Up in Lights: The History of Neon
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- Опубликовано: 1 окт 2024
- For years in the early twentieth century there was one kind of light that dominated above all else: Neon.
This is original content based on research by The History Guy. Images in the Public Domain are carefully selected and provide illustration. As very few images of the actual event are available in the Public Domain, images of similar objects and events are used for illustration.
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All events are portrayed in historical context and for educational purposes. No images or content are primarily intended to shock and disgust. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. Non censuram.
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Script by JCG
#history #thehistoryguy #Neon
My father (b 1920) went to school in New York after he returned to the US from fighting WWII to learn to bend glass for signs; he finished school in 1946. He eventually settled in Memphis ( where I grew up); he helped make the over-the-top Holiday Inn signs and made letters for the huge Sears sign on the tower of Memphis' Sears Crosstown. He enjoyed driving us through town, proudly pointing out the signs he had made. When he semi-retired, he opened his own shop in Eureka Springs AR. He worked until Alzheimer's made his hands shake too much to bend glass, in 2000 at age 80. He would have thoroughly enjoyed your report. Thanks!
I am a neon bender who lived in Eureka Springs for a bit. Just missed him by 10 years. so bummed! Did he ever work on the downtown neon in ES? So cool!
He made the neon for the Hoedown, and (in the 1970's) converted the gas lighting to electrical in the club in the basement of the New Orleans Hotel. His name was Tony Maffei, Beaver Neon. He had a shop in Berryville. They built a house on Rockhouse Rd in 1983; he moved his shop to the garage. He made neon for a shop in Rogers, particularly after a bad hailstorm. He stopped working age 80, 2000, passed away 2003, Mother died 2010, buried both at Hogscald.
@@michaelantone7465 Such priceless memories you must have.
Thank you for sharing some of them.
Very cool!
In the 1950's Vancouver, Canada had more neon than Las Vegas. about 15 years ago the city started to restore and revive the old neon, especially in the Granville St. entertainment district. Vancouver being a rainy city is the perfect place for neon. Neon lights reflecting off a rainy street just makes for a wonderful atmosphere.
I was hoping Vancouver was going to be mentioned, even though he did show a pic of Granville st
Hey a cascadia flag
Yep. Absolutly. I remember as a kid looking down King George Highway in Surrey at night. It was a spectacle of neon. The Rickshaw chinese restaurant was especially ornate. But, time and tide ended neon. We hardly noticed its gradual disappearance through the 1970s and 1980s. By the mid-1980s, the Round-up cafe was about the only neon signed business remaining on King George.
I lived in Vancouver for a couple of years just over twenty years ago. I recall there being a single neon sign left on Broadway that was weirdly integrated with a Toys-R-Us sign. I think it was protected by law.
@@owenbloomfield1177 I should mention that vandalism to neon signs increased after the 1960s when a lawlessness culture began arriving.
Nice, as a bender for 27 years and still making neon, it's nice to see the history again. Neon still survives with the help of us benders!
I hope you grab every chance you get to say "bite my shiny metal ass" 😄
Where can I learn this skill?
If you work overtime, is it called a bender bender?
@@heyyou5189 Not...from a Jedi.
Bend It Like Beckham.
Re: argon. I am reminded of punning posters at a local college with faculty members pictured on them. One sticks in my mind: "Be sure to attend chemistry class. We miss you when argon". :)
now i want a giant neon burger spinning above my house update: my wife said no
When I think of neon, my mental image isn't just of the bright, vibrant, colourful lights, but of the darkness against which they shine as well. As always, light and darkness seem to need each other... In my imagination, the darkness glitters, perhaps it's been raining, and throws out coloured sparks of neon reflection.
As an aside, we've nicknamed our Flemish Giant rabbit *Argon*, because he is both noble and inert.
The Joker speaking to his driver: "Look at the city. What do you see out there?"
Driver: "I see lights, boss."
Joker: "I see holes in the darkness."
@@RCAvhstape Yes!
I have a neon sign in my living room of the Shell logo and I never turn it on unless the other lights are off. Neon lights demand attention!
This episode takes me back to small town Colorado. Restaurants, hotels-motels and train depots were lit in neon signs. Wonderful memories of a bygone era.
I went to grad school in Seattle with a woman from a small town in Scandinavia. She loved driving down the busy streets at night, looking at the neon lights. She'd seen them in American movies and felt she was 'really' in America, as she drove along, looking at the neon lights that lined the way.
