Curious About The History Of Neon In LA? There’s An App For That

Art. Science. History. Culture.

If you’re having a conversation with someone who knows a lot about neon signs, it won’t be hard to touch on all of those topics, and maybe even a few more.

And now, you can have a similar experience even when you’re on your own, thanks to a new “digital guide” put together by the Museum of Neon Art (or MONA) in Glendale.

‘Community Beacons’ in L.A.

The guide is called “Community Beacons,” and it’s accessible through the Bloomberg Connects app, which is used by lots of different museums around the world.

For each of the five neon signs included in the guide, there are historical photographs you can scroll through. There are also short audio clips from interviews with preservationists, business owners and historians who explain their cultural and historical significance.

It’s designed to catch people where they often are — on their phones.

A QR code for the Sarno's Bakery neon sign in Los Feliz.

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Courtesy of MONA

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“We thought it would be a really great thing to find ways of making the beautiful signs that are in Los Angeles accessible to people that might not normally make it into a museum, but might use their smartphone to click on a QR code,” MONA Executive Director Corrie Siegel explains.

“The intent is to show that there is history everywhere.”

Which neon signs are included in the guide?

There are five neon signs currently featured in the guide:

The Adohr Milk Farm sign in Pasadena.

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Courtesy of MONA

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• Jensen's Recreation Center sign in Echo Park
• Gift Fair Chinaware sign in Chinatown
• Sarno's Bakery sign in Los Feliz
• The Broadway Hollywood sign in Hollywood
• Adohr Milk Farm sign in Pasadena 

MONA researcher Maya Abee, who managed the “Community Beacons” project, drew from her experience developing some neon sign walking guides for museum members and neon enthusiasts during the pandemic, when MONA’s doors were closed.

For the new digital guide, she enlisted the help of community volunteers to help select the signs to include and do research on their histories.

The Jensen's Recreation Center sign in Echo Park.

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Courtesy of MONA

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Some interesting facts about the signs included in the guide:

• The Jensen’s Recreation Center sign stands out, Abee says, because it’s animated (with a bowler knocking down pins) and because it predates neon. It uses opal glass lettering and incandescent bulbs and is the last of its kind in the U.S.
  
• The Gift Fair Chinaware sign is located on the Hong building, named for its owner, Y.C. Hong, who was one of the first Chinese Americans admitted to the California State Bar and the first to own a legal practice in L.A. The guide includes an interview with Celeste Hong, Y.C. Hong’s granddaughter, and a MONA event on April 12 will give participants access to his 1930s-era office.
  
• The Adohr Milk Farm sign in Pasadena was covered up during the 1970s and was only recently uncovered when it was converted into Howlin’ Ray’s restaurant in 2022. Chef and owner Johnny Ray Zone decided to preserve the sign, highlighting the “HR” in red (for “Howlin’ Ray’s), with the other lights in the sign flashing blue.

Why neon matters, especially in L.A.

Still wondering what the big deal is about neon signs?

Part of it is about memory and history.

As Siegel describes it, each neon sign is an object that both “hides in the landscape but is also so visible.” And because of that, they become “important marker[s] for a lot of people's childhoods and a lot of community identity.”

The Gift Fair Chinaware sign in Chinatown.

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Courtesy of MONA

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And while they can kind of fade into the background, or might just seem like tools to sell you something, Siegel says the signs are also “little miracles” too, when you really think about it.

“All neon signs are the same state of matter as the sun — they’re plasma. They're the same state of matter as our stars, as the aurora borealis,” Siegel says. “It's this really powerful medium that is responsible for life on this planet.”

They’re also all handmade by highly skilled artists. And preserving them, according to Abee, “is no small feat at all” because of the delicate, often old equipment involved and the technical expertise needed to maintain it.

The Broadway Hollywood neon sign is visible in a vintage postcard.

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Courtesy of MONA

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There were also efforts to actively phase out the use of neon in the past.

Neon made its way from Europe to the U.S. in the 1920s and was widely adopted by all kinds of businesses to grab the attention of passersby, but by the 1980s the appeal for some city leaders had worn off.

The flashy signs came to be associated with gambling and drinking and were even outlawed in certain places, including, for a time, Glendale. Abee says that was actually what led to the creation of MONA — by artists looking to preserve neon signs both as an art form and as markers of community history.

While there are some who say Los Angeles was the home of the first neon sign in the U.S., Siegel says that’s likely not true. But, she says L.A. is still a very “neon-centric” city and home to some of the most intact neon signs in the country.

“Los Angeles is a really special place to see neon because there is so much that's preserved and there's this kind of aura or mythos around neon in the city that tells us a lot about Los Angeles,” Siegel says. “Even though maybe it's not the first, it's still very important to the city.”

How to access the guide

Download the free Bloomberg Connects app and search for “MONA,” or scan the MONA QR codes outside all five neon sign locations.