According to police and residents, Halloween in Hollywood was out of control two decades ago, with revelers regularly spraying and damaging properties with a product considered such a threat that it has since been banned seasonally: Silly String.

Thin strands of modeling clay took the shine off sports cars parked on the street. Even famous stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame weren’t safe from this rainbow-colored substance.

The situation came to a head in the early 2000s, when police said particularly awkward Halloween celebrations left Hollywood homeowners with about $200,000 in annual cleanup and recovery costs.

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

Fed up after nearly a decade of string-scraping, the city of Los Angeles restrictions approved this August which remain in place today. Under the ordinance, Silly String is banned in public places in Hollywood from midnight on October 31 to midnight 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 municipal signs along Hollywood Boulevard and other main streets in the days leading up to Halloween, declaring in bold crimson letters: “It is ILLEGAL » possess, use, sell or distribute silly strings in public places.

Between 2009 and May 1, 2022, the LAPD arrested one person and issued no citations for violating Hollywood’s Halloween ban, according to public records provided to the Times. A ministry spokesperson declined to comment for this story.

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

Silly String was discovered accidentally in 1972 by two scientists who were trying to develop a sprayable cast for broken limbs. The puffy product rose to prominence during the 1990s, eventually becoming ubiquitous in toy stores around the world.

The popularity of the novelty was accompanied by an increase in the number of party-goers, mocking teenagers and protesters wreaking mindless destruction. In city after city, complicated and costly incidents have prompted landowners and law enforcement to call on legislative representatives to take action.

Hollywood isn’t the only place where politicians have taken steps to stem the scourge of Silly Strings. At the federal level, the EPA monitors it and similar products and forced big retailers to remove “illegally imported confetti rope products that contain prohibited hydrochlorofluorocarbons” from their shelves.

Last year, Beverly Hills passed an ordinance ban people under 21 from having Silly String – or shaving cream or hair removal gel – in public on Halloween.

A village in New Jersey ban this thing in 1998, after a particularly festive Independence Day parade. A decade earlier, Marlborough, Massachusetts, passed an ordinance banning “any instrument or product designed to project a plastic string or streamer,” aka Silly String.

In 1996, a town in Connecticut banned the Silly String at carnivals, parades and other public events, punishable by a fine of up to $99. The ordinance was approved after Silly String sprayed during a parade at a local apple harvest festival “discolored cars, stained clothes and instruments, and nearly caused them to lose control of their motorcycles.” two police officers present in the parade.” according to the Hartford Courant.

There is no evidence that Silly String ever caused LAPD motorcycle cops to destroy their pigs as they weaved between drunken vampires and mermaids on Hollywood Boulevard. But the Los Angeles statute says the ban was necessary because Silly String “can cause pedestrians and police officers on horseback or motorcycles to slip and fall.”

Some locals are skeptical.

“I’ve never seen him,” said Julio Suarez, 33, smoking a cigarette in front of the Hollywood Boulevard building where he has lived for three years. “Stupid string?” Why would this become a problem? »

Cops continue to ask the city to put up anti-Silly String signs every October, even though some officers question whether it’s still necessary.

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

Silly String is no longer as widely used as it was a decade or two ago, although some nonpartisan applications have emerged. The American army used Silly String to detect IEDs on the battlefield, relying on foam to latch onto tripwires that would otherwise be invisible.

Some cities, including Lodi in San Joaquin Countyare reconsidering bans hastily put in place years ago.

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

“Now I might go get some 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 originally from the neighborhood. He introduced himself as Dave and declined to give his last name, saying there was a time when the damage to Silly String was actually a pretty serious concern for some in Hollywood.

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

Whether due to climate concerns, municipal bans, or simply the way fashions work, it seems the product has fallen out of favor. But according to Dan, Silly String is still 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 them.”