Why Hollywood is banning silly strings for Halloween

LOS ANGELES – According to police and resident accounts, Halloween in Hollywood two decades ago got out of hand, with revelers routinely spraying and destroying property with a product considered so dangerous that it has since been banned seasonally: Silly String.

Thin strands of plasticine stripped the shine from sports cars parked on the street. Even famous Hollywood Walk of Fame stars weren’t immune to the rainbow goo.

The topic hit fandom in the early 2000s, when police found that particularly difficult Halloween celebrations had left Hollywood property owners with around $200,000 in annual cleanup and remediation costs.

“On a typical Halloween night, up to 100,000 people come to Hollywood Boulevard,” Los Angeles police said in a statement. press release three days before Halloween 2004. “Hundreds of illegal vendors take to the streets and sell Silly String, which then becomes the only source of entertainment that evening.”

The city of Los Angeles has had enough after nearly a decade of purse strings approved restrictions August, which are still valid today. Pursuant to the regulation, Silly String is prohibited from performing in public places in Hollywood from 12:00 on October 31 to 12:00 on November 1. Violators face up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine.

For years, city Department of Transportation employees posted red-and-white city signs along Hollywood Boulevard and other major streets in the days leading up to Halloween, announcing in bold crimson letters: “It is ‘ILLEGAL’ to possess, use, sell or distribute silly strings of signs in public places.”

Between 2009 and May 1, 2022, Los Angeles police arrested one person and issued zero convictions for violating Hollywood’s Halloween ban, according to public records provided to The Times. A department spokesman declined to comment for this story.

Although the brand name is often used as a slogan for any number of similar products, the Hollywood ban defines Silly String as “any putty-like substance that is shot or ejected in the form of a string from an aerosol can or other pressurized device.”

Silly String was accidentally discovered in 1972 by two scientists trying to develop a spray dressing for broken limbs. The fuzzy product rose to prominence in the 1990s, eventually becoming ubiquitous in toy stores around the world.

With the popularity of the novelty, the number of partygoers, teenage mockers and protesters causing stupid destruction has increased. In city after city, chaotic and costly incidents prompted property owners and law enforcement to call on lawmakers to act.

Hollywood isn’t the only place politicians have moved to to stop the Silly String plague. At the federal level, the EPA monitors this and similar products and forced the largest retailers to withdraw “illegally imported confetti string products containing banned hydrochlorofluorocarbons” from shelves.

Last year, Beverly Hills issued an ordinance prohibiting people under 21 from using Silly String – shaving cream or depilatory gel – in public places on Halloween.

A village in New Jersey banned this material in 1998, after a particularly string-filled Independence Day parade. Ten years earlier, Marlborough, Massachusetts had passed an ordinance banning “any instrument or product designed to discharge a string or ribbon of plastic material,” also known as the Silly String.

In 1996, a Connecticut city banned the use of Silly String at carnivals, parades and other public events, punishable by fines of up to $99. The ordinance was approved after a Silly String spray at a parade during a local apple harvest festival “discolored cars, stained clothes and instruments, and nearly caused two police officers taking part in the parade to lose control of their motorcycles.” – reports the Hartford Courant..

There is no evidence that Silly String ever caused Los Angeles motorcycle cops to bust their pigs while weaving between drunken vampires and sirens on Hollywood Boulevard. However, the Los Angeles statute states that the ban was necessary because Silly String “is likely to cause slipping and falling of pedestrians and police officers on horses or motorcycles.”

Some residents are skeptical.

“I’ve never seen this,” said Julio Suarez, 33, smoking a cigarette outside the building on Hollywood Boulevard where he has lived for three years. “Silly String? Why would this even become an issue?”

Every year in October, police officers ask the city authorities to put up signs warning against stupid slogans, even though some officers have doubts whether it is still necessary.

“We haven’t seen Silly String in years!” Los Angeles sergeant wrote in an email to the Department of Transportation city engineer three days before Halloween 2021. “But yes. Let’s put them on hold just in case.”

Silly String is no longer as widely used as it was a decade or two ago, although some standalone applications have emerged. US military used Silly String detect improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on the battlefield using foam that adheres to aprons that would otherwise be invisible.

Some cities including Lodi in San Joaquin Countythey are reconsidering bans that were hastily introduced many years ago.

Larry Williams, a security guard who was working on Hollywood Boulevard one night, said he hadn’t thought about Silly String since he was a teenager. But now that he knows Hollywood has banned it, his interest has increased.

“Now I could buy a Silly String for Halloween,” he said with a laugh.

A man who sat in a low chair outside the Hollywood La Brea Inn on a recent evening said he was from the area. He introduced himself as Dave and declined to give his name, saying there was a time when Silly String damage was a pretty big deal for some in Hollywood.

“It’s not the same as it used to be,” he said. “They don’t spray it on (Hollywood) stars anymore.”

Whether due to climate concerns, city bans, or simply fashion, the product seems to have fallen out of favor. But according to Dave, Silly String is still readily available in Hollywood – if you know where to look.

“They just put up signs,” he said of the city. – But all the stores still sell it.

This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.