I've always loved neon signs, especially the more elaborate ones. BTW, one of the sight gags in the "Police Squad!" TV series involved a neon sign. The detectives were following up a lead at the "Club Flamingo", which had a motion-animated neon sign of a guy clubbing a flamingo!
Front a retired neon sign maker: Bending glass and passing gas...
"The poetry of night." Yeah, that works for me.
Neon is still hot and fashionable in Osaka. Every respectable shop has a custom neon centerpiece. Thank Instagram.
Thank you Instagram
I’m a neon bender of 41 years, and still enjoy making it. Neon now has taken a sad turn to disappearing due to the lack of new benders, and the introduction of leds. You can’t replace the warm glow of neon that will always grab your attention! My slogan is
“the lights of futures past”
While it's true that LEDs are more energy efficient and is easier to install there's something about the glowing tubes of neon that can't be replicated.
teach me how...
@@jimmybones8813 I’m in pa outside phila
How do I get into this? This seems like an amazing line of work
When I was a young teenager, there was an abandoned mine explosion in the eastern part of Birmingham. It shattered storefronts at a nearby shopping center. My dad and I went over to see the situation. There was a neon sign for a dry cleaners with the window broken out. Don't touch a glowing neon light. It will shock you.
(You mentioned the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, I know nothing about that. Maybe that could be another episode.)
I just love neon signs, got 2 at home and they create such a nice atmosphere at night. They are even quite affordable if you import them or buy them second hand!
You could also buy one from your local neon artist & help support the art you love. :)
I used to work with a man who made custom neon signs, as I was refurbishing a early 20 century sign, but would watch him in my spare time, & I was fascinated how he would take long tube of glass, a torch, & create whatever the client wanted in the way of neon signs :)
As I sit here watching this I keep looking up at an old, still working Falstaff beer sign hanging on ,my wall above the computer that was given to me about 11-12 years ago
Falstaff, how I miss it! 1/4-keg of the brew in a polystyrene cooler amidships in a rental canoe, put-in at dawn on a quiet tiny river in the local wilderness hours before anybody else, and as the sun rose & the air heated up the little tapper would get tapped. We were only 18~19, but already knew how to squeeze pleasure out of life !
My all-time favorite was, and is, "Trenton Makes, The World Takes" which spans the Delaware River though the new sign is no longer neon. One of my favorite, non-PC neon signs was for a Hollywood 'gentlemen's club' and it advertised "Live Nude Girls!" and I always thought to myself "Well that's good; they're so much better than the dead ones." My favorite in later life was atop the old Jensen's Rec Center on Sunset Blvd in Echo Park. The center had bowling lanes and the sign had a man on the roof throwing the ball which then rolled along the top of the building before hitting the pins which scattered in all directions. Jensen's is long gone but the sign remains though in non-working condition. When I moved out of the area a decade ago the community was looking into the costs to refurbish the sign.
"When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of a neon light"
". . . and touched the sound of silence".
Paul Simon
@@johndemeritt3460 - "And the people bowed and prayed, to the neon god they made."
@@John-ru5ud, I love the interplay, but I've got a sinus headache brewing. So if you don't mind me cutting to the chase:
The Sounds of Silence (1966): ruclips.net/video/4fWyzwo1xg0/видео.html
The Sound of Silence (1964): ruclips.net/video/l0q7MLPo-u8/видео.html
That split the night
Echoed the sound
Of silence.
just watch out for the sound of cylons though
Recently the Neon Sign atop the PSFS Building was redone.
The PSFS (Philadelphia Savings Fund Society) was the first "Modern Style" Skyscraper in the US. It is now the Loews Hotel, and they have kept as much of the Modern atmosphere as possible.
The Neon sign is notable because it was designed as part of the Building, rather than an add-on. It is much loved, but all good things come to an end.
In the early 2000's the Tubes were worn out, and a there was much debate about replacing them "In-Kind" or with LEDs.
LEDs won out, but the beloved Sign glows again.
It looks good, but I can see the difference in the Colour of the Light.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSFS_Building
Unsolicited bit of trivia: The title "L'être et le néon" is a pun on the title of J.P. Sartres extremely popular philosophical essay "L'être et le néant", "being and nothingness" published in 1943.
Thanks for that bit of trivia
As a practicing neon bender in the US, I commend you for your research! Thank you for sharing my craft with the world.
