Hefner: Symbolic sign

Los Angeles, April 27: When Playboy founder Hugh Hefner heard that the campaign to buy the open space west of the Hollywood sign was short by $1 million, he knew he had to step in once again to protect the Los Angeles landmark.

“Turned out the kid was back in the water again,” he said in a telephone interview.

So he coughed up $900,000, which helped the campaign cross the finish line. Yesterday, the Trust for Public Land announced that, thanks to Hefner’s gift and an additional $500,000 from the Tiffany & Co. Foundation and Aileen Getty, it finally had the $12.5 million needed to buy Cahuenga Peak from Fox River Financial Resources Inc.

The 138-acre property, which offers a spectacular 360-degree panorama of the Los Angeles basin, now will become part of Griffith Park.

In 1978, Hefner played a major role in a campaign to fix up the then-terribly dilapidated Hollywood sign. Ensuring that the land would remain undeveloped was worth taking action again, he said. “It’s like saying let’s build a house in the middle of Yellowstone Park.”