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Welcome to our 68th monthly Zoom presentation. We can all be very proud of the amazing library of recordings we are building. It’s truly a testament to the diversity of the roadside.

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I’m Brian Gallagher, the president of the Society for Commercial Archaeology, and I’m proud to be your host for tonight’s presentation.

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Welcome to all our guests. And any new people we have with us. We’re happy you took the time to watch an SCA presentation, and I hope you enjoy the show.

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And for those watching the recording of this episode of the SEA’s monthly presentations, who is not a member.

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of the SCA. We earnestly ask you to consider joining.

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Funding for the various activities of the essay comes almost exclusively from our membership.

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Just visit our website at www.sca-roadside.org. And follow the wings.

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Now I have the pleasure of introducing this month’s presenter.

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Will Durham is here tonight to tell us about the Light Circus Neon Museum.

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Will Durham is a Reno native. and preserver of vintage neon signs throughout Nevada and beyond.

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Will is the creative force behind the Light Circus Neon Museum, and spearheaded a successful legislative.

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campaign to make Neon the official element of the state of Nevada.

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Rena… Reno and Nevada’s… Sorry. Reno and Nevada’s history is unique.

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And much of it has been expressed through the bold, beautiful glow of neon.

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The light circus will preserve the city’s past. Celebrating the craftsmanship, design, and visual identity that shaped the post-war.

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era. Let’s join Will as he shares his vision of creating a new museum in downtown Reno.

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Featuring his vast collection of Reno. and Nevada’s best neon signs.

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Will, would you start sharing your screen, and let us have your presentation.

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Sure. Um… Well, thank you so much for having me. I’ll share the screen in just a second, if that’s alright.

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I’m really excited to be speaking with SCA today. It was, um, for years, I thought that it would be, uh.

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Uh, you know, I thought that the work that we were doing was something that would be appreciated by the group.

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And, um… and so this is a real treat to be able to, um… To be able to present to you today, so I’ll start sharing my screen.

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Let’s see…

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Okay, so… I started the Nevada Neon Project almost 30 years ago, and… in that time, we’ve preserved almost 200 signs from all over Nevada.

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Some in California, one in Mexico, and some other places. You know, we rescue.

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really important signs that need to be saved, and so… Obviously, Nevada is kind of our… our… focal point, but if there isn’t another sign.

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That needs to be saved, we are open to doing that. Um… A lot of people have asked me, you know, how did I… how did this all start? And there’s a few.

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There’s a few, um… things that I think about. Um… When I was a kid, um… We had some friends that owned some casinos in downtown Reno, and so… driving down on Virginia Street, we really got to see, um…

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you know, a real amazing kind of framework of these… of these facades that really beckoned people in, mainly through NEON.

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And, um, at that time, I had insomnia. And so… I had a really hard time getting to sleep, and so… I would… Let me… let me back up, sorry, just a little bit. So, I used to share a room with my brother, and so I used to talk his ear off.

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And so he would… he would get fed up with my silly questions, and so he moved down.

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to the basement of our house. And so that kind of, um… I didn’t like to be alone, and so I developed, you know, a bit of a case of insomnia. And so… I hated to be the last person that was awake, and so…

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thinking about… downtown Reno, I was able to see kind of the glow of the neon from my room.

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And so it was actually something that, um… Helped me get to sleep, being able to look out and see that neon and just knowing that I wasn’t.

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the last person. awake. And so… but that’s kind of, I think, how the spark for Neon and the love for Neon was, uh, was planted. But then there were other things.

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So, this book… was something that my mom read to me.

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And this was kind of my first exposure to.

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museums, and so it was… the idea of this was very exciting, being able to display these great things for people to see.

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And uh… and I think that that always kind of, you know, planted a seed that when you discover something that you would like to share with people.

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that museums were, um… a great, great way to do this. And so, um, we don’t quite have everything in the whole wide world, but we do have a little segment of Nevada that we think is worth sharing.

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So, this didn’t start out as a real… as a… as a grand, uh, kind of preservation effort. I lived in a house with a bunch of friends.

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And I… I had this giant sunroom as my, uh, as my bedroom, and so I wanted something cool to be… to kind of help fill out this room. I’d created a little bit of a lounge.

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And I remember seeing… Ah, some dilapidated motels that were closing on 4th Street in Reno, the old Highway 40.

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And so I… I… I figured out a way, or approached an owner of a motel that was closing, and I was able to acquire the signs from the Zephyr Motel, and this was one of them, this diving swimmer.

