Cahuenga Peak

He came to their rescue when they were between a rock and a hard place. So it's fitting that Hugh Hefner will be honored with a boulder for helping the Trust for Public Land acquire Cahuenga Peak, the mountaintop next to the Hollywood sign. Leaders of the trust said Tuesday they plan to place plaques on large boulders to thank the Playboy magazine founder and two others who stepped up at the last moment to donate $1 million each to acquire the peak from its Chicago-based owners.

An online sweepstakes offering a chance to touch the Hollywood sign would have flown the winner to Los Angeles free from anywhere in the country. Instead, Gillian Singletary drove over from Los Feliz on Thursday for the chance to scramble in jeans and sneakers down a very steep, sandy, slide-prone hillside and claim the prize offered by LA Inc., the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. That a resident won instead of a visitor couldn't have been more fitting really, given that the reason for holding the contest was to celebrate a major gift to the people of L.A. Before a campaign led by Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge and the nonprofit Trust for Public Land brought in $12.5 million in donations large and small to buy nearby Cahuenga Peak, the private developer that owned the 138-acre property got it zoned for four luxury homes.

With just four days left to raise enough money to preserve a 138-acre patch of land next to the Hollywood sign, Serena Irani was happy do her part. "I'm going to sell these to save the peak," the 10-year-old said Saturday, showing off a tray of cupcakes she had helped her mom bake the night before. If only she could have charged $200,000 apiece for them. Facing a $2.8-million gap in the $12.5 million needed to buy Cahuenga Peak from a group of Chicago investors, neighborhood associations and the Trust for Public Land rallied for the final push with live music and a bake sale at Lake Hollywood Park, beneath the landmark sign.

He came to their rescue when they were between a rock and a hard place. So it's fitting that Hugh Hefner will be honored with a boulder for helping the Trust for Public Land acquire Cahuenga Peak, the mountaintop next to the Hollywood sign. Leaders of the trust said Tuesday they plan to place plaques on large boulders to thank the Playboy magazine founder and two others who stepped up at the last moment to donate $1 million each to acquire the peak from its Chicago-based owners.

In a Thursday afternoon ceremony, Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge and officials from the Trust for Public Land temporarily covered the Hollywood sign with the words "Save the peak" emblazoned in red lettering. The group left from Beachwood Market in the Hollywood Hills at 2 p.m., caravaning up to the sign. Over the course of the afternoon, a white fabric cover was chopped into letter-sized pieces that were placed, one by one, over each portion of the sign. The event was to publicize efforts to raise money to acquire Cahuenga Peak, the 138-acre parcel just to the west of the sign, and add the land to Griffith Park.

In 1992, the Hollywood sign was attacked by a 75-foot-tall woman. More specifically, Paramount Pictures mounted a giant caricature of actress Kim Basinger on top of the letter "D," paying $54,000 for the right to promote the now-forgotten movie "Cool World." The public outrage this generated, combined with the creation of the Hollywood Sign Trust to maintain the sign and guard its image, marked the end of commercial alterations of the landmark. Or so we thought. The Hollywood sign is slated to disappear Thursday, covered with a banner that reads "Save the Peak."

An online sweepstakes offering a chance to touch the Hollywood sign would have flown the winner to Los Angeles free from anywhere in the country. Instead, Gillian Singletary drove over from Los Feliz on Thursday for the chance to scramble in jeans and sneakers down a very steep, sandy, slide-prone hillside and claim the prize offered by LA Inc., the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau. That a resident won instead of a visitor couldn't have been more fitting really, given that the reason for holding the contest was to celebrate a major gift to the people of L.A. Before a campaign led by Los Angeles Councilman Tom LaBonge and the nonprofit Trust for Public Land brought in $12.5 million in donations large and small to buy nearby Cahuenga Peak, the private developer that owned the 138-acre property got it zoned for four luxury homes.

Crank up the music all you want, no one will care. This house high above Studio City in the Hollywood Hills offers more privacy than you can shake a glow stick at. For starters, it shares a gated roadway with just two other homes. Then there's the tennis court on an adjacent lot that provides a buffer from everything ? except maybe deer and raccoons. "It's completely secluded," says owner Julie Gallo, a film producer. "You can have the loudest parties possible and you won't get in trouble.

When Playboy founder Hugh Hefner heard that the campaign to buy the open space west of the Hollywood sign was short about $1 million, he knew he had to step in once again to protect the famous Los Angeles landmark. "Turned out the kid was back in the water again," he said in a telephone interview. So he anted up $900,000, which helped the campaign cross the finish line. On Monday, the Trust for Public Land announced that, thanks to Hefner's gift and an additional $500,000 from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation and Aileen Getty, it finally had the $12.5 million needed to buy Cahuenga Peak from Fox River Financial Resources Inc. The 138-acre property, which offers a spectacular 360-degree panorama of the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley, now will become part of Griffith Park.

