Arguably the most iconic landmark of the Los Angeles area, recognized by people across the United States and around the world is the Hollywood Sign. The sign actually originally stood as just a billboard meant to advertise a housing development and was never intended to stand as long as it has. However, as time went on, the sign increasingly became more popular as an image and landmark in the city that it could not be taken down.

Standing tall with its 45-feet large letters, the sign has withstood longer than films even have talking. In the one hundred years, the sign has been renovated a number of times, even being rewritten entirely a time or two.

Even as the years have gone by, the sign’s significance and metaphorical power in Hollywood has continued on.

Shockingly, the city has made no plans to celebrate the significant birthday for the significant landmark. The likelihood is that, given everything else going on at the moment, it feels like celebrating the sign right now would be done in poor taste. This counts especially for what is happening with the industry at the moment. Hollywood has always been a city that everyone immediately connects with film and television. Celebrating the sign would without a doubt include mentions of the industry. However, at the moment, the industry is in a sticky situation.

Film and television has been put on a huge pause amidst a year spent mostly on strike. The Writers Guild of America (or WGA) is now accommodating to being back to work after their strike ended just a few weeks ago. The Screen Actors Guild is still currently on strike and in the middle of negotiations. However, even with the writer’s strike being over, many are still deeply angry with the way in which the studios handled the strikes.

Publicly it was known that many studios were unwilling to accommodate writers and actors for basic needs and fought to give into a deal for a long time. This left a bad taste in many mouths. This generated a distrust. Unfortunately, because of the connection people draw from the Hollywood sign itself and film and television studios, celebrating the sign’s 100th anniversary simply feels like celebrating the entertainment industry. This is not something many want to do at the moment.