Removal of Coke Sign Is ‘Classic’ Blunder, Preservationists Say : Billboard: Protesters urge soft drink company to return Hollywood landmark. Firm says the lease and repairs were too costly.

In what Hollywood preservationists are calling a “classic” mistake, Coca-Cola USA has removed its flashing red and white neon sign from Hollywood Boulevard, leaving only a washed-out red billboard in the spot where its trademark had blinked for half a century.

Coke executives say finances forced them to retire the sign, which was one of about 50 neon displays the soft drink company maintains around the world. The price of leasing the billboard atop the J.J. Newberry Building in the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard had gone up dramatically, said Randy Donaldson, Coca-Cola USA’s vice president for public relations. Moreover, the weathered sign, which was removed about three weeks ago, was in need of costly repairs.

But on Saturday a small group of protesters who gathered across the street from where the sign once glowed said that its departure is the latest in a series of blows to beleaguered Hollywood. Mogadishu in Somalia has a Coca-Cola sign, they said. So do Tokyo, London, Sydney and, of course, New York City. And Hollywood wants its sign back.

Coca-Cola “made a mistake when they abandoned Classic Coke and they’re making one here,” said Michael Kellerman, director of the Hollywood Office of Tourism, referring to Coca-Cola’s bungled attempt to discontinue their original recipe. “We just want them to fix it.”

The neon sign has long been a Coca-Cola signature. The company’s 1991 annual report, which features a vivid neon display on its cover, proclaims: “Neon spectaculars bring the Coca-Cola trademark to the world’s busiest street corners.”

And over the years the company has sought to preserve the tradition in other cities. Two years ago, Coca-Cola spent $3 million to refurbish its 70-year-old sign in New York’s Times Square, creating a 65-by-41-foot, 55-ton structure featuring nearly 60 miles of fiber-optic cable, a mile of neon tubing and 13,000 light bulbs.

Hollywood’s sign is tiny by those standards. But it has been up nearly as long. According to longtime Hollywood residents, Coca-Cola installed the original atop the Newberry Building in the 1930s. Shaped like the United States, its flashing neon message read: “All Roads Lead to Hollywood . . . Drink Coca-Cola . . . the Pause That Refreshes.”

In another incarnation, the sign was in the shape of a bottle cap. But in recent years, the sign simply said “Enjoy Coca-Cola.” What it lacked in graphics, it made up for in glamour: the sign “danced” with movement, blinking on and off, Kellerman said.

The loss of its glimmer, said Bob Goldfarb, who owns a McDonald’s franchise just blocks away, “is like the Hollywood Chamber taking down the Hollywood sign.”

Kellerman, who also owns Hollywood Fantasy Tours, said he organized the small rally Saturday to “encourage the ‘Real Thing’ to do the right thing.” Armed with placards that said “Coke Makes Classic Mistake” and “Honk to Save Coca-Cola,” he and his troops waved at traffic and encouraged passersby to sign petitions and send letters to Coca-Cola’s Atlanta headquarters.

Jeff Bankston, 35, a drummer, said he added his name to a petition because the Coca-Cola sign is part of what he loves about Hollywood. Even before he moved here from Mississippi six years ago, he said, he had seen the sign in movie footage of the famous boulevard.

“If you go up to the Griffith Observatory and look down, that’s one of the first things you see,” he said as he looked up at the barren-looking billboard. “This place would look better with more signs like that.”

Donaldson, the Coke spokesman, said he will alert his superiors to the furor over the sign.

“Mr. Kellerman has gotten our attention with his phone calls,” he said. “I will pass (his sentiments) on . . . and say: ‘Hey, is this something we could reconsider?’ ”