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Neon indicators had been so standard in Vancouver in 1941 The Vancouver Solar had a contest to select the very best one
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Neon indicators had been all the trend in 1941. Large “blade” indicators went up alongside theatres, department shops and accommodations. Small however intricate indicators went up on numerous small companies.
On Nov. 10, 1941, The Vancouver Solar determined to launch a contest for readers to select their favourites. Properly, form of — all 69 indicators depicted within the contest had been by Neon Merchandise, which in all probability sponsored the competition.
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The paper printed two pages of illustrations of neon indicators, and readers had been requested to select their faves, ranked one to 10.
The reader whose picks had been closest to the general record would win $25. Second place was $10; third, $5; fourth, $3; fifth, $2. When you had been sixth to tenth, you gained a buck.
There was additionally a $10 prize for finest “colored drawing” of an indication, which was presumably for youths — the newspaper pages regarded like a colouring e-book. The winners had been introduced Nov. 17.
Nearly all of the indicators within the contest at the moment are gone, as are the companies the place they hung exterior. However there have been actually nifty designs.
The Blue Boy ice cream parlour had “Blue Boy” on the high and “Velvet ice cream” on a spherical base, with Velvet in script. The tall steel “can” above the bottom featured a copy of the well-known Thomas Gainsborough portray, presumably lit up by a neon body that surrounded it.
The Log Cabin Inn signal was a easy design of a log cabin. The institution was fairly notorious in its day as a result of it was the scene of a homicide in 1942. It was additionally managed by Buddy White, who ran a playing joint in Hogan’s Alley for a few years.
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The Solar was represented by its categorized advert signal, which had sunbursts flaring out of the highest and a curving arrow on the backside pointing to the doorway of the categorized promoting part.
The Solar signal took second place within the contest. The winner was a reasonably pedestrian signal of Winston Churchill smoking a cigar in his derby hat and bow tie.
Its reputation was in all probability attributable to Churchill’s fame throughout the Second World Struggle, which was raging on the time. And the signal had a singular historical past.
“It begins up on Georgia Road on the courthouse Christmas tree,” mentioned neon knowledgeable John Atkin. “They illuminated the Christmas tree with neon ornaments.”
It appears to have used a variety of electrical energy. A Solar story on Dec. 18, 1940 mentioned once they turned on the signal it blew fuses within the courthouse, and trials needed to be placed on maintain till the fuses had been changed.
The Churchill signal was alleged to be momentary, however in Jan., 1941 it was moved to Victory Sq., the place it sat atop a recruiting station for the armed forces.
Two neon indicators that made the record nonetheless exist: the Vogue Theatre and the Vancouver Block.
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The Vogue is a basic blade signal that flows down the entrance of the constructing, topped by Diana, the Roman goddess. The Vancouver Block encompasses a neon clock, which has been a downtown landmark since neon was added to an current clock in 1927.
The Vancouver Archives has pictures of most of the neon indicators within the Solar contest, in addition to of later indicators. The Williams Bros. did a collection of neon photographs in 1948 and 1949 that embrace a marvellous black and white montage that includes neon indicators for the Solar, the Province, the Vogue and Capitol theatres, Wosk’s, Jordan’s and Boomer carpets.
After the warfare, Atkin mentioned there have been a couple of dozen corporations making neon indicators in Vancouver, when indicators just like the Niagara Lodge’s cascading waterfall had been made.
Extremely, the unique design for the Niagara Lodge neon waterfall simply turned up, and just lately was added to the Vancouver Archives web site.
The Pattison Signal Group (which was previously Neon Merchandise) has donated a trove of “flimsy information” courting from 1945 to 1964. A put up on the Archives’ AuthentiCity weblog describes flimsies as “small sketches of designs with fundamental manufacturing info.”
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“They’re so cool,” mentioned archivist Heather Gordon. “Enterprise information are typically onerous to come back by, particularly information that present design work by corporations that construct issues. If we are able to get idea drawings, that’s actually wonderful.”
jmackie@postmedia.com
Really helpful from Editorial
he Nov. 17, 1927, Vancouver Solar had an astonishing 35 tales on its entrance web page. A Vancouver decide was promising “no mercy for drug sellers,” a citizen had been shot within the leg and hand by a mysterious prowler, and Hollywood star Marie Prevost was divorcing her actor husband Kenneth Harlan after he hosted a 4 a.m. “bathing swimsuit occasion” of their house. Some of the intriguing tales is crammed in between the adverts on Web page 10: “Use of Neon Gasoline Indicators is Legalized.”
The Metropolis of Vancouver has determined to trash the long-lasting neon signal from the Balmoral Lodge.
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