CLOSE-UP : It’s a Wonderful Light

For the past 30 years, Capitol Records has filled the sky with Christmas. At least the Hollywood sky. Tethered to the top of the company’s famous building is a Christmas tree of stars (three, each 100 pounds of aluminum) and lights (4,000-plus, all red) that each holiday season shines benevolently on the city below.

For the past 25 of those years, Paul Gavlak, 71, has provided the wattage.

By trade a steeplejack, one of only a handful in Southern California, Gavlak lifts himself in a small boatswain’s chair to the top of the building’s spire as he laces up the 36 strands of bulbs. Then lowering himself to the roof, he walks at the very edge, checking the cables, secured only by his grip on them. “I don’t really see it as dangerous,” says Gavlak. “It’s second-nature to me by now.”

The process--which occurs regardless of driving wind or pouring rain--takes approximately eight hours: four for the stars and four for the lights.

He has received an honorary gold record from Capitol, which reads “to commemorate the first 20 years of providing Capitol Records and all of Hollywood with the spirit of Christmas.”

Christmas at the Capitol Records building is the high point of his year. “It’s amazing to see the entire city from so high up,” says Gavlak, who is also a contractor specializing in homes on steep hillsides. “You do see how beautiful a city L.A. really is. Sometimes on the ground floor we forget.”