There is a certain allure to the Hollywood sign. Looming over Los Angeles in the center of what many Angelinos think is Griffith Park, it is a monument to one of the States’ greatest and most illustrious industry: moviemaking.
From: LAist's 'therealquarrygirl' on Flickr
The 138-acre parcel of land to the west of the sign was purchased in the 1940s by Howard Hughes as a gift for his fiancée, Ginger Rogers, with plans to build an estate on the Peak. The plans fell apart, together with the relationship. But, Hughes, and later his estate held on to the land until 2002 when a Chicago real estate investment group purchased the land and secured rights to build luxury estates on the Peak. When the parcel was offered for sale in 2008 for $22 million, the Trust for Public Land got involved.