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Um, I just thought she was great. I thought the design was cool, I liked the way it had aged, but it wasn’t… you know, I didn’t realize that it was… that it was something that was important and worth saving.

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And this was a time in Nevada of great change, and these legendary properties were closing.

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And all over the state, um… And I thought that, uh, shouldn’t someone be preserving these signs? You know, they mean something to.

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to the city and the state, um, that, you know, NEON, when you thought of Nevada, you always were shown neon in movies.

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and television, and it was kind of what people thought of when they thought of Nevada. And so I thought, shouldn’t someone be preserving this stuff?

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And then I realized that, um… that that person was me. Uh, that if I wanted to.

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that if I wanted to preserve this stuff preserved, that I needed to do it, uh, that I needed to take the lead to do this.

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And so… Um, over the years, I just did, you know, everything humanly possible just to save.

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the neon, you know, that I didn’t necessarily have a grand plan for it, but I just realized that.

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Um, that it needed to be saved now. It wasn’t something that we could do later. And so this is the… this… the Sahara in Las Vegas. I just love the typography of this. It’s just… you know, just so evocative and striking of a certain area of that time.

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Um… this was a very difficult one. I almost got heat stroke and attacked by some sickly crows, just like in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

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Um, but, uh, and also, when we were going to load the signs, um.

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The, uh, the sign company had promised me that they would help load them into the truck that I had.

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But they had had to leave for a brief moment, and in that time.

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that the workers at the Sahara actually started striking. They started a picket line.

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And I was already in the property, and I realized that.

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the sign company was not coming back, and so I had to load these in a truck by myself. They’re 10 feet tall, very delicate and awkward. But luckily, I was able to get them in there with no neon lost.

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This is another one, this is more recent, a porcelain sign from maybe late 40s, early 50s, the Rancho Sierra Motel in Reno.

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And this is the Riviera in Las Vegas. This R is 17 feet tall. Luckily, we were able to kind of take it apart in sections to preserve it.

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Um, it was really exciting, um… and a bit sad to be at the Riviera when the Neon finally went off.

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Um, so, preserving these signs. is very… it’s a very hard process. These signs are… oftentimes extremely heavy. The neon is delicate, they’re awkward, they’re hard to move, and a lot of times you have to use, like.

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uh, you know, like a crane, sometimes multiple cranes to be able to take these down.

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And I don’t have a lot of money to do this for at least a good portion of the time when I’ve been doing this, I was a teacher, and so… You know, that teacher money goes pretty far, but, you know, preserving these signs was just, um…

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It was just really difficult, and there were a lot of times when I would say, you know, like.

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why do I do this? And other people, when I first started doing this, so many people, including the sign companies, were saying, why are you doing this?

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And I wasn’t quite sure that sometimes. But I just… I just felt that it was really important.

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And to be honest, it was something that I had to do. I couldn’t not do it.

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But I know that, you know. you guys would like to see a lot of beautiful neon signs, and I would like to show you some of the ones that we’ve preserved.

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Um, this is one… from the Holiday Hotel in Reno.

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Uh, this is a really… you can’t really see the porcelain on this, but, you know, beautiful red and blue porcelain, red, white, and blue porcelain.

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Uh, it’s just… it’s just a fun sign. This is a very famous sign. This is from the Mapes Hotel.

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In, in Reno, this was a. One of the most important properties, there were, um… Uh, it was an Art Deco-style building, and it just had a lot of history. When the Misfits was being filmed in and around the area, this was the kind of staging area where Marilyn Monroe stayed.

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When Frank Sinatra’s son. was kidnapped, uh… he was holed up here at the MAPES, you know, working with the FBI to deal with the kidnappers to release his son.

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But this sign is just… it’s a perfect use of neon. The way their shafts come together forms the M for the word maps.

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this… this same is just something that we get a lot of pleasure from.

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The Dugronet was a… was a coffee shop in Reno that was light years ahead of its time before there were really any coffee shops. And this is actually… For the people that live in Reno, this may be the most popular sign, because everybody had memories from the Du Granet.

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El Cholo was assigned from… Las Vegas in a place called the Naked City.

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I remember when I first went to preserve this sign, you know, there was no neon museum in Las Vegas. I’ve been doing this longer than there’s been a neon museum.

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Um, and when I, um… when I found the owner of this sign, I… I called, and it was a… and I could tell it was a very elderly woman that I was speaking to.

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And, um… So, I explained everything about why I’m preserving these signs, why I think they’re important.

