Los Angeles: Playboy baron Hugh Hefner turned out to be a saviour for the legendary hilltop Hollywood sign once again, after donating $ 900,000 at the last moment to stop it from being torn down.
The landmark sign will now stand in Los Angeles, unobscured, on scrub-covered slopes overlooking production studios and palm trees, thanks to Hefner's donation in the ninth inning of a yearlong effort by non-profit group called the Public Trust For Lands which began a campaign to protect the hilltop around the sign from developers.
The gift by the 84-year-old personality helped conservationists purchase the 138 acres of land on which the nine iconic 45 ft high letters have stood since 1923, as it closed the gap in donations to meet the $ 12.5 million price set by Owner Fox River Financial Services.
"The sign is Hollywood's Eiffel Tower. This sign represents the dreams and aspirations of people around the world," Hefner said.
Originally created as an advertisement, the sign is owned by the city but the property around it belonged to the investors, The New York Times reported.
Describing the news as "the Hollywood ending we hoped for", California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said, "It's a symbol of dreams and opportunity".
This is the second time Hefner has saved the sign, as during the late 1970s, he rallied donors to help rebuild it after years of neglect had reduced its letters to skeletal metal and tattered panels.
"This town never had a good sense of its own history, never had good signs or markers for the sites and streets where so many internationally famous things have occurred," Hefner said.
With celebrities like actor Tom Hanks and filmmaker Steven Spielberg campaigning for the cause, donations to save the attraction came from 50 states in US and from 10 countries.
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