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BERJAYA
"Sad Foot" side of the sign
BERJAYA
"Happy Foot" side of the sign

The Happy Foot Sad Foot sign (also written Happy Foot/Sad Foot sign) was an advertising sign for a podiatry clinic in Los Angeles, California, United States. Known locally as a fortune-telling device and neighborhood landmark, the sign continuously rotated to show two sides: one with a cartoon of an injured foot with an unhappy face, and the other side with a cartoon of a smiling and healthy foot. A local superstition held that if a person saw the sad side first, this was an omen of bad luck for the day, while seeing the happy side first suggested good luck for the day. Authors of novels and other creative works have incorporated the sign into stories, including Jonathan Lethem and David Foster Wallace.

The sign was installed in about 1985 for the Sunset Foot Clinic at Sunset Boulevard and Benton Way on the border between the Silver Lake and Echo Park neighborhoods of Los Angeles. The podiatrists who owned the clinic said that the sign successfully attracted customers. After the clinic lost its lease in 2019 and moved to a new location, a local shop owner put the sign on display in his store, Y-Que Trading Post, in the nearby neighborhood of Los Feliz.

Sign

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The sign revolved to show two sides with "Foot Clinic", the clinic's phone number, and illustrations.[1] The sad side has an illustration of a anthropomorphized foot with a distressed look on its face, small arms holding itself up on crutches, and a bandage around a toe.[2] The toes appear to be the face's hair.[3] The happy side has a foot with a triumphant face and no injuries, wearing sneakers and Mickey Mouse-style gloves.[4][5] On both sides, the foot has its own small legs and feet.[6][3] The surreal humor of the sign is part of its appeal for fans.[3]

Installation and operation

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After the Sunset Foot Clinic opened in 1985 at 2711 W. Sunset Boulevard, the podiatrist who owned it installed a version of the sign with a pink foot,[7] based on a sketch by a patient.[8] The original version can be seen in the 1993 documentary Silverlake Life: The View from Here.[9] The sign fell down in late 1993 and was replaced with the blue version, using a foot redrawn by the podiatrist's son.[10] The podiatry practice was in a mini-mall with a motel and a restaurant.[11] Sunset Boulevard is a major thoroughfare, and in this area it has a wide range of small businesses in retail plazas with signs intended to catch the attention of drivers and other passers-by.[12]

Clinic staff said that some patients chose to try the clinic for foot care because they liked the sign.[3][1] A podiatrist who owned the clinic said in 2019 that the brown foot seemed to reflect that the neighborhood had many Latino and Filipino residents when the clinic opened.[2] He said that the majority of his clients were Latino when he took over the practice in 2007, but many of his former clients had moved away due to increasing prices in the neighborhood.[2]

Relocation

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Sunset Foot Clinic said in July 2019 that it planned to move to Rampart Village in September because the property owner did not renew the clinic's lease.[1] Area residents created a petition to ask the property owner to preserve the sign and to encourage designating the sign as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument.[13][14] The clinic owner wanted to display the sign at the new clinic location but needed approval from the new landlord.[15]

The owner of Y-Que Trading Post, a T-shirt shop and gift shop in Los Feliz that sells merchandise depicting the sign, got permission from the clinic owner to take the two sides of the sign and display them inside his store.[16][17] The store has a wheel that visitors can spin to see if they land on Happy Foot or Sad Foot.[18]

A new restaurant opened in the former clinic space, a sports bar with Indian food, operated by the property owner's son.[1][19]

Cultural impact

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Video of sign rotating while cars drive by

The sign was nicknamed Happy Foot Sad Foot and described as an omen by the late 1990s: seeing the happy side first meant good luck or reassurance, and seeing the sad side first meant bad luck.[8] A Spin article about Beck in 1994 said that "he and his roommates would sit around at dusk, drinking beers and waiting for the sign to stop spinning. If the sign came to a halt and the happy side faced the house...they'd head out for action, but if the sad foot pointed in their direction, they'd call it a night."[20] In later years, the sign continued to rotate after business hours.[21]

The sign was at the edge between the Silver Lake and Echo Park neighborhoods.[22] Some locals started calling this area HaFo/SaFo, short for Happy Foot/Sad Foot, around 2010.[7][3] Neighborhood residents sometimes dress up as the foot for Halloween.[23]

