MUSEUM OF NEON ART
Where: 216 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale.
Hours: Noon-7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday-Wednesday and most major holidays.
Cost: $10 general admission, $8 students and seniors, free for members.
Information: 818-696-2149, www.neonmona.org
Where: 216 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale.
Hours: Noon-7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday-Wednesday and most major holidays.
Cost: $10 general admission, $8 students and seniors, free for members.
Information: 818-696-2149, www.neonmona.org
It’s funny how things you learn as a young child stay with you for so many years.
For instance, sometime in the dim and distance past, I was told to always be very careful of neon signs. “They have a lot of dangerous electricity,” some adult told me when I was stumbling around.
For some reason, that warning struck home and I’ve always been careful when I’ve been close to those attractive slim tubes emitting bright light — and especially the dark ends where the dreaded electricity haunts.
I was reminded of this recently when I was in Glendale and I entered the Museum of Neon Art, a small square modern building in the heart of the city on South Brand.
The museum was started by an artist, Lili Lakich, who was attracted to the medium of neon and who realized that slowly it was disappearing. As electric light bulbs had revolutionized advertising years before, neon had replaced bulbs and had dominated so many skylines and buildings in the post-war years.
Later, it was neon’s turn to be eclipsed, this time by LED lighting. But is that dangerous too?
MONA, as it is called, is a compact place dedicated to the life and times of neon, and true Angelinos will recognize some things from their past that were thought to be irreplaceable.
Sadly, that optimism was not to be the case. Everything it seems has its day and eventually will be replaced.
Take the famous Brown Derby that was at the equally famous site of Hollywood and Vine. It had served as one of Los Angeles’ finest and most recognized restaurants from 1929 until it closed in 1985. I regret that although I had arrived in the city three years earlier, I don’t recall seeing it.
However, at MONA, I was able to see the famous sign and up close and personal too. It’s large, and dominates the gallery in which it now sits, together with a history of the place and its location. I was careful not to get too close to the sign and in particular the little ends of the glass tubing — the most dangerous parts! But it is a great example of neon signage.
It seems that sometime back in the 19th century, scientists had experimented with the idea of certain gasses being “excited” by the application of electricity.
As one enters the museum itself, an explanation of how neon works is shown. “The glow comes from captive electrons. An inert “noble” gas is put into a vacuum tube of glass with electrodes at each end. The electricity excites the electrons in the gas causing them to emit light creating photons in different colors depending on the gas. Neon gas causes a red/orange glow; argon creates purple or steely blue if a touch of mercury is added.”
It all seems quite magical, and I wondered why the scientists messed about with it to begin with, but then that’s what scientists do, I suppose.
In the late 1920s, neon signs began to take over and people were amazed at the brightness and the colors that were swamping their nighttime urban scenery. It must have been quite something to a public, who had only just become used to simple electric light bulbs.
But it didn’t take long for our nighttime skies to be dominated by such brilliant hues. And they even had animation too.
As I returned to the entrance, I noticed high on the wall, a sign that took me back to one of my early trips to the USA. Manny, Moe and Jack (“The three best friends your car ever had,” If I remember the slogan correctly.)
I was visiting a client outside Philadelphia and used to walk every morning past this small garage. Outside was this sign, and at the time, not knowing the effect of franchising, I assumed that these friendly proprietors were busy inside buried under the hoods of their customers’ cars. At the time, of course, in my foolishness, I referred to these as “bonnets.”
An original Pep Boys sign had ended up here at MONA, as Manny had a cigar clamped between his teeth and it was considered inappropriate in this smoke-free time.
I checked one last time around the various displays and was glad to see that nobody had been electrocuted. Nonetheless, I don’t think I’ll ever totally ignore that early advice.
“Trevor’s Travels (in Southern California)” is available from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. You can reach Trevor at trevorsummons@hotmail.com.
Museum of Neon Art
Where: 216 S. Brand Blvd., Glendale.
Hours: Noon-7 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday-Wednesday and most major holidays.
Cost: $10 general admission, $8 students and seniors, free for members.
Information: 818-696-2149, www.neonmona.org
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