Donation from Hefner to keep Hollywood icon

A group was attempting to raise twelve and a half million to save the iconic sign on Hollywood Hill. However, despite their efforts they still needed one million dollars and here to help arrived Hugh Hefner, who donated the missing sum.

He donated $900,000 dollars and made the fund raising campaign instant success. For those, who do not know anything about Hugh Hefner, I suggest rushing to the nearest newspaper stand and buying the newest issue of Playboy Magazine.

Although, Hugh Hefner was the last one to donate for that campaign, without his help, the iconic sign on the Hollywood Hill would not be there. His participation was announced by the authorities of Los Angeles and by the governor of California –Arnold Schwarzenegger.



The main purpose of that campaign was to raise 12.5 million dollars to buy property from a group of investors, who had bought a large property near the sign. The main reason for this campaign was the fact that when there were houses build on that property, they will cover the Hollywood sign.

After the funds were raised and the group bought 138 acres near the sign, all the property was donated to the Griffin Park at LA, so there is no danger of this happening again.

According to Hugh Hefner, he was pleased to help save this cultural monument. Furthermore, he also mentioned that all his childhood dreams came from movies that were made in Hollywood. There were other donations from Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg.

The sign on the Hollywood hill is one of the major tourist attractions in Los Angeles and there are thousands of tourists simply going to the US just to see it.

The property, which was bought after the fund raising campaign, was previously owned by Howard Hughes. On it, he wanted to build a house for Ginger Rogers, who was his girlfriend at that time. However, soon after he bought the property they broke up and soon after that he died. This property is considered to be the perfect place for building luxurious hotels and houses. That is one of the main reasons for the interest of the Chicago investors.
However, everything is in the past now thanks to Hugh Hefner and the other celebrities, who made donations to save this iconic sign. Let’s hope that there will be no other similar events in the future and all of us should make everything possible to save out cultural monuments.