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And she said, you know, I think that’s a… I think that’s a great plan, but you’ll have to talk to my mother.

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And, uh, so… and her mother was in her late 90s, her name was Rose Whiteside, and she was a former Harvey girl.

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And so, uh… I would go over to their house, and I would explain, you know, what I was doing. This happened a few times, and I realized that they really just liked the company, and so I was happy to spend time with them, and they…

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They allowed me to preserve this beautiful sign. And this is only the small part of the sign. There was a tower.

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that said cafe under this, and so that the entire sign was 29 feet tall.

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we will just have the small portion of the sign in our museum, only 9 feet tall.

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The heart of town. This is a beautiful mix of lots of different sign techniques. You have porcelain enamel, you have.

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you know, regular… uh, painted… Um… painted metal, you have backlit plastic.

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you have animated twinkling, uh… bulbs, and then also beautiful ruby red neon. And this… this sign is massive. It’s 14 by 14, and we are hoping.

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to fit this in the museum. Nevada Club, uh, this is Bucky Buckaroo, um, designed by Lew Heimers. This is probably, in my opinion, the best Nevada neon sign that there is.

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Um, just… And a great one for the museum, too. Bucky is waving and greeting people to the museum.

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Um, I just… I just love this. Alan, um… Alan Hess, the architectural historian, described this as.

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One of the greatest neon signs ever constructed, and I happen to.

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to agree with him. And this is a… this is an EPCO sign. You can see the little badge on the bottom there.

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And this is also porcelain. And so, it looks… pretty much brand new.

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The Buffalo bar, this is a sign that I… There were certain signs that just could not be lost, that was so important.

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to be preserved and to stay in Nevada. And this was one of them. And so when I knew that it was going to be.

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Taken down. I would just… I would just make sure that nothing was going to happen. And when I finally.

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uh, spoke with the owners to make the decision. They… They had told me that they, uh, were gonna open a new business, and they were going to, uh… They were gonna blow this sign up.

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as a publicity stunt. And I, you know, I realized that that was such a great idea to have, you know.

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Mercury, glass. sheet metal blasted, and that that would be just a wonderful idea for a.

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for a grand opening, but I think that was actually just a ploy to get me to spend a little bit more money on the sign. And uh… And I had to, because this sign could not be lost. And I just love the cocktail glass kind of pouring out the shape of the buffalo.

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This is a… this is one of my absolute favorites. A sad part about this sign.

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is that it will not be in the museum because it can’t fit through the door. It is 8 feet by 8 feet, and so we cannot get it through the doors. So, unfortunately.

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that will not be there at this point. Maybe if we expand the museum in the.

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And make bigger doors. The silver spur, this is the first sign that I ever tried to preserve. This was actually right next door to the Zephyr Motel.

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Uh, the owner at the time. was not interested in selling. I was able to make a deal for this sign probably about 25 years, or 24 years later.

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And the new… the developer, when they were going to tear the property down.

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Uh, they… I was able to make a deal with it. And before I could take it down, it was actually stolen.

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The sign was actually stolen, and uh… And that was very disappointing that I drove by on my daughter’s birthday on the way to get a cake, and I saw that the sign was gone. Luckily, a reporter friend of mine.

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He wrote an article, and it was on the front page of the paper, above the fold.

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And the sign was actually returned by 8 o’clock the next morning.

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Because he described it as someone looting the property. So I know that someone.

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you know, maybe the person who took it, their wife was like, I just read an article.

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about a sign being looted. Is that the one that’s in our garage? But we were able to get the sign back, so… All’s well. And I just like… I like this story now, too.

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We don’t just preserve signs that are… that are… you know, mid-century or older. We do save some signs that are… that are newer because of the design of the signs, but also the stories that they tell.

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This sign is from Wolfgang Puck’s Spargo in Las Vegas, and Wolfgang Puck said that he was going to open a Spago at the Forum shops at Caesar’s Palace.

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And people thought that he was crazy. to open a… You know, to open one of his restaurants in a mall in Las Vegas.

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Um, but history would actually be on his side, and.

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This was the start of kind of the dining, the celebrity dining experience in Las Vegas. Now, every celebrity chef in the world.

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has a restaurant in Las Vegas in the culinary scene has been greatly elevated, so… This was the start of it.

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society. I just love that script. It was from a, uh… it was originally from.

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a dry cleaner, and it was repurposed in a bar before we got it.

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Duncith Key, um… This looks like a nice, cute little key that you could have in your den, but it’s actually giant. It’s 9 feet tall. Uh, we were able to.