BERJAYA
Circus Liquor sign, another roadside landmark in Los Angeles

Fans consider the Happy Foot Sad Foot sign part of local lore and nostalgia related to roadside advertising in Los Angeles, like Googie architecture, the Brown Derby, and Felix Chevrolet.[24][15] It was one of many unconventional commercial landmarks in the region, like the Circus Liquor sign in North Hollywood, Chicken Boy in Highland Park, and the big donuts of Southern California.[25][26][22] A local artist described the Happy Foot Sad Foot sign as "a connection to a kooky, weirder time in the neighborhood" and "not market-tested".[1][26] A writer for LAist described the sign as more beloved by locals than the Hollywood Sign.[3]

Novels

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In the 2007 novel You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem, the main character lives nearby and interprets the sign as "an eternal marriage of opposites, the emblem of some ancient foot-based philosophical system"; she uses it as a kind of coin flip to help her make decisions.[23][5] The novel The Pale King by David Foster Wallace, published in 2011, sets a version of the revolving sign in Chicago, where college students use the position of the sign to decide whether to do homework.[23][5] There is also a reference to the sign in Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (2022), a novel by Gabrielle Zevin.[27]

Music, film, and television

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In 2008 the band Eels released a song, "Sad Foot Sign", with lyrics including "Sad foot sign, why you gotta taunt me this way; the happy side is broken now; it's gonna be an awful day".[6][3] The song reflects that the sign sometimes broke and stopped rotating for a while.[23]

The band YACHT used an animated story about the Happy Foot Sad Foot sign, created by Mike Hollingsworth, as the music video for its song "Hard World" in 2018.[28] Singer Claire L. Evans said, "We believe in the half-assed urban legends that all Angelenos east of La Brea believe, which is that there's some kind of prophetic quality to it."[28]

The animated television series Teen Titans Go! had an episode in 2021 set in Silver Lake, featuring the Happy Foot Sad Foot sign and a podiatrist as part of the plot.[29]

A filmmaker made a short documentary film about the sign, including interviews with the podiatrists from the clinic, released in 2025.[30]

Art and merchandise

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An art show in 2013 at Machine Project, a community event space, included a project "to see if the sign's two-sided message indeed has the ability to predict a good or bad day".[31] The show, which was part of a Getty Foundation initiative about modern architecture in Los Angeles, also included a choral performance below the sign and a website with a simulation of the sign.[24][3][5] Artist Barbara Thomason included a painting of the sign in her book 100 Not So Famous Views of L.A. (2014).[5]

The clinic did not make official merchandise, but the owner as of 2019 did not mind people selling T-shirts, pins, and other items inspired by the sign.[3][1] A shop in Culver City sold Happy Foot and Sad Foot enamel pins in 2015.[32][33] Y-Que Trading Post, the location of the relocated sign, sells Happy Foot Sad Foot merchandise.[18]

