AA-2026-37EB73
On the image
Jean Hersholt spent decades being famous twice — once as a character actor in silent and early sound Hollywood, and again as the humanitarian whose name the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences eventually put on an award given to people who reminded the industry it existed for reasons beyond profit. The bronze rider atop this memorial, caught mid-gallop and arm raised, captures the civic ambition of 1950s commemorative sculpture: the subject must be shown going somewhere fast and purposefully, even if the monument itself is standing perfectly still.
The dedicatory plaque below lists his credentials in the hierarchy that Hollywood considered natural — Actor, Cultural Leader, Humanitarian — the last category being the one that earned you a monument in stone rather than a star on the sidewalk. Hersholt, born in Copenhagen and arrived in America by way of the early silent era, had translated Hans Christian Andersen and championed the Motion Picture Relief Fund, activities that his industry found admirable in the way it finds most admirable the things it would never actually do itself.
By 1958, the year someone stopped to record this, Hersholt had been dead for two years and his award was already becoming better known than his films. The Academy had found the ideal honoree: a man whose good works were specific enough to seem genuine and vague enough to inspire no arguments.
The historian's note
This is the Jean Hersholt Memorial, erected in Hollywood, California, to honor the Danish-born American actor and humanitarian Jean Hersholt (1886-1956). Hersholt was a prolific character actor of the silent and sound eras and a prominent philanthropist, serving as president of the Motion Picture Relief Fund and helping establish the Motion Picture Country House and Hospital for aging and indigent industry workers.
The bronze figure atop the monument depicts a scene from Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tales, which Hersholt translated into English, a labor that reflected his Danish heritage and his broader cultural philanthropy. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences later named its Humanitarian Award after him, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, first given in 1957, shortly before this memorial was dedicated.
The monument stands as a record of how the film industry, still consolidating its civic respectability at mid-century, chose to memorialize charitable service rather than screen credits.
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Jean Hersholt Memorial Monument, Los Angeles, 1958. 1958. Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library, AA-2026-37EB73. https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/jean-hersholt-memorial-monument-los-angeles-1958.
@misc{aaAA202637EB73,
title = {Jean Hersholt Memorial Monument, Los Angeles, 1958},
year = {1958},
howpublished = {Archive \& Atlas, Historical Image Library},
note = {Accession AA-2026-37EB73},
url = {https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/jean-hersholt-memorial-monument-los-angeles-1958}
}TY - ART TI - Jean Hersholt Memorial Monument, Los Angeles, 1958 PY - 1958 PB - Archive & Atlas, Historical Image Library AN - AA-2026-37EB73 UR - https://thearchive.archiveandatlas.com/library/jean-hersholt-memorial-monument-los-angeles-1958 ER -
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