Controversial D.W. Griffith-inspired white elephants removed as part of major Hollywood & Highland makeover

2021-08-04T13:55:00-04:00

Two white elephants, a connection to the early days of filmmaking at the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles, have finally been removed by the city as part of a timely $100 million makeover that began earlier this year.

Variety is reporting that new owners of the center have decided to remove the statues this week over their explicit connections to one of the more notorious figures of Old Hollywood’s racist past.

The elephant sculptures were originally meant as a tribute to the set design for D.W. Griffith’s 1916 film Intolerance, which was meant as a rebuttal to criticism of his earlier film The Birth of a Nation. A large arch with Babylonian-themed reliefs will be given an art deco upgrade while a fiberglass daybed sculpture by the artist Erika Rothenberg will also be permanently removed after being taken down in 2017 in the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Gensler is leading the redevelopment aimed at transitioning the center from a tourist-laden shopping district t...

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Controversial D.W. Griffith-inspired white elephants removed as part of major Hollywood & Highland makeover