Vintage neon signs

[2jakes]

 

[Ghostsoldier]

I've read where Bogey modelled his character Duke in Petrified Forest after John Dillinger.

I could never get used to the stilted way in which he held and moved his arms, lol.

Rob

 

[2jakes]

I could never get used to the stilted way in which he held and moved his arms, lol.

Rob

My guess is that what worked for Bogey on the Broadway stage did not on the silver screen as far as his manner of the way he moved his arms which I agree appears rather affected.
Thanks to Howard who insisted that
he would only do the film if Bogey
played Mantee.
Such was the power or whatever Howard had that Warner complied.
Warner was very particular and not
many could tell him what to do.
But Jack knew a good thing when he saw it.
The Big Sleep (1945) first version was
brought back and redone with various scenes changed to promote the Bacall/Bogart chemistry after Jack received a letter from a friend who pointed out certain things about the
"The Big Sleep" as originally made.

The one shown on TCM is mostly the
1946 version.
I owned both and have edited my own by splicing scenes from both
for my own satisfaction!

 

[Fading Fast]

View attachment 119290
My guess is that what worked for Bogey on the Broadway stage did not on the silver screen as far as his manner of the way he moved his arms which I agree appears rather affected.
Thanks to Howard who insisted that
he would only do the film if Bogey
played Mantee.
Such was the power or whatever Howard had that Warner complied.
Warner was very particular and not
many could tell him what to do.
But Jack knew a good thing when he saw it.
The Big Sleep (1945) first version was
brought back and redone with various scenes changed to promote the Bacall/Bogart chemistry after Jack received a letter from a friend who pointed out certain things about the
"The Big Sleep" as originally made.

The one shown on TCM is mostly the
1946 version.
I owned both and have edited my own by splicing scenes from both
for my own satisfaction!

Great inside-baseball info 2Jakes.

On paper, Leslie Howard should never have been a Hollywood leading man - thin reedy voice, thin enervated body, thin sallow face, fine sallow hair and weak mannerisms - but he is the exception to all the leading-man rules. Somehow, despite everything about him being wrong, he is an outstanding leading man who can own a scene and demand your attention.

I love that he had that power at Warner - life is always more interesting in the details.

 

[2jakes]

Early "neon" style sign to promote housing developement in the '20s:

The Crescent Sign Company erected thirteen south-facing letters on the hillside. The sign company owner, Thomas Fisk Goff (1890–1984), designed the sign. Each letter was 30 feet (9.1 m) wide and 50 feet (15.2 m) high, and the whole sign was studded with around 4,000 light bulbs. The sign flashed in segments: "HOLLY," "WOOD," and "LAND" lit up individually, and then the whole. Below the Hollywoodland sign was a searchlight to attract more attention. The poles that supported the sign were hauled to the site by mules. Cost of the project was $21,000,equivalent to $301,629 in 2017.

Twenty-five years since the sign was built, a strong rain and wind-storm caused serious damage to the sign which included knocking down the letter H. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, along with the County of Los Angeles County undertook the project of removing the last four letters of the sign and refurbishing the remaining letters. Ever since 1949 the sign has read HOLLYWOOD.

In the '70s while living in Beverly Hills, I climbed the hill for no other reason than that it seemed like a good idea and I wanted to get a closer look. Reaching the top, I was disappointed to see that the sign was in poor condition and looked abandoned. Later I read that the city made repairs .
In the background is a view of LA. skyline.
It was common to hear "smog-warning" alerts in the early morning radio
broadcasts.

BTW:
Of the crop of British actors in lead parts, David Niven has always been a favorite.

 

[KY Gentleman]

I could never get used to the stilted way in which he held and moved his arms, lol.

Rob

I have read that Bogart wanted to convey the image of a man who had been in handcuffs and restraints so long his arms began to naturally hang that way.

 

[2jakes]

I have read that Bogart wanted to convey the image of a man who had been in handcuffs and restraints so long his arms began to naturally hang that way.

Actor James Whitmore did a great job in conveying what it is to have
spent most of life in prison and then to be released into a world
that was so foreign and unbearable that the only solution as far
as he was concerned was to take a pen knife, scratch his name
on wood before hanging himself.

"The Shawshank Redemption".

 

[2jakes]

 

[Fading Fast]

A for effort / B- for execution:

Love the Deco-ness and all the crazy support rigging:

 

[2jakes]

The Old Biograph Theatre ~ Chicago
1934.

(FBI Story, 1959)

 

[Ghostsoldier]

We were there a couple of years ago...I got to lay face down on the sidewalk at the alley entrance spot where Johnny Dillinger took a bullet to the head by Charles Winstead in 1934.

My wife wasn't amused, and told me to get up, because it was embarrassing, lol. [emoji16]

Rob

 

[1mach1]

We were there a couple of years ago...I got to lay face down on the sidewalk at the alley entrance spot where Johnny Dillinger took a bullet to the head by Charles Winstead in 1934.

My wife wasn't amused, and told me to get up, because it was embarrassing, lol. [emoji16]

Rob

Good man!

 

[2jakes]

We were there a couple of years ago...I got to lay face down on the sidewalk at the alley entrance spot where Johnny Dillinger took a bullet to the head by Charles Winstead in 1934.

My wife wasn't amused, and told me to get up, because it was embarrassing, lol. [emoji16]

Rob

The family was not too thrilled with my "souvenir" which I brought home and
wanted no part of it inside the house.
It was a piece of wood and screws from the yacht that belonged to Al Capone which he used in Florida during the St. Valentine Day festivities in Chicago.
The boat was being restored in parts
and I asked for some of the original
wood which they were happy to comply.
Today.....somewhere in the back alley lies a rotting piece of Big Al's
boat!

Sorry "Snorky" !

 

[Fading Fast]

As noted many times, if one truly turns into the food they've eaten the most in their lives, I will either become a slice of pizza or a Planters peanut / jar of peanut butter.

Oddly, I think this one looks better not lit as the colors are wrong / too red when lit - a peanut shell is not red!

 

[3fingers]

Agreed. Nice sign, poor execution.

 

[LizzieMaine]

That's a pretty old sign -- the design of Mr. Peanut is 1930s vintage, and that was a time when it was rare to see a neon sign in any color but red-orange.

To be strict in the terms, no neon sign is any color but red-orange -- that's the only color neon gas glows when energized -- so any sign using any other color of fluorescent gas is not actually *neon* sign.

 

[Fading Fast]

That's a pretty old sign -- the design of Mr. Peanut is 1930s vintage, and that was a time when it was rare to see a neon sign in any color but red-orange.

To be strict in the terms, no neon sign is any color but red-orange -- that's the only color neon gas glows when energized -- so any sign using any other color of fluorescent gas is not actually *neon* sign.

As always, great info.

Unless it's got some historical protection, I'm not that much of a purist: I want my Mr. Peanut a shade of beige or, at least, yellow.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What's always bothered me is the way Mr. Peanut's monocle has shifted back and forth between his right and left eye over his long lifetime. THe poor legume should really see his opthalomologist.

 

[Fading Fast]

What's always bothered me is the way Mr. Peanut's monocle has shifted back and forth between his right and left eye over his long lifetime. THe poor legume should really see his opthalomologist.

He probably can't afford it after all the therapy sessions to help him understand that, technically, he's not in the nut family. Talk about an identity crisis.

 

[KY Gentleman]

Some familiar signs with a neon touch.

The Y in Chinatown/ San Francisco