The Hollywood sign has long loomed large in the collective American consciousness since it was erected in 1923. Originally reading "HOLLYWOODLAND," the white letters elevated on Los Angeles's Mount Lee has served both as a cultural icon and the occasional victim to vandalism and pranks (remember "Hollyweed?"). A lesser known story about the famous sign, however, is getting its due in Ryan Murphy's new Netflix series, aptly titled after the illustrious neighborhood.
In 1932, with the Great Depression in full swing, 24-year-old actress Peg Entwistle climbed to the top of the sign's letter "H" and jumped to her death. In Murphy's Hollywood, which takes place in Tinseltown amid the post-World War II era, Entwistle's real-life death inspires a fictional character to write a screenplay to a film that becomes the focus of the series.
Read on to learn more about Entwistle's tragic ending.
She emigrated to the United States in the early 20th century.
Entwistle was born Millicent Lillian in Wales in 1908 to parents who were British actors. She spent early life in London before ultimately emigrating to the U.S. with her father at a young age, following her parents' separation. Tragedy struck in 1922, when her father died after a collision with a car in New York City. Thereafter, Entwistle and her siblings lived with their uncle.
Entwistle was a talented Broadway actress.
At 17 years old, Entwistle embarked on her Broadway career. She appeared in multiple Broadway productions, and her acting in The Wild Duck had reportedly even inspired a young Bette Davis, who told her mother after seeing Entwistle's performance, "I want to be exactly like Peg Entwistle."
By 1926, Entwistle was recruited by the New York Theatre Guild. The following year she married a fellow actor, Robert Keith, but filed for divorce soon after, claiming cruelty on his part and that he failed to tell her that he was previously married and already had a son.
She continued to act while touring with the Theatre Guild, even earning some publicity with a short article published about her from the New York Times. In 1929, Entwistle told the Oakland Tribune that she yearned for more challenging roles as an actress.
I would rather play roles that carry conviction. Maybe it is because they are the easiest and yet the hardest things for me to do. To play any kind of an emotional scene I must work up to a certain pitch. If I reach this in my first word, the rest of the words and lines take care of themselves. But if I fail, I have to build up the balance of the speeches, and in doing this the whole characterisation falls flat. I feel that I am cheating myself. I don't know whether other actresses get this same reaction or not, but it does worry me
Eventually, the Theatre Guild tour made it ways west, where she found herself in Los Angeles.
Her small appearance in Thirteen Women was her only credited film role.
She played a small supporting role as Hazel Cousins. The movie, which premiered a month after she died, ended up editing down Entwistle's performance to a mere 15-second appearance. It had little critical and commercial success.
After RKO Pictures declined to renew her studio contract, Entwistle left her uncle's home on Beachwood Drive on the night of September 16, 1932, telling him that she was heading to a "rendezvous with a friend." Two days later, a hiker walking below the Hollywoodland sign found a woman's shoe, jacket, and purse, which carried a suicide note. The hiker looked down and saw Entwistle's body, then subsequently reported the information to the local authorities. Police later presumed that Entwistle used a workman's ladder on the back of the letter to climb to the top of the sign.
"I am afraid I am a coward and I am sorry for many things," her note read. "If I had only done this long ago I could have saved a lot of pain."
Ryan Murphy says he related to Entwistle's struggle in Hollywood.
The Hollywood series creator told Oprah Mag why Entwistle's story resonated with him, especially as a young man first starting out in the entertainment industry.
"She was always the cautionary tale," he told the magazine. "When I moved out to L.A. in the late '80s, one of the first places I went was up to the top of the Hollywood sign. There were tours where they would show you which letter she jumped off, and how she did it."
He adds, "I was very interested in her at a time where I was also trying. The idea that Hollywood can chew you up and spit you out and not really be fair—I've never really ventured far from that idea. So I really just related to her struggle and her sadness."
Since her death, she has had an outsized influence on pop culture and the Los Angeles public imagination.
In 2014, Vanity Fair published a story on the haunting of the Hollywood sign, reporting that the stories of Entwistle's ghost lurking near her place of death first started in the 1940s after the letter "H" mysteriously toppled over. Thereafter, joggers on the Griffith Trail have reported the overwhelming scent of gardenias—Entwistle's supposed favorite perfume—and seeing a mysterious blonde woman still wearing 1930s attire.
Her tragic death has long lent inspiration to musicians and filmmakers. In the 2009 movie, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, the letter "H" was made to be the entrance to the Underworld. Lana Del Rey's hit single, "Lust for Life" also begins, "Climb up the H / Of the Hollywood sign." The music video features the singer and The Weeknd dancing atop the letter.
As an associate editor at HarpersBAZAAR.com, Chelsey keeps a finger on the pulse on all things celeb news. She also writes on social movements, connecting with activists leading the fight on workers' rights, climate justice, and more. Offline, she’s probably spending too much time on TikTok, rewatching Emma (the 2020 version, of course), or buying yet another corset.
