Neon News

I regret to say that the Labor Day holiday and the general late summer hubbub got the better of my grand ambitions for a more sophisticated post this week.  Here are a few news items:

• The truly spectacular Murray's Sturgeon sign is seeing the light of day for the first time in a long time, thanks to the removal of the scaffolding that had blocked it from view for the past two years.   Run up, buy some sturgeon and try talking the owner into gettin' the ol' girl lit up again.

    (T. Rinaldi)

• In Jersey, the great sign of Asbury Park's old Rainbow Room has been restored and installed in the James J. Howard Transportation Center.  The restoration is the work of Artistic Neon of Ridgewood, Queens.


    (Asbury Park Sun)

• Reader Victoria Adams reports that the ancient Lascoff Drugs sign has been re-listed for sale at Craigslist.  Here is the ad, as it appears at press time (September 6, 2012).

    (T. Rinaldi)

• As I expect many readers have already learned, Colony Records on Broadway is biting the dust.  Stay tuned for a forthcoming obit on its lineage of great neon signs here at the NYNeon Blog.

• Other recent comments from readers include a firsthand account by Michele Clifford on what it was like living with the red glow of the Chelsea Hotel sign, and a curious fact from reader Joshua Kosches on the late, great Kosche's Furniture sign, formerly in East Harlem.

• JetBlue's new roof sign in LIC is up and running, though this one is LED, not neon. 

• Here's one that really slipped through the cracks: the USPS's "Neon Celebrate" stamp, designed by Phil Jordan and released way back in March 2011!  How'd I miss this?  Ah yes, that was around the time I was slaving over revisions to the manuscript for the Neon Book...

      (USPS)

As summer winds down and the days grow shorter, don't despair - night time is the right time for neon appreciation!