Vintage neon signs

[2jakes]

The Bond Clothes sign across the street was massive. A couple of miles of neon tube plus a waterfall. Not to mention the giant nude figures on the ends.

“This sign was 50 feet tall and 200 feet wide, spanned two streets, and featured a 50,000 gallon waterfall,

“Surrounding this waterfall were two classical-style figures of a man
and woman who were nude during the day, but clothed in neon
togas and dresses at night.”

(Electric lights turned on at night gave the impression the figures
were wearing clothes.)

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Wow... impressive. I wonder what became of the sign?

Rob

 

[2jakes]

Wow... impressive. I wonder what became of the sign?

Rob

In October 1954 the famous waterfall sign went dry and dark.

Pepsi-Cola, which restarted the waterfall but replaced the two figures with equally large Pepsi bottles, and the digital clock with a colossal bottle cap.
The Pepsi sign, lasted just a few years.

Now the old Bond building is occupied by a mixed bag of stores and theaters, topped by floodlit billboards for Jockey and Liz Claiborne that are big and bright, though hardly spectacular.

 

[Fading Fast]

And while I don't think there is any neon here, still, "Space Station Gas" with a crazy satellite on top - oh yeah!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Gas and liquor, always a popular mid-century combination.

 

[Fading Fast]

Gas and liquor, always a popular mid-century combination.

And don't forget the obvious connection to the space race which is, um, er, uh, well, you know, "The Space Race!"

 

[2jakes]

Yep!

Gas and liquor, always a popular mid-century combination.

Yep!

 

[3fingers]

Gas and liquor, always a popular mid-century combination.

It's more popular here now than it ever was. I can't think of a single convenience store that doesn't at least sell beer and wine.

 

[LizzieMaine]

And don't forget the obvious connection to the space race which is, um, er, uh, well, you know, "The Space Race!"

Esso used to advertise that they provided the fuel for AMERICA'S SPACE ROCKETS. Until a few of them blew up on the pad.

 

[Frunobulax]

Yep!


Yep!
View attachment 130225

Bonus photobomb by the Gulf sign.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[2jakes]

 

[2jakes]

 

[LizzieMaine]

There's a lot going on in that one. At the left we see the winner of the 1942 Clark Gable Look-Alike contest sponsored by the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce wondering, as he does every night as he loiters on the streetcorner, if it was really worth the effort. Meanwhile, the Grand Sachem of the local Redmen's Club exhorts his followers to put out 100 percent in selling tickets for the annual Bingo Frolic, which is now just two days away! Even as he speaks, his wife stands off to the right musing silently to herself "for the love of god, Walter, if you put half the effort into your job down at the pickle works that you put into that silly lodge, we could afford to actually go somewhere on a Saturday night."

 

[Fading Fast]

There's a lot going on in that one. At the left we see the winner of the 1942 Clark Gable Look-Alike contest sponsored by the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce wondering, as he does every night as he loiters on the streetcorner, if it was really worth the effort. Meanwhile, the Grand Sachem of the local Redmen's Club exhorts his followers to put out 100 percent in selling tickets for the annual Bingo Frolic, which is now just two days away! Even as he speaks, his wife stands off to the right musing silently to herself "for the love of god, Walter, if you put half the effort into your job down at the pickle works that you put into that silly lodge, we could afford to actually go somewhere on a Saturday night."

Before reading your post, I thought, that guy on the left put a lot, a whole lot, of effort into that outfit and hair - one does not turn out looking like that by happenstance or insouciance. Your Clark Gable call is perfect.

 

[LizzieMaine]

There aren't too many men on earth, then or now, who could get away with a pencil moustache and a three-tone hoodie. Now that's STYLE.

In all seriousness, though, that's a perfect image of how small-town working-class men dressed in the 1940s. Those caps and jackets were still common on the sidewalks of my childhood twenty years later.

 

[Frunobulax]

Before reading your post, I thought, that guy on the left put a lot, a whole lot, of effort into that outfit and hair - one does not turn out looking like that by happenstance or insouciance. Your Clark Gable call is perfect.

Yet I question the veracity of the photo. Everybody knows Dr. S. Friedman was a psychiatrist, not a dentist.


Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Here's another shot by the same photog of the same group of fellows snacking it up at the drugstore lunch counter. Brother Gable is evident at left, wondering if ordering a cream cheese sandwich and a lemon phosphate at this time of night will cause the boys to think any less of him.

 

[Fading Fast]

Love the Art Deco

 

[2jakes]

There's a lot going on in that one. At the left we see the winner of the 1942 Clark Gable Look-Alike contest sponsored by the Binghamton Chamber of Commerce wondering, as he does every night as he loiters on the streetcorner, if it was really worth the effort. Meanwhile, the Grand Sachem of the local Redmen's Club exhorts his followers to put out 100 percent in selling tickets for the annual Bingo Frolic, which is now just two days away! Even as he speaks, his wife stands off to the right musing silently to herself "for the love of god, Walter, if you put half the effort into your job down at the pickle works that you put into that silly lodge, we could afford to actually go somewhere on a Saturday night."

You have a knack for story-telling creativity which is very enjoyable.

The photo is from April 1943.
Baltimore, Maryland. "Third shift workers waiting on a street corner to be picked up by car pools around midnight."
Photo by Marjory Collins for the Office of War Information.

 

[2jakes]

Who needs neon when you have this to catch your attention!

Wasn't aware that "tamales" were popular back then....Ms. Lizzie...what do you think.