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It had moved several locations, but we were able to acquire this sign because it wouldn’t fit in the new shop, the new Dunseeth Key shop. And this, this, um, this business is almost 100 years old.

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So, they’re still in business. This is an animated gambler sign from Wells, Nevada.

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It’s actually an EPCO sine 2. It’s got the Xeon badge on the bottom, a very different one, but… Very cool sign. I love his… I love his spirit. He’s so happy just to be… throwing his money at this… at this one-armed bandit.

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The Riviera, there’s this sign lit up. This was such a great facade, one of the last kind of spectacles.

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neon spectacles in Las Vegas. Laughing Planet, again, this is a modern sign, um, but just the design.

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has, you know, this is… this is why you make neon signs. This is just so fun, happy, uh… Neon should make people happy, make them smile.

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juicies. I just love this kind of 80s style typography, you know, this is a… this was a hamburger place.

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Um, and, you know, it’s as if the neon was written in, um.

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ketchup and mustard. I just… I just love this sign.

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The longhorn Motel, this was in Reno, another porcelain sign.

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This sign is such a great mid-century sign. This is from the Biltmore.

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Um, in… in Lake Tahoe, and so we, a few years ago, we were able to preserve all the signs from the.

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The, uh, from the property and I just… this is one that has that Lake Tahoe feel, and, you know, with the trees and the lake, it’s just a… it’s a really striking sign when it’s lit.

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The Tropicana in Las Vegas. This sign actually is a neon sign. It is backlit.

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Um, neon. I wish it was exposed, but we also preserve signs again for the history and the stories that they tell.

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This is a sign that isn’t from Nevada, but this is a.

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This is from Van Ness Auto. And again, this is one of those signs that just makes you smile.

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And, uh, he makes us happy, and so we’re gonna be talking a little bit more about him.

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In a bit. But one of the things is he was the host at a show we had earlier, and he’s so welcoming with his big smile and his hand out.

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you know, welcoming you. But then, if you noticed, his other hand is actually… he’s got his fingers crossed, so it makes you kind of wonder, what does he have in store for you inside this.

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exhibition. This is another sign that was, um… that’s from Los Angeles. And, you know, when I lived in Los Angeles, I worked in the film industry, and I, uh… And I knew of, you know, maybe not every single sign like I do in Nevada, but.

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in Los Angeles, I knew. I felt, you know, the really great, you know, figurative signs, the animated ones, the ones like maybe Cantors.

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Or the frolic room, you know, I knew of kind of the classics, and I was driving on Sunset Boulevard one day.

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And I saw this sign at a place called Stinker’s Truck Stop.

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And I just… I just pulled over immediately and tried to photograph it the best I could, and every time I was in the area, I would always go back and photograph it with different cameras, just to make sure that I had.

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that I was able to capture it, because you don’t find new… animated signs and figurative signs.

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Um, this sign was actually constructed by Paul Greenstein. He did an amazing job, and it was also kind of based on some truck stops.

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that were in the West, including Nevada, called the Stinker Truck Stop. So it’s kind of based on that. The sign disappeared a year and a half after I first saw it.

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Um, and luckily I was able to track it down, and we were able to.

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To preserve this. Um, this guy just makes people happy.

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Um, and, you know, glad to have him part of the… or it’s probably a girl thing, actually.

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Glad to have her as part of the collection.

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Piccolos, this is… this was from Omaha, Nebraska. Um, this is a sign… this was a steakhouse that Warren Buffett frequented.

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Um, we had heard that this place was closing.

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And I worked with the owners for years to.

00:23:39.000 –> 00:23:45.000
be able to preserve it when it was coming down. We always like to keep signs in place, but when they do come down.

00:23:45.000 –> 00:23:51.000
We would like to give them a home, and at the time, there was no.

00:23:51.000 –> 00:24:01.000
preservation effort attempting to save it in the area. And so, um… We drove across country. Eric Linksweiler from Mona and I, we drove across the country.

00:24:01.000 –> 00:24:06.000
with the piccolo’s, uh, signs in a giant truck.

00:24:06.000 –> 00:24:13.000
So, one of the things, um… That we don’t want neon to become a dead art.

00:24:13.000 –> 00:24:16.000
And there’s some things that we’re doing to make sure that NEON.

00:24:16.000 –> 00:24:27.000
Um, that neon stays around. And so we’ve started our reanimator series, where we’ve started constructing some of the signs that have been lost in Nevada.

