I’ve decided to lump these two days of shooting together since they were fairly low volume.  There were lots of miles between things plus an early drive home on Saturday.

Let’s start off in San Bernardino with this beauty:

From Lake Elsinore:

The recently repainted Chappy’s Liquor sign in Garden Grove:

 

I’ve been wondering what would happen with the Lyndy’s Motel sign in Anaheim since the motel and coffee shop were leveled to build a big car wash.  The car wash is still under construction but the signs are visible through the tarped chain link.  As promised, there’s a new pole sign styled after the Lyndy’s sign and another similar but much smaller one on the southbound approach.  Here’s the original Lyndy’s sign:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/traderlucas/14263024357/

And the new sign — backlit plastic letters (boo hiss) but at least there’s a little neon & the arrow & star resemble the what-was:

Here’s a heartbreaker.  This lovely neon sign in Buena Park…

…was desecrated a few months ago:

This place in Whittier is so sweet.  But, sadly, long closed.

The wood siding, the little bench near the entrance, the freestanding letters on the front of the building…. reflecting a completely different time.  Now the cars whizz by and chain box stores are all around.

 

From Long Beach.  I think this place has been around since the 1950s so this sign is probably legit (vintage).  And it looks nice at night:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dcnelson0381/9193723001/

These signs in San Pedro were repainted recently.  My photo from 2013:

and their current look — yes, I think the block letters were better than this script but at least they left the neon alone:

From Redondo Beach — swoopy mid-century roof-line & neon:

 

From Los Angeles.  I have no idea what business this bell was associated with originally but it’s damned cute.  There’s a church there now:

 

And lastly — from Huntington Park.  This sign is at the Modern Mini Mart & Liquor:

For more photos from this weekend’s trip, head on over to Flickr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/agilitynut/

More blog-posting soon since I’m in the middle of my winter website updating.  Checking out all those maps in my descriptions for changes (demos, repaints, etc.).  I’ll be sharing the bad news/good news with you real soon.

Happy trails,

dj & the dogs

With a four-day holiday weekend (and no family members other than the canine variety to encumber me), off to the L.A. area, Orange County, and beyond for three days.

Let’s start off in Panorama City with this sign which I think is enhanced by the rust:

I thought I’d stop in at Tommy Gelinas’ (Valley Relics Museum) storage place in North Hollywood to see if I could get a peek at one of his latest acquisitions.  I didn’t expect a soul to be there since it was Thanksgiving but I got lucky and a kind woman showed me around.  There it was!  I hadn’t seen the thing since the 1970s.  The hot dog stand originally stood in Hollywood but went into storage in 2005.  Tommy will eventually restore it.  Here’s the scoop:
http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2017/06/tail_o_the_pup_hot_dog_he.php

He’s also got a couple of shish-kebab-ed burgers.  I don’t know where they came from:

And an Arby’s hat sign:

And not one but TWO Helms Bakeries trucks.  Tommy’s sure got a lot of projects!  You bought your bread (and later doughnuts) directly from their trucks since they didn’t sell their stuff in grocery stores.  Here’s what one of these trucks looks like restored:
https://cinemavehicles.com/images/F142555473.jpg

There were some other goodies there but let’s move back out to the streets.  The top panel of the Kopper Keg Liquors sign in L.A. is obviously adapted but it’s still great:

I went to inspect the tragedy in Glendora.  Sure enough, the neon is gone and some cheap LED rope tubing had replaced it.  How could they!!!!

I can only imagine how horrible it looks at night.  For comparison, here’s a photo I took of the sign in 2013:

And more sorta bad news:  Coates Cyclery in Pomona closed earlier this year and there was talk that the sign would be removed — my photo from a few years ago:

Turns out that the sign was adapted for the new tenant:

Back to the rusty/crusty stuff.  The Cask & Keg Liquor store in Pomona.  Missing most of its neon & painted over a bit but still lots of style:

Last stop of the day was way out in the middle of nowhere in Lake Los Angeles to check out the Four Aces Movie Set (http://4-aces.com/).  I’m assuming that the motel signs were brought here from somewhere else:

I don’t know if this sign was originally built for a Four Aces Motel.  I suspect it’s just a mix of old and new pieces:

The diner is very movie set-ish inside and out — surely built on-site to look oldish.

with a classic, vintage bulb arrow:

That’s it for tonight.  I’ll try to get Day 2 up tomorrow.

Happy trails,

dj & the still recuperating dogs