9:46 I used to live 2 blocks from Santiam Depot in Stayton, Oregon. It is now known as Rumours, but the neon signs remain. About 1 block north is the Star Cinema which shows movies from the past and is straight out of the 1950's...including a neon marquee. If you ever want that "town of Mayberry" feeling, be sure to stop in to Stayton, Oregon.
Very good, I had a dream about neon signs last night 🌃🌉 and then I got up today and watched this video ! Excellent thanks 😊
When I hear the word "neon", I think of the Brooks & Dunn song "Neon Moon": "I spend most every night beneath the light of a neon moon..."
Well done, part of the fabric of our life in the 20th century.
There is one at a liquor store here in Ocean city Maryland with dancing beer and wine bottles. I smile whenever going past...
The soft glowing blinking attraction of a shopping center neon sign caused me to start reading at age 3. I will never forget those warm red 4 foot tall letters 30 feet in the air. What a mystery! If I could only read what it said. Then one day I could and the world opened:
S. H. O. P. SHOP. SHOP.
That's the most American thing I've read in quite a while
the coolest light designs and signs ever.
One thing that comes to mind is that even after it's heyday neon continued in a widespread but humble role, the simple OPEN sign in the window of so many small businesses and restaurants from coast to coast
I've been to Vegas once. I remember looking out at the city from my room on the strip at 3am just being mesmorized by the lights and all the activity. Having done psychedelics since, having a trip while in Vegas is definitely on my bucket list!
Hope that isn't "Fear and Loathing " revisited.
Thank you.
I am a retired research professor. I learned scientific glassblowing as a means to repair and fabricate the equipment I used in my research.
After retirement, I had the privilege of learning to make neon signs under the tutelage of Mr. Potter at the Nebraska Neon Sign Company in Lincoln. I am grateful for that good and challenging experience.
Thank you again, History Guy and Gal.
I hope THG will touch on the history of neon in Hong Kong and other cities outside the USA, because that's history that deserves to be remembered.
I miss the bright neon signs in myriad of colors and shapes viewed from my large comfy couch in the back of my dad's land yacht as we sped by... magical. There was one I always enjoyed off of Interstate 270 (near Old Halls Ferry road) North St.Louis. It was a drive-in theater with a very tall neon yellow french fry along with a giant red sphere on top like a giant cherry. I still look for it when driving by that spot, but like most of my childhood memories it has been crushed by the wheels of time.
Still got a half dozen pieces saved from my old job, where they were spare parts for the signs. Now on the wall as a decoration that I power up on occasion.
THG:"make neon iconically American!"
France:"Wait,what?"
America:"Finders keepers Frenchy!"
well, it's true. While invented in France, and certainly not a dead art in our neighbouring country (I'm Belgian), with the American search for ever bigger and better, or at the very least ever bigger, they quickly outshone other countries, quite literally.
@@barvdw I gas so...
Hahaha!!
"..The buzzing neon Rexall Drugstore sign promising a cool air-conditioned interior with a polished formica table top where one could order a "Green River". The lazy cadence of the cicadas punctuating the languid air of a southern town at night scented by the magnolias and a slight fetid still river scent of slow moving water."
Except in Shropshire.
Yepper
Lol..while reading that all I could think about was, "bud...wise...er."
@@korbell1089 or a vanilla Coke
Isn't that a quote? It made me want to read the source ;)
Neon lit up our lives.
Dallas, Texas has the Mobil Flying Red Pegasus sign restored many years ago.
The sign for decades was clearly visible atop the Mobil building to airline pilots and passengers on approach to Love Field as they passed over the city.
It is now a historic monument.
When I was a little kid I thought the Mobil Pegasus sign was the most beautiful sign in the world.
Atlanta had a Blue Bird along I-20. The huge Coca-Cola sign with timed lights for motion was the heart of Atlanta to me for years.
@@Wextopher Very cool.
Shortly after WW-II ended, there was an advertising blimp that carried a spectacular Mobil Pegasus neon sign. It was quite a sight to behold at night when its flashing wings appeared to be in flight as the blimp passed overhead.
Whoop-a- tee- do! Cheers from the largest city in the South...
As a little kid I remember the gas stations, motels, shops all lit up. There is a small shop that restores the old lights here in town, I'd love to learn the trade. Wonderful video HG.
THG quoting an old school song. Brilliant!
Here where I live one of the most iconic neon signs is the Majorette that graced the old Campus drive-in. After many years of being forgotten, she was included in the construction of the remodeled College Grove Shopping Center.
