollywood sign represents?
2) According to Hugh Hefner, what is LA’s nickname?
3) Why was the Hollywood sign originally constructed? What function did it serve?
4) What did the sign originally say?
5) When was the sign originally built?
6) How long was the Hollywood sign supposed to exist?
7) What did the wind do to the original sign?
8) What tragedy occurred at the Hollywood sign in 1932? Specifically, on what letter did this take place? (image Link)
9) Which movie company offered Peg Entwistle a single film movie contract?
10) When did LA become the owner of the Hollywood sign and some of the land around it?
11) What almost happened to the sign in 1949?
History Part 2: Link
12) Was the sign in good condition in the 1970s?
13) Who worked to save the sign in 1978?
- Also helped: Link
14) Which sign letter (HOLLYWOOD) is owned by Hugh Hefner?
15) Because the sign became so famous after it was repaired in 1978, what did people want to do?
16) Read/Watch: Why was the sign at risk? What could be placed to the west of the H?
17) Watch (plus was on History II): Who saved the sign again in 2010?
18) Watch: Who originally owned the land on top of the Hollywood peak?
19) Watch: Who was the original owner going to build a Palace for on top of the Hollywood peak?
20) Read web page: How much money was raised to save the Hollywood sign?
21) Watch: What has happened to the letter H over the years?
Watch: According to the report, what did a drunk person do to the letter H?
22) Watch: What nearly destroyed the Hollywood sign in 2007?
Follow-Up Quiz
Directions: Based on what you have3 learned, match the Number to correct image.
A) Howard Hughes -- Original Owner of Land on Cahuenga Peak
B) Hugh Heffner -- Long time sponsor of the Hollywood sign (Original organizer of the 1979 repair project and of major contributor to the Save Our Peak movement)
C) Caretaker who hit the Letter H and knocked it over
D) Type of vehicle that drove off the cliff and hit the letter H
E) Alice Cooper -- Sponsor of the letter O on the Hollywood Sign
F) Company that sponsored the Save our Peak project
G) Change to the sign to promote it’s protection
H) Blown over and in disrepair
I) Area of Cahuenga Peak bought in 2002 for 1.5 Million and sold in 2010 for 12.5 Million
J) Prank played to promote legalization of marijuana
K) 40,000 bulbs used to light the original sign
L) Tornado destroying sign in movie
M) Peg Entwistle -- Aspiring movie actress who took her own life
N) Ginger Rogers -- Movie actress and girlfriend of crazy millionaire
O) Original sign by day
Los Angeles, Feb 16 : The world-famous Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles is under threat from property developers, prompting an angry reaction from residents and officials in the city.
Chicago-based investment firm Fox River Land Co is hoping to sell the 56-hectare hilltop parcel adjacent to the giant white letters for $22 mn.
That’s almost four times as much as the $6 million the city valued the land at and represents a remarkable increase on the $1.7 million the company paid the estate of legendary magnate Howard Hughes in 2002.
Hughes had planned to build a palatial home there for his mistress, dancer and actress Ginger Rogers.
Fox River says there is high interest in the property, which is zoned for a single mega-mansion or five smaller houses. But city council member Tom LaBonge vowed Friday to do everything in his power to foil the plan, which he said would spoil the last undeveloped ridge in the city.
‘When you take virgin land it can never be virgin again,’ he told DPA. ‘That peak should remain unmolested.’
LaBonge appears to have strong support among his constituents in the city’s 4th District, which encompasses Hollywood and its famous sign.
‘It’s the one symbol we have that’s known the world over,’ said accountant Vivienne Lifsher. ‘We’d be crazy to let someone destroy it.’
