Entertainment 101: Who was the Hollywood sign girl?

July 16, 4:01 PMHollywood Events ExaminerI.J. Ross

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Photo courtesy of Sam Tweedle. 

In some rare instances, we hear about someone who has come to Hollywood, and “made it,“ becoming a new movie or rock star, becoming a new, fresh star amongst the Hollywood aristocracy. Groupie-ism then kicks in, and these new celebrities are followed around incessantly by adoring fans, as well as invasive paparazzi. When some star’s career’s start to flicker, fickle fans also seem to like to follow these same stars downward trajectory. As the stars tragically crash and burn, they jump ship onto the next big thing.
But what about people who move to Hollywood, and even though they might have the potential to strike it rich, never did, only to slip away into the eddies of time. Many people never hear about these aspiring stars. Well Peg Entwistle is one such person.
The striking, blonde haired, blue eyed actress that would later take the stage name “Peg” was born Lillian Millicent Entwistle in Port Talbot, Wales in 1908. She was born into an acting family, and so stage came naturally to her. Early in her life, her mother passed away, after which her father packed up everything, and moved Peg and her two brothers, Milton, and Robert to New York to try his hand on Broadway. Shortly after the move, he was sadly run over by a truck and killed. Her brothers were sent to Los Angeles to live with Harold Entwistle, Peg’s Uncle. She stayed behind to try to make it on Broadway, and achieved considerable success even though she was only in her late teens.
One day, while working on a play, she met a successful actor named Robert Keith, a man 10 years her senior. They fell in love and were soon married, but the Honeymoon didn’t long. She discovered that he had been married previously, and had a 6 year old child. Oops! Compounding this sudden revalation, theatre work started to dry up, and severe depression started to set in. Divorce soon followed.

Peg Entwistle's final residence on Beachwood Drive. Photo courtesy of Casey Hopkins.

Peg decided to move to Hollywood in April of 1932 to try to break into the movies and try to get a fresh start. She moved in with her Uncle Harold on Beachwood Drive, located in the Hollywoodland subdivision, and got various small parts here and there. But after RKO Pictures dropped her, work again dried up, and she would again become very depressed. She decided that she was not going to give up and return to New York. She fanatically went after smaller parts, but it soon started to dawn on her that everyone else showing up at casting calls and auditions had moved to Hollywood from elsewhere to seek fame and fortune just like her. She also started to realize that beautiful women were highly concentrated in the area, and that the competition in Hollywood made her just another pretty face.

Photo courtesy of Sam Tweedle.

On a hot summer day in September 1932, she told her uncle that she was going to walk up Beachwood Canyon Road in Hollywood to meet some friends. She would never reach the drugstore. Instead, she took a permanent detour towards the Hollywood sign (spelled Hollywoodland at the time), which wasn’t far from here Uncle‘s house. After a difficult scramble up the steep cliffs of Mount Lee, she finally reached the base of the sign. There, she neatly folded her coat, placed her purse next to it, and then climbed up the service ladder along the backside of the letter ‘H.’ Who knows what her last thoughts were as she gazed at the rocky cliffs below from the top of the ‘H.’. She leapt to her death, and probably died instantly. She was 24 years old. Her suicide note read ‘I am afraid I am a coward. I am sorry for everything. If I had done this a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of pain.’
Shortly thereafter, a letter from the Beverly Hills Playhouse arrived for her at her Uncle‘s house. It stated that they wanted her to carry a lead role in their next theatre production which ironically was about a young girl who commits suicide.
Hikers, tourists, and Park Rangers have reported that they have seen a woman dressed in 1930’s era clothes in the area of the sign, and in Griffith Park below it. Whatever the case, Peg Entwistle has become a tragic symbol of the broken Hollywood dream, and a reminder of how this concrete jungle can take you under.
She had, however, finally achieved the fame she sought in life.
Some tour companies that include the Hollywood sign as well as other sights and legends of Hollywood are listed below.

Hollywood Tours, hollywoodtours.us, (800) 789-9575.
Starline Tours of Hollywood,.starlinetours.com, (323) 463-3333.
LA City Tours, lacitytours.com, (323) 960-0300.