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Vincent, Roger (July 13, 2019). "The Silver Lake Happy Foot Sad Foot sign is getting the boot". The Los Angeles Times. p. C1. Archived from the original on May 11, 2026. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 Shyong, Frank (July 15, 2019). "For the doctor behind Happy Foot Sad Foot sign, a strange kind of fame comes to an end". The Los Angeles Times. p. B1. Archived from the original on February 14, 2025. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Lloyd, Annie (October 20, 2017). "A Complete History Of The Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign In Silver Lake". LAist. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  4. ↑ Jensen, Danny (October 15, 2020). "Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign". Secret Los Angeles: A Guide to the Weird, Wonderful, and Obscure. Reedy Press LLC. ISBN 978-1-68106-216-7.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Wappler, Margaret (July 12, 2019). "The Happy Foot Sad Foot sign is moving. These books may fill the foot-shaped void in your heart". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on September 11, 2024. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  6. 1 2 Cotner, David (October 1, 2008). "Best Foot Forward (or Back): Sign at Sunset Foot Clinic". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on May 21, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  7. 1 2 Nichols, Chris (November 2, 2012). "I live near Sunset and Benton Way. A neighbor told me I'm "HaFo/SaFo adjacent." What's the story?". LAmag. Retrieved May 29, 2026.
  8. 1 2 Noxon, Christopher (March 14, 1999). "On the Street: Foothold on the Future". The Los Angeles Times. p. 324. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  9. ↑ Brightwell, Eric (September 10, 2019). "Art in the Streets — The Happy Foot/Sad Foot (1986-2019)". Eric Brightwell. Retrieved June 3, 2026.
  10. ↑ Melton, Mary (December 16, 1993). "Foot Notes". LA Weekly. p. 178. Retrieved June 8, 2026.
  11. ↑ Melton, Mary (September 30, 1993). "The Wanderers: Foot Traffic". LA Weekly. p. 19. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  12. ↑ Ammon, Francesca Russello; Goldstein, Brian D.; Nelson, Garrett Dash (July 1, 2025). "Ed Ruscha's Street-Level View and the Postwar Redevelopment Vernacular". In Perchuk, Andrew; Pugh, Emily; Gilbert, Zanna; Stuber, Tracy; Wade, Isabel Frampton (eds.). Ed Ruscha's Streets of Los Angeles: Artist, Image, Archive, City. The J. Paul Getty Trust. pp. 178, 185. doi:10.2307/jj.34980211.20. ISBN 978-1-60606-953-0.
  13. ↑ Stuart, Gwynedd (August 17, 2019). "Artists and a Foot Doctor Aren't Giving Up on Saving the Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign". LAmag. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  14. ↑ "Silver Lake residents are trying to save the Happy Foot Sad Foot sign". ABC7 Los Angeles. August 28, 2019. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  15. 1 2 White, Ronald D. (January 2, 2020). "Felix, Little Man and other beloved Los Angeles logos". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 25, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  16. ↑ Martin, Roy (October 2, 2019). "The Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign Lives On in Los Feliz Village". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on August 8, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  17. ↑ Blum, Steven (October 25, 2019). "The Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign Is Safe and Sound Inside a Los Feliz Boutique". LAmag. Archived from the original on March 5, 2026. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  18. 1 2 Mejía, Paula (April 7, 2024). "How a quirky foot doctor sign became LA's favorite fortuneteller". SFGATE. Archived from the original on July 29, 2024. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  19. ↑ Holmes, Mona (November 18, 2019). "Silver Lake's Beloved Happy Foot/Sad Foot Space Is Taking a Wild Restaurant Turn". Eater LA. Retrieved May 29, 2026.
  20. ↑ Rubin, Mike (July 8, 2014) [First published July 1994]. "Beck: SPIN's 1994 Cover Story, Subterranean Homeboy Blues". Spin. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  21. ↑ Rogers, Nate (November 22, 2019). "The Sunset Views of Beck's L.A." The Ringer. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  22. 1 2 "9 of LA's most bizarre roadside landmarks explained". Time Out Los Angeles. November 13, 2014. Retrieved May 30, 2026.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Miller, Laura (May 4, 2011). "How a podiatrist sign became a literary icon". Salon. Retrieved January 17, 2024.
  24. 1 2 Williamson, Bennett (December 17, 2013). "The HafoSafo Chorus and the Sunset Foot Clinic Sign Online". PBS SoCal. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  25. ↑ Nichols, Chris (February 26, 2019). "45 Fascinating and Unconventional Landmarks That Define Los Angeles". LAmag. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  26. 1 2 Keeps, David A. (December 12, 2014). "Artist Billy Kheel gives offbeat iconography the felt treatment". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 30, 2026.
  27. ↑ Chacko, Diya (July 5, 2022). "How LA influenced Gabrielle Zevin's novel 'Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow'". Orange County Register. Retrieved May 30, 2026.
  28. 1 2 Wakim, Marielle (February 3, 2018). "YACHT's Lastest Music Video Is an Ode to the Happy Foot/Sad Foot Sign". LAmag. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  29. ↑ Lank, Barry (May 13, 2021). "Saving hipsters from themselves - Teen Titans go to Silver Lake". The Eastsider LA. Archived from the original on March 23, 2022. Retrieved May 31, 2026.
  30. ↑ Lank, Barry (May 15, 2025). "Silver Lake's iconic Happy Foot / Sad Foot sign becomes subject of documentary". The Eastsider LA. Archived from the original on May 19, 2025. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  31. ↑ Walker, Alissa (June 20, 2013). "Machine Project's Oddball Take on L.A. Architecture, From a Helicopter Experiment to the Spirit of Whitney Houston". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on August 22, 2025. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  32. ↑ Wertheimer, Kate (August 19, 2015). "Happy Foot/Sad Foot just became wearable fashion". Time Out Los Angeles. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
  33. ↑ Tse, Carman (August 20, 2015). "You Can Now Wear Silver Lake's Iconic Happy Foot/Sad Foot". LAist. Retrieved May 29, 2026.
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