Feb 21, 2025 - Culture

Flashback: Richmond's fake Hollywood sign started as a $300 prank

Sabrina Moreno

A hollywood-like sign that says "Richmond" in giant white wooden letters on a hill. — Richmond's Hollywood sign in 2004. Photo: Courtesy of RVA Mag

More than 20 years ago, Jonathan Martin filmed himself committing a crime: Putting up Richmond's version of the Hollywood sign.

Why it matters: "The city loved it. The media loved it. No one even bothered to take it down, reinforce it, nothing," wrote RVA Mag last fall.

Zoom in: The magazine describes Martin, a Richmonder, as Sticky Rice owner John Yamashita's right hand man in the bar's early 2000s debauchery — which included pranks, wrestling pits and the massive sign overlooking Church Hill.

The sign was cut out of $300 worth of wood and stayed up for months in 2004.

Sabrina's thought bubble: Who has $300, a pickup truck and a wood cutter?

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Flashback: Richmond's fake Hollywood sign started as a $300 prank

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