00:24:27.000 –> 00:24:39.000
And, um, and ones that we would like to see again, because we want to keep the tradition of neon sign making alive. This was from the fly-in pig barbecue in Winnemucca.

00:24:39.000 –> 00:24:54.000
Uh, the owner really… he had created a 10-foot version of this sign that actually was on the cover of Neon, Nevada, and he really, um… wanted his legacy to continue. This sign had been destroyed long ago, and he wanted to.

00:24:54.000 –> 00:25:06.000
you know, continue the legacy of the business, and so we had this sign made by, uh… Golden West signs that built the first one. And so this is just another flying.

00:25:06.000 –> 00:25:12.000
He’s very happy for a pig that may have just met his maker.

00:25:12.000 –> 00:25:23.000
Um, this is Vegas Vick. Of course, this sign is still up in Las Vegas. Um, I was lucky enough to meet the man that designed the neon for this. His name’s Pat Denner.

00:25:23.000 –> 00:25:35.000
I was able to meet him, uh… shortly before he passed away, and he was such a kind man, he considered himself one of the first, um.

00:25:35.000 –> 00:25:40.000
graffiti artist, because he rode on trains in the 30s.

00:25:40.000 –> 00:25:44.000
And he also designed the illustration for Colonel Sanders.

00:25:44.000 –> 00:25:51.000
So, two very enduring American icons. He did the… a lot of the graphic work for.

00:25:51.000 –> 00:25:58.000
And so, um, I’ve always loved this sign, and when Pat Denner passed, his family gave me.

00:25:58.000 –> 00:26:04.000
the original drawings of Vegas Vic. And so, we built a three-quarter scale version of his head.

00:26:04.000 –> 00:26:10.000
Um, that we are quite proud of.

00:26:10.000 –> 00:26:24.000
Roger Daniels, uh, did the neon for this. Um… Dwight McCutta, he’s a… Nevada sign painter, he did the… he did the paintwork, and this was based off shop drawings.

00:26:24.000 –> 00:26:30.000
Where we design… where we built a pattern. Brett Logan did the pattern.

00:26:30.000 –> 00:26:42.000
This is another one that we wanted to recreate. We’d never seen this in person, we’d only seen this in a montage in a movie set in the 40s or early 50s.

00:26:42.000 –> 00:26:49.000
And so this is a… this is a… an illustration done by Robert Caples.

00:26:49.000 –> 00:26:52.000
that he was actually known for his, uh, his.

00:26:52.000 –> 00:26:59.000
He did, I think, graphite illustrations of Native Americans, and that’s what he was really famous for.

00:26:59.000 –> 00:27:06.000
Um, so… The goal never, you know, it was never really.

00:27:06.000 –> 00:27:13.000
Initially, it wasn’t to… start a museum. But the longer we did this, we recognized that the things that we were.

00:27:13.000 –> 00:27:19.000
that we were collecting were very important to Nevada history.

00:27:19.000 –> 00:27:25.000
And sometimes, or a lot of times, I would be… I would have been called a collector.

00:27:25.000 –> 00:27:30.000
And in kind of a derogatory way, you know, as is I was.

00:27:30.000 –> 00:27:36.000
Collecting these things and hoarding them away from myself, which wasn’t the case.

00:27:36.000 –> 00:27:48.000
This was always a very long-term project, and. Um, and that I knew that it would take a long time to create something important. And I didn’t, you know, we didn’t want to do things halfway.

00:27:48.000 –> 00:27:52.000
We turned down a lot of opportunities that just weren’t right for the science.

00:27:52.000 –> 00:28:00.000
So this was a show in 2012 and 2013 at the Nevada Museum of Art. It was called The Light Circus, The Art of Nevada Neon.

00:28:00.000 –> 00:28:05.000
And it was really great, because it was a… it was like a proof of concept to see, um.

00:28:05.000 –> 00:28:11.000
You know, if this really held up, you know, if this could really keep people’s attention in a museum setting.

00:28:11.000 –> 00:28:20.000
And so we had about 15 signs in the gallery here, and another one in the lobby. And it was a great show. I loved being able to go and see all these.

00:28:20.000 –> 00:28:29.000
these signs together and to see. How they made people happy. People had really great memories from these places.

00:28:29.000 –> 00:28:33.000
People that tell me about, you know, proposing to their.

00:28:33.000 –> 00:28:37.000
Proposing to their wife in front of this sign at the Holiday Hotel.

