Huge myth about famous Hollywood sign

Rumours have been circulating about the famous Hollywood sign as bushfires wreak havoc across Los Angeles with five lives lost and around 180,000 people forced to flee.

The Hollywood sign isn’t on fire despite images of it ablaze circulating on social media.

At the time of writing this, the famous monument “still stands tall” on the Hollywood Hills with the Hollywood Sign Trust debunking rumours it’s on fire.

It comes as bushfires wreak havoc across Los Angeles with five lives lost and around 180,000 people forced to flee.

At least five separate fires burn, including in the heart of historic Hollywood, just a few hundred meters from Hollywood Boulevard.

The outbreak of a new inferno in the Hollywood Hills on Wednesday led to the spread of fake, “AI-generated” images and video across social media claiming that the iconic Hollywood sign is ablaze.

And while the sign is located in the Hollywood Hills area of the Santa Monica Mountains atop Mount Lee, the Sunset Fire is currently blazing in the Studio City area of LA and would need to roam eastwards and cross the tarmacked Highway 101 before it could climb the hills and engulf the landmark, according to the Independent.

The Hollywood sign is seen with smoke from multiple wildfires on January 8, 2025. Picture: AaronP/Bauer-Griffin/GC Images

The fire has however impacted the lights that illuminate the sign, affecting its visibility.

The Trust, which is controlled by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, a volunteer organisation dedicated to maintaining, protecting and promoting the sign, shared one of the fake images labelling it “fake news”.

🚨#BREAKING: The Hollywood sign is not on fire, even though a new fire has started. Numerous news accounts and other pages are sharing fake AI-generated images claiming otherwise. Here’s a current live picture of the Hollywood sign to set the record straight. pic.twitter.com/kiZrzl7kD9

— R A W S A L E R T S (@rawsalerts) January 9, 2025

“The Hollywood Sign continues to stand tall! Please keep the rest of Los Angeles County in your thoughts, and stay alert if you have to travel around,” it wrote on its official Instagram account.

The Trust has also provided a live webcam link for viewers to watch the sign in real-time.

The Hollywood sign on January 9, 2025. Picture: AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

Hollywood sign history

The sign, which originally read ‘Hollywoodland’, was only intended to be temporary.

It was first erected in 1923 but there was a time when it almost didn’t survive because of its deteriorating condition. And as such, it was rebuilt in 1978 – to the exact same proportion.

“It was originally built to promote a development project called ‘Hollywoodland’ and the letters would light up at night to attract people from downtown LA to the Hollywood Hills to purchase a piece of land to build their dream home,” Jeff Zarrinman, chair of the Hollywood Sign Trust, previously told news.com.au.

It was originally called Hollywoodland – but when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce took ownership of it, they dropped the ‘land’.

“They thought they would sell all the lots within a year so they didn’t design it with strong enough material. It was made from telephone poles and cables.

“[But] it stood test of time before it started to decay.”

By the early 1940s, the Hollywoodland real estate development went bust – a casualty of the Depression.

The sign, which hadn’t been maintained in years, quietly became property of the city in 1944.

As the sign was initially intended to be temporary, there were calls to tear it down in 1949. However, by then it had become such a fixture that the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce decided to take over maintenance and ownership.

But, when the chamber took it over, it was so dilapidated, the letter H had fallen off.

They repaired the sign, but cut the “land”, changing it to just “Hollywood” to remove references to one specific housing development.

Then, in the late 1970s, the Chamber determined the sign required a complete rebuild. The old sign was scrapped in August 1978, and for three lonely months Hollywood had no sign.

Celebrities also got involved to help the chamber raise the $US250,000 needed to help save and restore it.

This year marks its 102nd anniversary.