ABOUT

Photo: © Steven Spiegel

We have collaborated on scholarly journal articles about preservation and restoration as well as research on neon signs. We authored the introduction to Saving Neon: A Community Guide. This is our first co-authored book, and it emerges from ongoing work on our second book—a full-length scholarly history about how neon signs transformed the American landscape, a work supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Neon: A Light History is grounded in more than a decade of intensive research using multiple methods to catalyze our different areas of expertise. Because we have been working on the scholarly (fully referenced) book during this entire period, every point we make here is supported by data—by original primary resources. Because this book is so short, we’ve had to omit all those references here.

Our research process always involves bringing two perspectives to each article or artifact, and includes library/archival research, interviews and participant observation, technical analysis of signs and photographs of signs, and collecting.

Photo: © Dydia DeLyser

Indeed, some sources are so foundational, we were compelled to collect them ourselves: we have Signs of the Times magazines from 1916 to 1956, the Claude Neon News from 1928-1931, Mel Morris’ self-published early neon histories, and many books in English, French, and German by, for, and about the early neon industry. To be able to understand how people have interacted with signs over more than a century we have actively accumulated dozens of snapshots and postcards of people and neon signs—some of those images appear in this book; they all inform it.

Other sources, like publications geared to engineering and architecture, are available through academic research libraries: the scholarly journals of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Illuminating Engineering Society, as well as those for architects like Architectural Record and California Arts and Architecture. Mostly these journals have never been digitized, and we benefited from a dedicated inter-library loan staff able to secure for us decades of the original bound volumes so that we could find articles not indexed or visible in online searches.

Collection of the authors

Other print sources, however, can be accessed using online databases (and university-library access), such as articles in the country’s major and minor newspapers from the 1700s to the present. Though neon signs were not often covered by newspapers, major developments (like early Moore tubing, or some especially attention-getting signs) were, and were reported by outlets all across the country—now searchable by keywords online through those databases.

City records are another important print source that we used. In Los Angeles (and many other cities) the Department of Building and Safety is digitizing more and more records. This means it’s possible to access original sign permits by knowing an address; sometimes that’s now possible online rather than in person or by mail.

Images and careful image analysis have been foundational to our research. Some image sources are publicly available through careful Internet searches.

For example, many libraries and archives have now digitized some of their photograph collections and made those available free (to look at) online—in Southern California the Los Angeles Public Library and the University of Southern California Library have been particular leaders in digitizing and making available their resources to the public. For each library, more images always exist that are not online, images only available by visiting the library and requesting the materials in person.

From the Archives of the American Sign Museum Collection

Other image sources remain (largely) undigitized, such as the tremendous Thomas Air Photo Archive at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Department of Geography (featuring low-altitude oblique air photos spanning 1918-1971)—this little-known collection has been critical in enabling us to identify many early southern California roof-signs.

Still other important image sources, like some of those of Société Française de Photographie (where early color photos of Claude signs are held), are accessible through online stock-photo services like (in this case) Diomedia.

Photo: Randall Ann Homan, Reno NV 2003

Photograph analysis can be challenging because many images are not reliably dated. We have mitigated this with our expertise in antique cars and motorcycles (by being able to identify vehicle model years, and recognize license plate years), as well as our expertise in nineteenth- and twentieth-century styles more broadly: in men’s and women’s wear, in hairstyles, in architecture, and in signs.

Because much of neon’s history remains within living memory, other research has involved engaging with neon experts across the country directly by recording interviews and oral histories. Often sign shops are highly aware and proud of their histories, so our research also benefited from their generosity in sharing with us (unpublished) in-house histories of their shops, and in-house oral histories with founders now deceased (e.g., at Flexlume where we interviewed Paddy Rowell, Sr. who shared with us unpublished histories and memoirs of the company’s founders).

Finally, we analyzed hundreds of signs in order to gain, over time, an understanding of technological evolution in areas like transformers, tubulations, electrodes, housings, and tube supports. This work we did over decades by actively designing, fabricating, installing, repairing and restoring neon signs in Los Angeles, as well as by accumulating historic signs and sign components.

Many of the signs we write about in this book are signs we know very well.

Because we have looked for them in newspapers and trade magazines, because we have sought them out in air photos and pulled their building permits, and because we have literally taken them apart and put them back together with our own hands.

We believe research is a collaborative endeavor and so we asked experts on various aspects of neon’s history to review our manuscript and offer input. Our work was made stronger by their generosity and insights.

What we hope you can see is that the research for this book has been both a significant part of our lives, and truly a labor of love. We welcome inquiry and discussion, you can reach us via email:
Dydia at dydia@fullerton.edu
Paul at bumvivant@hotmail.com

Archie (the dog) doesn’t use email, but we welcome neon visitors and he loves treats.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful to so many in our community who made this work possible.

Our research could not have been carried out without the support of librarians, archivists, and curators across the country. These include in particular: Stacy Caron, Rosemary Farr and Enrique Valdez at California State University, Fullerton’s Inter-Library Loan department, as well as Copyright Librarian Anthony Johnson; Senior Librarian Christina Rice at Los Angeles Public Library’s Photo Collection; Tod Swormstedt at the American Sign Museum; Harold D. Wallace, Jr., Curator of the Electrical Collections, Division of Work and Industry at the Smithsonian Museum of American History; Signs of the Times editors Wade Swormstedt, Robin Donovan, and Grant Freking; and Matt Zebrowski and Kasi MacMurray at the Thomas Air Photo Collection in the UCLA Department of Geography.

Other scholars of neon shared their research materials with us, and we shared ours with them: Stephen Osdene and Tom Rinaldi. The late Paddy Rowell, Sr. shared unpublished oral histories of Flexlume, many other sign-shops around the country shared their stories in interviews.

Fellow automobile enthusiasts shared their knowledge and collections related to Earl C. Anthony Packard: Stuart Blond; Leon Dixon; Robert Escalante and Custom Auto Service; Earl Rubenstein and the Automobile Driving Museum; and Packards International Motor Car Club.

As part of a peer-review process we shared drafts of this manuscript with seventeen generous readers with different expertise who thoughtfully lent their insights.

Neon experts—artists, benders, and practicing historians of their craft: Bill Concannon, Michael Fletchner, Robert Haus, Roxy Rose, Rio Score III, and Stuart Ziff.

Scholars of signs, experts in neon’s history, and neon afficionados: Kim Cooper, Cathy Gudis, Eric Lynxwiler, Tom Rinaldi, Richard Schave, Debra Jane Seltzer, Corrie Siegel, Tod Swormstedt, and Martin Treu.

Interested general readers with expertise in writing, Tracy Casadio and Sharon Rudnick.

Fellow cultural geographer Harriet Hawkins hatched the idea of a very short book. Julie Lindow served as inspirational copy editor. Kate Widdows designed our “Thank You!” and display type. Randall Ann Homan and Al Barna led with vision for the design of this book, then saw it through to production in countless volunteer hours—they are inspiring collaborators.

A generous grant from the Bill and Valerie Anders Foundation enabled this book’s production. A matching grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation saw that to completion. The research was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Nearly all the living people whose stories are told in the book were able to be contacted and have approved their representations. Any errors or oversights remain our own.

The book is published on a not-for-profit basis by Giant Orange Press, working in collaboration with the Museum of Neon Art. Any profits will benefit the Museum of Neon Art.

We thank you, our readers, for doing your part to enable neon signs to glow into our shared future.