Dateline>City of Angels

This week’s choice for the most interesting, offbeat and/or entertaining web video sharing key words or themes with this blog…

Source: YouTube!

Search Criteria: “Los Angeles + Haunted”

The Result: A poignant film noir reenactment of Peg Entwistle’s legendary suicide by writer, director and producer Hope Anderson, creator of the documentary Under the Hollywood Sign. Unfortunately, the video embed is disabled for this clip, so I can’t show it here. To view it, you’ll have to click over to this link.

The Backstory…

For many, the Hollywood sign spells fame, but for Peg Entwistle, it became the ultimate suicide note. Erected in 1923 as a real estate gimmick, the sign originally read “Hollywoodland” and was fitted with thousands of glitzy lights to lure dreamers to the new town…

The seduction worked on Entwistle, a young Broadway actress hit hard by the Depression. Setting her hopes on filmdom, she moved to L.A. and joined her uncle in a small Beachwood Canyon apartment below the sign, whose billboard temptations must have loomed brighter than ever.

But months of auditions went nowhere. Finally, after much struggle, Entwistle landed a bit part in RKO’s Thirteen Women. She called it her big break. Critics called it a bomb. The studio’s calls stopped altogether.

Devastated, Entwistle trekked up the canyon the night of Sept. 18, 1932, scaled the 50-foot “H” and jumped. Legend has it that, ironically, a few days after the star-crossed actress’ body was found, a letter arrived offering her the lead in a picture about a suicidal woman.

Over time, the Hollywoodland sign fell into decay. Eventually, the city lopped off the last four letters and rehabilitated the landmark. Public access has been restricted for years, yet neighbors and city workers say they’ve sometimes spotted a ghostly blonde in 1930s attire wandering its footings, still apparently drawn by the sign’s cruel promise of immortality.