One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
The Day The Hollywood Sign Became The Hollyweed Sign
One magical day in 1976, the Hollywood sign declared the land Hollyweed—perhaps an omen of things to come.
Danny Finegood, then a young art student at Cal State Northridge, once hiked up to the sign with $50 worth of fabric and some friends. They transformed the iconic sign to read 'Hollyweed,' Dangerous Minds reports. It wasn't a spur of the moment stoner decision either: the group had actually practiced the operation on a model of the sign first, and they made the change to the real sign on January 1, 1976, the day a more relaxed marijuana law went into effect in the State. Finegood used the gag as a school project and got an "A."
Finegood would later tamper with the sign two more times. He changed the sign to Ollywood in 1987 to protest Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North during the Iran-Contra scandal, and to Oil War in 1990 in protest of the Persian Gulf War, the L.A. Times reports. The police managed to fix the latter before dawn, so no one actually saw it. Finegood died of multiple myeloma at age 52 in 2007.
These days, you could never get away with something like this. The sign is not only difficult to get to, but you'd get in a lot of trouble. Plus, people who live by the sign get super mad if you clog up their neighborhood.
Though the Hollyweed sign was short-lived, it has lived on in song. Musician David Batterson memorialized the sign in his folk song, "Hollywood, USA." "Now this is a story about the big ol' sign and the day Hollywood became Hollyweed," Batterson sings near the beginning.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