Today's story was quite enlightening.😉💡
In Melbourne, Australia, I believe the most iconic neon (no longer neon, as it has been replaced) sign was "Little Audrey", the Skipping Girl, logo of the eponymous vinegar brand.
My grandfather was a neon bender which means I grew up in a perpetual science class starting each morning lighting the fires, running the bombardier and making patterns for him. My father worked for Ramsey signs out of Portland OR. And his 3 brothers worked for it ran their own sign shops so Of course I made my way into the sign Business for the last 20 years and barely get to work with neon anymore....first it was futuristic then retro and now outdated with the ever growing l.e.d. Technology. Thank you for the reminder ❤️
What a cool family history!!
Oh I miss those lovely old neon signs 😢 Growing up in the was an old sign for the Douglas Drive in Theater near my house. Shaped like a 1950's Chevy Bel Air. What a great sign and so sad to watch it slowly decay and eventually get torn down.
Again, THG shows the inter-disciplinary nature of history! All of us alive now are familiar with the “noble gases” of the periodic table, and thank you for reminding us of their discovery! Thank you also for reminding us of the blend of science, technology, business, and art that combine to give us “neon lights”!
There's many a man cave still decorated with neon.
Thanks THG for another enjoyable episode. 💜
In Texas; movie theaters, restaurants, dry cleaners, drug stores especially ones with a soda fountain, drive-in movie theaters, a furniture store, etc. had neon signs up into the 1960s.
I remember a feeling of disappointment one pre-dawn morning as I headed to work on Chicago’s Lake Shore Drive. The huge pink neon sign at the ritzy Drake Hotel looked…different. As I got close, I could tell. The neon had been replaced by LEDs. The shape was right, but the color was off…and it seemed more in focus than the neon did somehow. I’ve become used to it, but I do miss the neon version.
I am going hit the 👍 because the narrator seems joyful today…and delightful story.
This topic lit The History Guy up
@@daveschmarder-1950 rimshot*
THG always gets the tone right: cheerful but not goofy for topics like this, somber but not maudlin for topics like, say, "The Poppies of Flanders Fields" poem the other day.
Years ago I was part of a tour of an acrylic factory (Rhome & Haas; "Plexiglas") outside Philadelphia, PA. During the tour they mentioned that acrylic factories were considered critical during World War II and that during that time their production capacity was ramped up. After the war, with their newly increased production capacity, acrylic or "plastic" signs became a large market for them. Thus the decline of neon signs was, in part, due to WWII.
Nice video. Don't forget all the little neon indicator lamps there are out there.
let there be light
"Some girl with psychic power, she said, 'T-Bone, what's your sign?'
I blink and answer, 'Neon!' I thought I'd blow her mind."
My grandfather was one of the first neon glass blowers and had his business for 50 years.
That's very cool!!
Yesco Young Electric Sign Company! They had Las Vegas tied up! They did every light on off the Strip Downtown also. The signs that aren't in use or the company closed. If you want to see some of the greatest signs in Vegas history. The Neon Museum its on North Las Vegas blvd Vegas Vick is residing there!🤓💯
If you are driving there from the east, hit Old Route 66 in Tucumcari and Albuquerque, NM, and east Main Street in Mesa, AZ, for more cool neon signs in use! 😎
The brand new downtown Casino... Circa... has both a Vegas Vic and a Vegas Vickie inside... not the original, but faithful reproductions (and smaller).
And what did Young Electric install as the Main ID sign for the NEON MUSEUM ???
An "led" pole sign !
Blasphemy 🤔😥
Lost all respect for YESCO after that.
12:28. Thats San Francisco. If I remember forrectly, that is Carol Doda on the sign. I think I also remember the pasties on the sign were large red lights. 🤔 now why do I remember that? ;)
I wonder who blanked out some words on the Carol Doda sign?
You are correct. The corner pictured is at Columbus and Broadway in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. Bel Air is a neighborhood in Los Angeles.
Took some time but the sign with the black-out said "Complete Topless Love Act show" - there were several other versions before this one which probably went up after the place went 'bottomless' in September 1969.
They have since gone "tits up"...
@@JTA1961" it's all gone pear-shaped", to borrow a British expression....
in 1966, I sat in a 2 for 25 cent hamburger joint across the street from the Camel sign in Times sq.and watched the "guy" blow 100 smoke rings... it took 45 minutes !
