Vintage neon signs

[Fading Fast]

A scene from the offices of Dino's restaurant:

Manager: "Who's job is it to keep the Dinosaur sign in tip-top shape?"

Assistant Manager: "Remember, we hired that neon expert from the theater down the street to consult."

Manager: "She scares me."

Assistant Manager: "She scares everyone."

Manager: "Well, they say a good boss delegates - so call Lizzie to let he know one of Dino's eyebrows has been flickering."

Assistant Manager [weakly] : "Why don't we wait 'till it goes out"

Manager: "Call her now, [in softer voice], I'll be out of the office for a bit - good luck with that call."

A few minutes later after the call has been placed, a theater "kid" hears muttering from Lizzie's office

Lizzie (rapidly speaking to herself in a disgusted tone): "A freakin' 'eyebrow,' really, and it's not even union wages to fix it, damn bourgeois can't ever do anything for themselves - he probably eats cupcakes and drinks "cold brewed" organically grown coffee - blah"

 

[Fading Fast]

One, I think I'd love the place and, two, super kudos for the martini glass (with a nice fat olive) as the letter "i."

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[BobHufford]

One, I think I'd love the place and, two, super kudos for the martini glass (with a nice fat olive) as the letter "i."

I think that's the letter 'Y' as in "JOYNT".

 

[Fading Fast]

I think that's the letter 'Y' as in "JOYNT".

I stand properly corrected. That is a "joynt" if ever there was one.

 

[Fading Fast]

Rob

That really lights up the neighborhood.

Also, has to be at least '51 as that was when "Royal Wedding" was released. Note. as we always talk about, how the cars reflect several eras, but many times, period-piece movies or TV shows will have them all be of-the-current-period models.

 

[Haversack]

Tommy's Joynt is one of few remaining hot-braus left in Northern California. (A style of restaurant that serves hearty meals quickly at a reasonable price with lashing of beer to wash it down. The common features is series of carving stations along a cafeteria line where roast beef, turkey, ham, and sometimes brisket, pork, and lamb are sliced to order). Tommy's was founded by the band leader and singer, Tommy Harris, ('The Little King of Song'), who used to do live radio broadcasts from the roof of Hotel Whitcomb down on Market Street.

They keep the neon in decent shape although the murals on the outside of the building are looking a little faded. I think they are waiting until the construction on the new hospital across the street is finished.

 

[Frunobulax]

I stand properly corrected. That is a "joynt" if ever there was one.

Unless you're from Queens, then it's a "jernt."

Tommy's Joynt is one of few remaining hot-braus left in Northern California. (A style of restaurant that serves hearty meals quickly at a reasonable price with lashing of beer to wash it down. The common features is series of carving stations along a cafeteria line where roast beef, turkey, ham, and sometimes brisket, pork, and lamb are sliced to order). Tommy's was founded by the band leader and singer, Tommy Harris, ('The Little King of Song'), who used to do live radio broadcasts from the roof of Hotel Whitcomb down on Market Street.

They keep the neon in decent shape although the murals on the outside of the building are looking a little faded. I think they are waiting until the construction on the new hospital across the street is finished.

Very cool. Thank you for the background. I'd love a place like that.

 

[Fading Fast]

Great example of B&W awesomeness (and ties back to our discussion about B&W in the "You Know You Are Getting Old When" thread):

 

[KY Gentleman]

Louisville’s South End has a lot of beer and bait shops along the Ohio river.

Modern Living was a very popular store at one time but now it’s just kind of ironic.

Wiedemann Beer was brewed in Newport and had a lot of distribution in Northern Kentucky.
Drinking Wiedemann was a rite of passage for many an underage drinker when I was growing up!

 

[Fading Fast]

What would have taken this sign to the next level is some neon (not just what-appears-to-be backlighting) on the pizza chef and his pie:

 

[Frunobulax]

Wiedemann Beer was brewed in Newport and had a lot of distribution in Northern Kentucky.
Drinking Wiedemann was a rite of passage for many an underage drinker when I was growing up!

