LOS ANGELES — Playboy founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner is getting a plaque mounted on a large boulder to thank him for his $1 million donation to help save the land next to the famed Hollywood sign.
Hefner, philanthropist Aileen Getty and the Tiffany & Co. Foundation kicked in donations to the Trust for Public Land at the eleventh hour in April 2010 that gave it enough money to acquire Cahuenga Peak from its Chicago-based owners.
The Hollywood sign’s fate was in jeopardy after the owners of the land said they would sell it for $11.7 million after purchasing it for $1.7 million from the Howard Hughes estate.
Local speculation at the time worried that the land around the sign would be turned into a tourist destination that could possibly ruin or eliminate the legendary Hollywood icon.
The Los Angeles Time reported that Hefner and Getty will have their boulders placed alongside the trail linking the Cahuenga Peak with the Hollywood sign's Mt. Lee.
The Tiffany Foundation will receive recognition on a trailside bench between the Griffith Observatory and Mt. Hollywood overlooking the sign.
