Carol Burnett Says She Used to Climb the Hollywood Sign as a Kid, Recalls Mystery Patron Who Paid Her $50 Tuition at UCLA
Carol Burnett Says She Used to Climb the Hollywood Sign as a Kid, Recalls Mystery Patron Who Paid Her $50 Tuition at UCLA
Virginia ChamleeWed, February 4, 2026 at 6:24 PM UTC
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Carol Burnett
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty
Carol Burnett is reflecting on life as a child in Los Angeles
Speaking to Amy Poehler in a new interview, Burnett spoke about her "poor" childhood living with her grandmother near the Hollywood sign
As she explained, she'd often climb the sign with her friends
Carol Burnett is reflecting on her life growing up in Los Angeles — in the shadow of a Hollywood sign that she used to literally climb as a child.
Speaking on the Tuesday, Feb. 3 episode of Amy Poehler's Good Hang With Amy Poehler podcast, the legendary comedian said of her childhood in LA, "You didn't have to lock your doors."
"And every morning when I would go out getting ready to go to school, I'd look up and there was a Hollywood sign," Burnett, who turned 92 last April, said. "And we used to climb the Hollywood sign. The other neighborhood kids and I — now you can't get near it."
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Carol Burnett on Good Hang with Amy Poehler
Good Hang with Amy Poehler/YouTube
She continued: "We would fly kites or roller skate and they would say, 'I'm bored. Let's go climb the sign.' So we did. And it was just, it was kind of rickety then, they've fixed it up now."
"And there were splinters and I would climb up, and get splinters, and it's a wonder we didn't break our neck. And then the 'O's' were my favorite. And I would just hang over the 'O's' and say, 'Hello, Hollywood. Hello.' We do the Tarzan yell and all of that."
Burnett lived with her grandmother at the time and, as she described elsewhere in the podcast, they were so poor she could not afford tuition at UCLA.
"I lived with my grandmother in one room, a block north of Hollywood Boulevard," she said. "And we were poor. Our rent was $1 a day, $30 a month, and sometimes we could hardly manage that. And so I graduated from Hollywood High. And I desperately wanted to go to UCLA. And my grandmother said, 'Forget it. You know, we can't afford the tuition, there's no way.'"
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Tuition for one semester at the school, she added, was $50.
"So we lived in this apartment building [and] every morning, I would check — there was a pigeonhole mailbox for all the apartments — and I would look out and see if we had a little letter or something in our slot," she added. "So I go up, and there's a letter in this slot. This one morning, I came out and I opened it up in our room. My name was typewritten on the envelope. And there was a $50 bill. I do not to this day know where that came from."
Speaking to PEOPLE in 2018, Burnett explained that she still doesn't know who sent the mystery cash.
"There's something bigger than we are," the actress said at the time, reflecting on her good fortune with PEOPLE. "I don't want to sound woo-woo, but there are so many wonderful coincidences in my life."
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While at UCLA, Burnett developed a passion for theatrical studies and set out to star on Broadway after graduation. Eventually she got her first regular on-screen role as Celia, the girlfriend of Buddy Hackett's titular character, in the sitcom Stanley from 1956 to 1957.
Later that year, she solidified her status as a comedienne with her hit parody number swooning over America's then-Secretary of State. She performed "I Made a Fool of Myself Over John Foster Dulles" on major TV programs like The Ed Sullivan Show.
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Source: “AOL Entertainment”