The high sign!



Sent directly from my mind to yours.

 

[LizzieMaine]

What would have taken this sign to the next level is some neon (not just what-appears-to-be backlighting) on the pizza chef and his pie:

View attachment 110144

I'm willing to bet there was once some type of neon design in those sections of the sign, and that sometime over the last sixty years it was replaced by the backlit panels. That happened a lot to big, elaborate roadside signs like this and it was usually cheaper to just convert to backlit than it was to have complicated neon designs repaired.

That said, that pizza chef must be the single most ubiquitous piece of clip art of the last half century -- it is a very rare mom-n-pop pizza joint, convenience store, or gas station that hasn't used him at one time or another on their boxes. And yet, in decades of eating pizza, I have never once encountered a jolly Italian pencil-moustached chef in a toque and neckerchief giving me the high sign when I come to pick up my order. It's always some fat guy in a stained t-shirt making the pizza while his stringy gum-chewing wife keeps an eye on the till. Just once I'd like to actually meet that chef.

 

[vitanola]

I'm willing to bet there was once some type of neon design in those sections of the sign, and that sometime over the last sixty years it was replaced by the backlit panels. That happened a lot to big, elaborate roadside signs like this and it was usually cheaper to just convert to backlit than it was to have complicated neon designs repaired.

That said, that pizza chef must be the single most ubiquitous piece of clip art of the last half century -- it is a very rare mom-n-pop pizza joint, convenience store, or gas station that hasn't used him at one time or another on their boxes. And yet, in decades of eating pizza, I have never once encountered a jolly Italian pencil-moustached chef in a toque and neckerchief giving me the high sign when I come to pick up my order. It's always some fat guy in a stained t-shirt making the pizza while his stringy gum-chewing wife keeps an eye on the till. Just once I'd like to actually meet that chef.

You didn't grow up in the Greatest Location in the Nation. That image, of the famous "Chef Boy-ar-dee" which was given by Ettore Boiardi to a friend who operated a commissary supplying local pizzarias was apparently never trademarked, and escaped into the public domain in the late 1950s, showing up across the nation.

 

[Fading Fast]

I'm willing to bet there was once some type of neon design in those sections of the sign, and that sometime over the last sixty years it was replaced by the backlit panels. That happened a lot to big, elaborate roadside signs like this and it was usually cheaper to just convert to backlit than it was to have complicated neon designs repaired.

That said, that pizza chef must be the single most ubiquitous piece of clip art of the last half century -- it is a very rare mom-n-pop pizza joint, convenience store, or gas station that hasn't used him at one time or another on their boxes. And yet, in decades of eating pizza, I have never once encountered a jolly Italian pencil-moustached chef in a toque and neckerchief giving me the high sign when I come to pick up my order. It's always some fat guy in a stained t-shirt making the pizza while his stringy gum-chewing wife keeps an eye on the till. Just once I'd like to actually meet that chef.

Shame about the sign being converted, but we all know how that works: "It will cost what (!) to fix, aren't there any other options?" And another neon sign dies.

As to the iconic image, I've never seen "that" person behind a pizza counter either, but in NYC in the '80s, chefs in both high-end hotels and French restaurants did dress that way.

As a frequenter of NYC pizza parlors for about 40 years now, what has changed is the ethnicity of the owners and workers (the below are generalizations, of course, there have always been and still are exceptions).

Back in the '70s and '80s, the shop were still owned and run by people of Italian descent. It would not be unusually to see two or three generations working in them - stereotypical "off-the-boat" grandparents that were pretty old (maybe one working the register), their (now middle-aged) kids running the shop and their teenage grandkids doing the scut work (and looking like Tony Manero from "Saturday Night Fever").

But by the 90s, people of Indian and Pakistani descent were taking over NYC pizza shops and, now, it is quite common to see Mexican and Latin American owners and workers. It's all driven by immigration waves and the harder to define informal network that results in immigrants from one area seeming to concentrate in certain businesses.

