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Hugh Hefner Helped Save the Sign in the 1970s

As the sign started quite literally crumbling in the 1950s, Hugh Hefner threw a party for some of Hollywood's elite to raise money to fix it. Celebrities didn't just donate, but they sponsored a whole letter. Hefner, for example, purchased the "Y" and singer Andy Williams purchased the "W" and Alice Cooper bought an "O" for Groucho Marx. According to LAist, "The others who pitched in were: publisher Terrence Donnelly, movie producer Giovanni Mazza, Les Kelley of the Kelley Blue Book, Angels owner Gene Autry, Warner Bros. Records, and businessman Dennis Lidtke. . . . The group are known as the 'Hollywood Nine.'"

Image Source: Getty / David McNew