Posted on 01/28/2007 9:03:41 PM PST by fishhound
LOS ANGELES: Danny Finegood, a prankster who famously altered the landmark Hollywood sign to read "Hollyweed", has died. He was 52.
Finegood's large-scale wordplay was sometimes satirical, sometimes political and often both.
His Hollyweed prank, in 1976, was timed to coincide with the liberalisation of California's marijuana laws. To change the sign, he used stones and rope and erected the fabric as though he was hoisting sails. "His parents were up early that morning to catch it," said his wife, Bonnie Finegood, who met her future husband in high school and married him in 1979. "They were very proud that Danny had thought up this."
Later that year, in honour of Easter, he made the sign read "Holywood".
In 1987 to mock the popularity of Lieutenant-Colonel Oliver North during the Iran-Contra hearings, he covered the sign's "H" to make it read "Ollywood". And in a bit of creative vandalism that turned out to be his finale, he draped plastic over several letters to make it say "Oil War", a statement against the Gulf War in 1990. Virtually no one saw that project - park rangers removed the plastic sheeting before sunrise.
Beefed-up security kept Finegood from getting at the sign again, leaving some projects unrealised. He said he wanted to make the sign say "Hollyween" on Halloween, and wanted to cover it completely on April Fool's Day to make it look as though it had disappeared.
Daniel Finegood was born in 1954, in Los Angeles to David Finegood, who owned a furniture-making company, and his wife, Rachel.
As a teenager, Finegood began collecting neon signs, including one depicting the Indian chieftain Pontiac whose name was borrowed by a vehicle manufacturer, and a dragon from a Chinese restaurant.
Finegood studied at Santa Barbara City College, but eventually graduated with a bachelor's degree from the Immaculate Heart College in Los Angeles.
He joined his family's furniture business, and later took over the company.
He also sold "Hollyweed" T-shirts and posters through magazine and internet ads.
Finegood died on Monday last week of multiple myeloma at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Centre. He is survived by his wife and children Matthew and Natalie.
If they rammed your house then maybe if it was intentional, but otherwise youre over reacting and playing God.
At first glance, yes, but when he changed it to "Oil war," for Desert Storm, he made it obvious that he was a stupid little hippie brat. Even if he was intelligent and well informed, stupid remarks like that, in that context, make me believe that he was sitting near the sign and getting high when the sun came up.
Once again... this was NOT vandalism.
He simply covered up the sign with a different message.
Is there a difference to you between someone stealing and destroying your property? If so, why?
This guy did neither of those things, yet you irrationally wish the death penalty be applied for a harmless prank.
You've already made it abundantly clear just exactly where you'd like to send them.
Good luck with your defense when you go to trial for murder.
You are the the epitome of a whack job of this site. You talk like an irrational uneducated nutjob. Prisons are filled with those just like you.
Sure they would.
I don't care about this particular individual one way or the other. But I think his point was, the guy didn't destroy property. He very cleverly and carefully made changes without doing anything to the property itself -- no paint, no cutting. He put fabric in front of it so that, from a distance, it looked altered. IMO, that is no more vandalism than some of the "photo shopping done" to make jokes on the internet. I give the guy points for doing it in a non-destructive way.
ping.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.