In what year was the famous 45 foot tall Hollywood sign first erected?

The story behind the answer

1923 is correct: the Hollywood sign was first erected that year as “HOLLYWOODLAND,” a 45‑foot‑tall, 350‑foot‑long illuminated billboard promoting a real estate development. Strung with thousands of light bulbs and meant to last only about 18 months, it quickly became tied to the booming film industry of the Roaring Twenties and the growing myth of Hollywood.

To remember the year, link it to “’23 skidoo,” a famous 1920s catchphrase—1923 sits right at the start of that exuberant decade. The sign later lost “LAND” in 1949 when the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce restored it, and it was rebuilt in steel in 1978 with celebrity donors. From a temporary ad to an enduring icon, its 1923 birth anchors it firmly in the early Hollywood era.