Nobody seemed to want the mountaintop in the old days. Legend has it that mining mogul-turned-ostrich farmer Griffith J. Griffith was scared into giving a huge chunk of the rugged ridge to the city of Los Angeles in 1896 after encountering the ghost of the former landowner on the property. When aircraft titan Howard Hughes acquired the western end of the mountain in the 1930s and tried to build a love nest for actress Ginger Rogers high upon it, she refused to go along with the idea.

Crank up the music all you want, no one will care. This house high above Studio City in the Hollywood Hills offers more privacy than you can shake a glow stick at. For starters, it shares a gated roadway with just two other homes. Then there's the tennis court on an adjacent lot that provides a buffer from everything ? except maybe deer and raccoons. "It's completely secluded," says owner Julie Gallo, a film producer. "You can have the loudest parties possible and you won't get in trouble.

When Playboy founder Hugh Hefner heard that the campaign to buy the open space west of the Hollywood sign was short about $1 million, he knew he had to step in once again to protect the famous Los Angeles landmark. "Turned out the kid was back in the water again," he said in a telephone interview. So he anted up $900,000, which helped the campaign cross the finish line. On Monday, the Trust for Public Land announced that, thanks to Hefner's gift and an additional $500,000 from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation and Aileen Getty, it finally had the $12.5 million needed to buy Cahuenga Peak from Fox River Financial Resources Inc. The 138-acre property, which offers a spectacular 360-degree panorama of the Los Angeles Basin and the San Fernando Valley, now will become part of Griffith Park.

With just four days left to raise enough money to preserve a 138-acre patch of land next to the Hollywood sign, Serena Irani was happy do her part. "I'm going to sell these to save the peak," the 10-year-old said Saturday, showing off a tray of cupcakes she had helped her mom bake the night before. If only she could have charged $200,000 apiece for them. Facing a $2.8-million gap in the $12.5 million needed to buy Cahuenga Peak from a group of Chicago investors, neighborhood associations and the Trust for Public Land rallied for the final push with live music and a bake sale at Lake Hollywood Park, beneath the landmark sign.

In a Thursday afternoon ceremony, Los Angeles City Councilman Tom LaBonge and officials from the Trust for Public Land temporarily covered the Hollywood sign with the words "Save the peak" emblazoned in red lettering. The group left from Beachwood Market in the Hollywood Hills at 2 p.m., caravaning up to the sign. Over the course of the afternoon, a white fabric cover was chopped into letter-sized pieces that were placed, one by one, over each portion of the sign. The event was to publicize efforts to raise money to acquire Cahuenga Peak, the 138-acre parcel just to the west of the sign, and add the land to Griffith Park.

In 1992, the Hollywood sign was attacked by a 75-foot-tall woman. More specifically, Paramount Pictures mounted a giant caricature of actress Kim Basinger on top of the letter "D," paying $54,000 for the right to promote the now-forgotten movie "Cool World." The public outrage this generated, combined with the creation of the Hollywood Sign Trust to maintain the sign and guard its image, marked the end of commercial alterations of the landmark. Or so we thought. The Hollywood sign is slated to disappear Thursday, covered with a banner that reads "Save the Peak."

Nobody seemed to want the mountaintop in the old days. Legend has it that mining mogul-turned-ostrich farmer Griffith J. Griffith was scared into giving a huge chunk of the rugged ridge to the city of Los Angeles in 1896 after encountering the ghost of the former landowner on the property. When aircraft titan Howard Hughes acquired the western end of the mountain in the 1930s and tried to build a love nest for actress Ginger Rogers high upon it, she refused to go along with the idea.

They're sticking a "For Sale" sign next to the Hollywood sign. A Chicago investment group said Tuesday that Los Angeles officials had failed to come up with the cash to preserve the mountaintop next to the iconic sign, so it has put the ridge up for sale. Cahuenga Peak, the backdrop to one of L.A.'s most famous postcard views, will carry a $22-million price tag, its current owners said, and could attract buyers seeking the ultimate L.A. pad.

It could be a bad sign for Hollywood meat-eaters. Leaders of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals said Thursday that they hope to rent the 1,821-foot Cahuenga Peak next to the Hollywood sign to promote "healthy eating and compassion for animals." PETA officials said they want to erect a large sign of their own to the west of the famed landmark that would spell out "Go Veg" in 45-foot-high letters.