Playboy's Hugh Hefner helps save LA's iconic Hollywood sign

(Reuters) — Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner on Monday donated the last $900,000 sought by a conservation group for a land purchase needed to save the famed vista of the Hollywood sign from being spoiled by development.

Conservationists had until this Friday to raise $12.5 million to buy the hilltop ridge called Cahuenga Peak, adjacent to the Hollywood sign, from a group of Chicago investors who had plans to build luxury homes on the property.

They had acquired the 1,820-foot-tall peak in 2002 from the estate of billionaire Howard Hughes.

City officials have since worried that development of the 138-acre parcel would mar the postcard-perfect view of the iconic sign, whose four-story-high "H" stands just to the east of and slightly below Cahuenga Peak.

After years of fretting and on-off negotiations between Los Angeles officials and the site's owners, the San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land stepped in and struck a deal to buy the peak on the city's behalf for a price set by an independent appraisal.

The original deadline for raising the money was extended by two weeks after the land trust came up $1.5 million short of the $12.5 million total.

Hefner 's key role in filling the gap was announced by city officials, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the land trust at a news conference in the Hollywood Hills.

The Hollywood sign on Mount Lee originally read "Hollywoodland" and was erected to promote a housing development in 1923. The last few letters deteriorated in the late 1940s, and the part that remained was restored in 1978.

Lesser-known Cahuenga Peak has its own history. It was purchased by Hughes, the reclusive aircraft mogul turned filmmaker, as the planned site of a love nest for actress Ginger Rogers in the 1940s, but their relationship ended and the house was never built.