13:00 "The grotesque Disneyland...." Well, that's redundant.
Warm summer nights, lit by the glow of a neon lit drive-in canopy. Takes me back to my youth and fond memories.
Thx
I remember when neons became a thing. You know, they named a car after it and a movie character
😂
The General Electric Co, of Great Britain ( no connection to the US company) set up a neon sign company called "Claudgen" . This company was responsible for the neon advertising in such places as Piccadilly Circus in London.
We need a go-fund-me to get Simon Whistler's Neon sign fixed.
Thanks HG, after a gloomy morning, this story really brightens my day !
Neon signs makes me think of one of the local landmarks here in Charlotte, the Ratcliffe Flowers sign in uptown. Though Ratcliffe is no longer a flower shop, but a restaurant, and while the sign is still in the same location, the building has been moved one hundred feet north of its original location.
In the 1930s, a Frenchman was taken to see Times Square by night. He said, "How magnificent it would be, if only one could not read."
True, and that actually occurs when you look at signs in a language you can't read. The neon just becomes art. Hong Kong is an excellent example, for the many people who can't read Chinese.
Back in the 60s my Buddys Dad owned a Liquor Store. I LOVED all the Neon it was Wrapped in. Mint green Blues Reds Oranges Pinks and Yellows. A true Sight to Behold. Now its a run down Smoke Shop. Thanks Youngster
So that's the beginning of the Liquid Air company, which is a major industrial supplier today and critical to semiconductor component production. Fascinating.
In 1994, Chrysler/Dodge Motor Co. introduced the Dodge Neon, a four cylinder sports coupe which, with regular upgrades, is still in continued production.
Fantastic overview of the art of neon. I have always been a neon fan, so much so I took a class on tube bending.. I am very good with my hands but tube bending is one of the most challenging things I've ever done. You start out with a solid 10 or 12mm tube, after putting it over a ribbon burner it becomes plastic. Very odd feeling,, then comes the hard part. You must keep the tube from twisting as you rotate it through the flame. If you don't there is a good chance it will break when you charge the tube.. One of the first skills you practice time and time again is fusing two tubes together. I lost count on how many bad joints were done before I got a good one. If you do it right you barely see where it was fused together. Next you learn to bend the tubing. Radius's are pretty straight forward, heat up the area you want to bend using a ribbon burner (you can adjust the length of the flame) then bend it to match your pattern. Tight curves are a whole nother animal. You concentrate the heat over a much smaller area and let the glass flow from the top of the tube to the bottom so when you bend the thicker part is the outside radius. This keep the glass thickness the same all the way around the tube. Again this is to the tube survives the charging process. Then there is the art of the double back bend. This process has to be done for every curve and bend in a project. This is why neon is so costly now, it is all done by hand. Some of the simple "Open" signs are machine bent but anything more is always hand bent. Once you know how it's done and have actually tried it you never look at a neon sign the same. Hmmm, I may check into another class, I'm getting the bug to repair an old sign I have and light up the house!
Good description.
For an interesting variant on glassblowing neon tubes, look up " handmade vacuum tubes" on You Tube. There are several guys who make their own radio tubes, such as "glasslinger" and another guy who makes Nixie numerical display tubes. The process is quite complex, a mix of engineering, electronics, and artistry.
Dalibor Farný is the YT channel for the nixie tubes. Those folks are off the chart cool.
@@bradjohnson9671 , there's another guy, in Germany or Czechoslovakia i think, who makes big audio triodes by hand. I'm an electronics tech and love old tube amps and tubes in general.
Where do you take a class? I took two classes, one in design at the museum of neon art in LA , 1981. And in bending in NYC at the experimental glass workshop, now in Brooklyn.
How many songs can you think of that reference neon? A quick online search found dozens, from Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Elton John, Sheryl Crow, Creedence Clearwater Revival, the Kinks, the Derailers, and the Pretenders to Alan Jackson, Kris Kristofferson and Conway Twitty.
My very first studio apartment, in downtown San Diego, had a neon sign across the street and it flashed every night into my window; I spent a fair amount of time and effort trying to block it. I hated that flashing neon light. These days, I don't even have a night light to invade my beloved darkness, come bed time. ggg
Nice video, really enjoyed it. I'm a Neon Glass Fabricator in the Atlanta area. Have been bending since the early 90's. My Brother who is retired, we both learned from our Father. Who in turn, learned from our Grandfather. Who learned how to bend in the St. Louis area in the 1920's.
