As the Hollywood sign turns 100, now is the perfect time to explore LA - Scotland on Sunday Travel

Head stateside to find out how Tinseltown is celebrating a very special anniversary.

The Hollywood sign, first erected by a real estate company in the 1920s, became a symbol for the movie city and is now celebrating its centenary. Pic: PA Photo/Hollywood Sign Trust.

The barrier keeping eager fans out of arguably the most exclusive spot in Los Angeles isn’t a red velvet rope.

It’s an unassuming metal gate on the side of a dirt road, which swings open with a screech to reveal a steep slope leading down to the world-famous Hollywood sign.

Clinging to a neon orange safety rope installed for my visit, I shuffle down the gravelly path, landing a few metres behind the giant ‘H’ (just over 15m tall) and edge round to the front of the iconic landmark.

The Friends couch and Central Perk set at Warner Brothers Studios. Pic: PA Photo/Warner Brothers Studios.

Bathed in morning sunshine and silhouetted against a cloudless California sky, the bright white letters – recently treated to their once-a-decade repainting – are beaming down on LA like a row of (slightly crooked) teeth.

“This started as an advertisement to sell homes,” says Ferris Wehbe, trustee of the Hollywood Sign Trust (hollywoodsign.org), which has organised this special visit (members of the public shouldn’t attempt the same – LAPD officers are stationed 24/7 above the sign to prevent trespassing).

Erected by a real estate company sometime in 1923 (the exact date has been lost in the sands of time), the original wooden sign said ‘Hollywoodland’ and was illuminated with bulbs like a dressing room mirror.

“It used to be lit up, and there was a guy living here, changing the light bulbs on an ongoing basis,” Wehbe continues.

The electric tram at Universal Studios Hollywood. Pic: PA Photo/Universal Studios Hollywood.

While the real estate firm went out of business within a decade, Hollywood was fast becoming a mecca for moviemakers, so the ‘land’ was lopped off and a star was born.

Rebuilt in metal in the 1970s, those nine pearly white letters remain Tinseltown’s most recognisable symbol.

Now Los Angeles is enjoying a year-long, citywide celebration to mark the sign’s centenary, so there’s no better time to soak up the LA sun and discover the behind-the-scenes history of Hollywood.