 |
|
|
|
TRIPPING THE LIGHT FANTASTIC
|
|
Excerts
from half-hour Broadcast on the BBC
Interview with Kenny Greenberg
Intro to Radio Programme (284k mp3 file)
Neon on the Broadway Stage (1.5mb mp3
file)
Closing Anecdote - Las Vegas in the 50's
(541k mp3 file)
|
|
Ian Peacock blazes a neon trail from LA to New York
|
|
|
|
|
Ian Peacock journeys across America in search of neon signs past and
present, to examine the story of the promoters and geniuses who fashion
colour and light, electricity and information into icons.
|
|
No other country has embraced neon light as much as the USA. Neon has
nocturnally splashed the American Dream across the continent since it
arrived in Los Angeles in the 1920s . It may just have become an
octogenarian, with more comebacks than Sinatra, but it’s still
bewitching the night skies all the way from The City of Angels to the
City That Never Sleeps. In many ways it’s an unlikely star - a
colourless inert gas, but link it in a glass tube to a transformer and
bombard it with electrons and it glows bright orange; coat the glass
with phosphorescent powders and palette of 150 colours opens up to
alchemise the American landscape as soon as dusk falls.
|
 |
|
| Ian Peacock |
But is neon a piece of kitch or a flash of inspiration from a bygone
age? Travelling from Los Angeles to New York, Ian Peacock discovers
that neon has had its X-rated moments and its B-movie era, but also its
grand premieres and animated show stoppers. The journey begins in
Downtown LA on the site where a travelling car salesman, Earle C
Anthony, erected a 5 foot sign, commissioned from neon’s Parisian
inventor, George Claude, to advertise his Packard showroom. People
flocked from miles around, drawn to the lure of the blazing blue and
red light. Today West Coast neon signs, snuffed out in World War Two,
are being rekindled as part of a huge urban renewal programme -
recovering the past and pointing to an equally bright urban future.
|
 |
Tripping the Light Fantastic traces neon’s
spread like a prairie fire along route 66 to New York, stopping off to
meet the glass benders and craftspeople who draw with light, and the
charismatic Tama Starr. She’s the so-called lamplighter of Broadway and
the impresario behind a host of neon 'spectaculars' including the world
famous coke sign. All neon freeways lead to Times Square - a document
of 20th century US history, where Corporate America has finally
embraced the signage of sleaze and consumerism - and where neon, not to
be out done by newer competing light technologies, has found a place
indoors as well as out.
Neon may grace the exterior of buildings but its blazing light exposes
the innards of America and, as Ian Peacock discovers, its many meanings
continue to evolve in the 21st century.
|
 |
|
Back to Press Room
|
|
|
|