I do a few units per week, the pandemic has really slowed down the Neon business for me. But as you said, time passes everything up. Neon started to really die out here in 2006 when L.E.D. lights took over. Before that, I averaged about 60 hours a week. I can say, I do have a job most people find fascinating, but I personally find it boring after 30 years.
Ok, did you get your neon sign for this episode, or did you write this episode to show off your new neon sign? Either way, it's a great episode.
Getting close to a million subs. Such a far cry from the 8k you had when I subbed. So little has changed in the quality or presentation. Maybe more high res images and the fancy intro. But still my favorite ole' History Guy.
THG- You illuminate the web with your bright wit and shining intellectual stories. You are a light in the murky wilds of RUclips!
Clearly illuminating!
Earl C. Anthony, mentioned at 7:15 was also an early radio pioneer. He founded two Los Angeles first radio stations. KECA and KFI. KFI is still on the air today.
I can still picture the Dog N Suds neon sign from my early childhood in the midwest where my dad would take the family for a frost mug of root beer if we had "been good" that day.
My favourite still is the Wrigley Field marquee.
Oh shit.... look at that THG intro! Lol badass sir! Badass indeed.
If you are ever in Cincinnati check out the American Sign Museum. More than neon, but they have a nice collection of neon signs and are restoring them.
I worked at a facility that had an air distillery out back. They had cryo tanks for the fractions, including neon, and a tanker would come and take some away periodically.
Please tell the history of the Salton Sea in south eastern California it’s history that deserves to be remembered
I have seen some video histories, but I know our Guy can produce a stellar one!
0:44 I was half expecting this to be a segway into 80s music. Enjoyable history that deserves to be remembered.
*segue A segway is a twowheeled platform on which one rides.
@@lizj5740 little did I know my comment would be a segue into an English lesson.
@@ALRIGHTYTHEN. Thanks for taking this with a bit of humor. Your comment was the third time I'd seen "segway" in the past week, and I couldn't contain myself any longer.
@@lizj5740 we'd live miserable lives if we got upset every time we made a mistake and life corrected us. What's really funny though is that every now and then the actual segway will cross my mind and I can never think of what it's called.
It would help if I came across the word in writing more than every 5 or 10 years. With your help I will spell it correctly for the next few years...then brain fart it again.
So you're saying he was a neon Nazi?
Illuminating take on Neon.
"Al's", on the series, Happy Days, might have been one of the most seen.
I love catching these in the morning
Soon 1 million subs.
I’m not surprised!
Road trips always featured the relief at finally seeing a neon “Vacancy” sign looming up. And more than once the flashing “NO” to disappoint.
So true!! I have those same memories!
Excellent as usual...
I thought for a second there was a man called "The Fire Department."
Neon lights are very amazing. 😀👍
Amsterdam 😉
A wonderful travelogue of Neon, with some science and history thrown in. Fascinating, sir. Fascinating.
Neon starts to have a downfall.......here i am laughing in 1980's!!!
I really don't care what some people may say... NEON and NEON "like" colored signs to me - look TOTALLY BADASS, PERIOD!!! Besides, they are rare form of art AND craftsmanship that should have NEVER gone away!
Don't forget the buzzy crackle sound it makes. I remember that as clearly as the bright colours.
I was just in NYC last weekend and saw the wonderful "Havana Club" sign just off Times Square. A great piece of 50s Americana going to ruin.
A bright idea.
I dig neon signs, Always have. Nothing (to me) says "city" like neon. To me the later fluorescent backlit plastic signs while effective, and less expensive, they just seem soulless by comparison. I also dig the REAL OLD signs (where the letters are made up of multiple incandescent bulbs). with modern LED "incandescent" looking bulbs, perhaps that style will get a "renaissance" as well. Then too, I watch a lot of old "film noir" and listen to a lot of old radio detective shows, So I obviously have a thing for the 1940's "gritty" urban aesthetic - I mean the '40s DID have the best lookin' dames...See?!?
The American Sign Museum in Cincinnati is a terrific display. They have a great neon collection. Absolutely worth a visit. I wish I could post photos here.
The world has changed. In the 1990's Tampa Florida had a neon sign factory. Some of the glass tubes made it onto the streets and became... crack pipes. True story and history worth remembering. Odd but true.
We used to refer to a place I worked at as, "Hell with neon lighting."