Category: Radio documentary
Client: BBC Radio 4; Whistledown Productions
About the project:
I composed original music for a new radio documentary about the history of the Hollywood sign.
In 1923, a property developer, put up a series of 45 feet high letters on the scrubby hillside of Mount Lee, a peak in the Santa Monica Mountains. It was there to advertise plots for sale in the newly- developed Hollywoodland estate. It was only supposed to stay up for 18 months, but quickly became a local landmark. In 1949, the last four letters were removed, and though it has fallen into disrepair on several occasions, the Hollywood sign has survived to celebrate its centenary.
The BBC's man in Hollywood, David Willis, tells the story of the sign that has attracted speculators and sinners, the hurt and the hopeful, the lost and the lonely.