Hollywood sign to get a makeover as 100th birthday approaches.

 In preparation for its 100th birthday next year, the Hollywood sign is getting a makeover. The giant letters on the hill are being cleaned and repainted, a process that’s estimated to take the next eight weeks.


 Freshening up the 45ft-tall letters will require about 250 gallons of paints and primer, and anyone who wants to watch the paint dry can follow along on the sign’s 24/7 webcam. The Hollywood sign is a frequent target of creative adjustments, from the “incredibly tacky” official attempt to make the letters read “Rams House”, in honor of the Los Angeles team’s Super Bowl win this year, to periodic acts of vandalism that change the sign to “Hollyweed”. 


But the last time the sign was repainted was a decade ago, in time for its 90th birthday. Sherwin-Williams, an American paint company headquartered in Ohio, is once again partnering with the Hollywood Sign Trust to repaint the sign in a special weather-resistant finish.


 The paint company has selected “extra white” paint for the job, which it calls a Hollywood “facelift”. First erected in 1923, the sign on the ridge originally read “Hollywoodland”, a reference not to the film industry, but to the true engine of southern California’s economy: high-end real estate development. In classic Los Angeles fashion, the man who built the giant advertisement for his Hollywoodland development, Harry Chandler, also owned the Los Angeles Times.