It is also driven by the fact that running a pizza parlor is hard, hard work, reasonably low capital commitment and a skill one can learn reasonably quickly (versus jobs requiring years of formal education or apprenticeships) - the type of business that gives immigrants a foothold.

I've love watching the changes as it's fun to see your preconceptions challenges - a gentleman from India or Chile tossing dough in the air and selling you an incredible slice of pizza - and the vibrant energy of immigrant families trying to build a life and place for themselves.

My idea of multiculturalism has nothing to do with top-down government programs or immigrants living apart from mainstream America in enclaves of their culture, but it is a give and take where they embrace the overall American culture but also change it as some of their culture gets absorbed into America's.

So in some crazy way, an man from India, owning a pizza parlor in NYC and selling all the traditional pizza parlor food, plus baklava (as one near me did) or the Latin flavor that some pizza places are taking on now owing to their new owners (one near me makes a killer margarita) is the best mixed up wonderful multiculturalism America offers. With TVs so cheap now, you'll go in and soccer will be playing on one TV with Spanish announcers and American baseball on the other (makes for quite the noise) - that, IMHO, is America at its best.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Pizza ceased to be Italian the day my grandfather, who inveighed against "guineas" his whole life, eagerly gobbled down a slice. Nowadays it's about as ethnic as chicken noodle soup.

There's a highly regarded Somali pizza place in Lewiston, featuring halal pizza with goat cheese. Lewiston was the first place in Maine where pizza is known to have been sold, and clearly remains a center of innovation.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Meanwhile, we're having more fun with our own neon sign. The crew showed up today to replace the damaged letter on the face -- and got up in their hoist to install it, and OOPS. The guy's hand slipped, he dropped it and that was all she wrote. Back to the shop to fabricate another new one.

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Shame about the sign being converted, but we all know how that works: "It will cost what (!) to fix, aren't there any other options?" And another neon sign dies.

As to the iconic image, I've never seen "that" person behind a pizza counter either, but in NYC in the '80s, chefs in both high-end hotels and French restaurants did dress that way.

As a frequenter of NYC pizza parlors for about 40 years now, what has changed is the ethnicity of the owners and workers (the below are generalizations, of course, there have always been and still are exceptions).

Back in the '70s and '80s, the shop were still owned and run by people of Italian descent. It would not be unusually to see two or three generations working in them - stereotypical "off-the-boat" grandparents that were pretty old (maybe one working the register), their (now middle-aged) kids running the shop and their teenage grandkids doing the scut work (and looking like Tony Manero from "Saturday Night Fever").

But by the 90s, people of Indian and Pakistani descent were taking over NYC pizza shops and, now, it is quite common to see Mexican and Latin American owners and workers. It's all driven by immigration waves and the harder to define informal network that results in immigrants from one area seeming to concentrate in certain businesses.

It is also driven by the fact that running a pizza parlor is hard, hard work, reasonably low capital commitment and a skill one can learn reasonably quickly (versus jobs requiring years of formal education or apprenticeships) - the type of business that gives immigrants a foothold.

I've love watching the changes as it's fun to see your preconceptions challenges - a gentleman from India or Chile tossing dough in the air and selling you an incredible slice of pizza - and the vibrant energy of immigrant families trying to build a life and place for themselves.

My idea of multiculturalism has nothing to do with top-down government programs or immigrants living apart from mainstream America in enclaves of their culture, but it is a give and take where they embrace the overall American culture but also change it as some of their culture gets absorbed into America's.

So in some crazy way, an man from India, owning a pizza parlor in NYC and selling all the traditional pizza parlor food, plus baklava (as one near me did) or the Latin flavor that some pizza places are taking on now owing to their new owners (one near me makes a killer margarita) is the best mixed up wonderful multiculturalism America offers. With TVs so cheap now, you'll go in and soccer will be playing on one TV with Spanish announcers and American baseball on the other (makes for quite the noise) - that, IMHO, is America at its best.

Well said, FF.

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Rob

 

[Ghostsoldier]

Another B&W that would probably have knocked your socks off, in person.

Rob