The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the Historic Sign Trust announce “The White Party” celebrating the 90th Anniversary of the Hollywood Sign presented by the Hollywood Museum. The historic event will be held on Thursday, Sept. 19th, from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at Drai’s Hollywood.
To learn more about the event we talked to Donelle Dadigan, President of Hollywood Museum.
Bijan tehrani: Please tell us a little bit about the Hollywood sign event?
Donelle Dadigan: We are celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Hollywood sign, it is so thrilling because in its entire life it has had one bit facelift in the late 1970s and it held up beautifully. I’m not sure if your audience is aware or not but did you know that the original Hollywoodland sign was originally meant to be a part of a real estate development sign for the Chandler family, the people who own the Los Angeles Times and own quite a bit of Los Angeles in the 20s. And it was meant to help sell real estate with that sign, for all of those wonderful beach homes on Beachwood canyon road and all the roads next to Beachwood canyon. I think the most amazing thing of all is that the original sign was only meant to be up for maybe a year and half and here we are 90 years later and it is still here.
BT: When is the event being held?
DD: The event is on Thursday the 19th of September pretty much at sundown and it is very exciting event, all the powers that be in Hollywood and Los Angeles will gather to celebrate this important monumental happening.
BT: Is there any chance for the public to attend this event?
DD: Well the public can attend the event it, by buying tickets through the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce and the address is Hollywoodchamber.org. The event will be held in Drai’s Club, the rooftop club at the W hotel and it includes outdoor swimming pool area and of course with the view of the Hollywood sign.
BT: Can you tell us a little bit more about your involvement in the event.
DD: Well the Hollywood Museum is very thrilled to be the presenting sponsor of this once in a lifetime event. We are thrilled when we can showcase all the iconic moments of Hollywood, whether it be Hollywood the entertainment industry, Hollywood the community, how it grew or Hollywood the culture, so this is a wonderful opportunity for us to showcase the history of Hollywood, with the Hollywood sign at the forefront. In fact the Hollywood museum has a piece of the original H from the letter Hollywoodland from the Hollywood sign and that will be on display also that evening at the party and later it will come home to the Hollywood museum and will be in a more expanded display after the event.
BT: I have to congratulate you because in the last year and a half I have a noticed an increase in the number of interesting programs that the Hollywood museum is getting involved with. Please tell us a little bit about that and the different events that you are doing through the Hollywood Museum.
DD: We are very excited to expand activities at the museum. This year not only we had a special exhibit for awards season but additionally we had a phenomenal Marilyn Monroe event to meet and greet with the collectors of the exhibit who are all Marilyn Monroe authorities as well as devotees to Marilyn Monroe culture. We also had a wonderful afternoon of recollection and book signings by three very famous authors, Douglas Kirkland, James Spada and also Lois Banner who teaches feminine studies at USC. The outpouring form the audience and all of the attendees was so wonderful because Marilyn Monroe she has been gone for 51 years and yet she is more popular than when she was living. There is always something new to discover about this woman and the museum loves to be able to present the opportunity for the public at large to be able to find out about these new facts. Now we are preparing for our big television exhibit, television pioneer years, starting from the first television shows going through today and the icons of television past and present. Therefore we have been extremely busy at the museum. OF course for the young at heart and the athletic and for international audiences around the world, we will have life retrospective of David Carradine, the star of the television Kung-Fu series, who also did the Kill Bill movies with Quentin Tarantino.
BT: It is great that you are paying attention to international cinema in this way.
DD: We must do that because as you know the entertainment industry is becoming more and more global and out tourist are coming from around the world and it is such a good fit and such a wonderful opportunity to be able to showcase all of these exciting exhibits.