00:28:37.000 –> 00:28:47.000
And so it was just… it was… it was a great feeling to be able to see these together, but in a way, it was also kind of frustrating because, um.

00:28:47.000 –> 00:29:04.000
Like, these signs are huge, and they’re awkward, and you need just the right space to house them, and to also be able to cater to the people to come see them. We need them, you know, we need tourists to be able to come and enjoy this to keep it open.

00:29:04.000 –> 00:29:12.000
There’s that… the Sahara sign that you saw taken down. Oh, and actually, you saw the Nevada Club on the second slide. This was on the facade.

00:29:12.000 –> 00:29:19.000
Um, we didn’t light the Sahara because one of the sign people said, if we put the bulbs in there and lit this, people would.

00:29:19.000 –> 00:29:28.000
just walking by, they’d get sunburned. And uh… and so, also, the power that we used in the, in this exhibit was pretty crazy.

00:29:28.000 –> 00:29:37.000
But Nevada, those are incandescent bulbs, and it was beautiful, but they had to rewire the museum just to showcase it.

00:29:37.000 –> 00:29:45.000
Um, you know, and this is… this is actually a friend of mine. They were actually next-door neighbors, and that’s my daughter’s friend.

00:29:45.000 –> 00:30:04.000
Brooklyn. So… I wanted to… you know, I don’t want neon to be… just an element of Nevada’s past, that it’s important to Nevada. It’s… that neon means more to Nevada.

00:30:04.000 –> 00:30:12.000
in my opinion, than any other state. Because when NEON started to fade in other places in the late 50s or early 60s.

00:30:12.000 –> 00:30:16.000
It was as if Nevada didn’t get the memo, and we started building signs that were.

00:30:16.000 –> 00:30:21.000
you know, 300 feet tall with 10 miles of neon on them.

00:30:21.000 –> 00:30:38.000
And this neon did not go away in Nevada. There were times when it started to fade, but it came right back. And a lot of the cities in Nevada were kind of lost highways, and they weren’t… you know, modernized, and so the neon stayed. But…

00:30:38.000 –> 00:30:52.000
Throughout, kind of, our history, there’s always been kind of a… you know, at times when Neon is in favor and people really think neon’s great, and then it would kind of go out of style. And then there was also the idea.

00:30:52.000 –> 00:31:02.000
that neon is only Las Vegas. That Las Vegas is the only neon in Nevada, and that is patently untrue. You know, Reno for.

00:31:02.000 –> 00:31:10.000
The first part of the… 20th century was bigger than Las Vegas. They were the… we were the gaming capital. We were the entertainment capital.

00:31:10.000 –> 00:31:23.000
So, Reno had a great deal of neon, but neon was all over the state, too, in… Elko, you know, the Owl Club in Battle Mountain, Carson City, you know.

00:31:23.000 –> 00:31:31.000
Carlin, all over the state, there was great neon signs. You’d drive through this really dark desert, and then you’d come up.

00:31:31.000 –> 00:31:35.000
to Hawthorne and see the beautiful glow of neon.

00:31:35.000 –> 00:31:45.000
And so… I wanted to do something to help make sure that NEON did not fade away in Nevada.

00:31:45.000 –> 00:31:53.000
So at the time, I was a teacher. And I got the idea that it’d be really cool to work with the students.

00:31:53.000 –> 00:32:02.000
to propose a bill that would make neon one of our state symbols. I thought it would be a great civics lesson, and um… And in a way for the kids to kind of.

00:32:02.000 –> 00:32:11.000
be able to take pride in their state and have a project that was all their own. So we found someone to sponsor the bill, Sarah Peters.

00:32:11.000 –> 00:32:17.000
And so we, as a class, we wrote the bill, and being in Carson City, which is the state capitol.

00:32:17.000 –> 00:32:24.000
We were able to… our principal loved the idea, and she gave us permission to go with the project.

00:32:24.000 –> 00:32:32.000
And so we were able to take groups of students to the legislature and to lobby for the bill. You know, we’d be walking around the building and.

00:32:32.000 –> 00:32:41.000
And we’d be making appointments, and we’d run into senators or assembly members, and we would pitch this idea of why NEON should, um.

00:32:41.000 –> 00:32:46.000
should be a state symbol. You know, when you think of the other state symbols.

00:32:46.000 –> 00:32:51.000
Um, that this was something that was actually ubiquitous in Nevada, and it actually.

00:32:51.000 –> 00:33:00.000
you know, meant something to the image of the state. You know, when people thought of Nevada, neon was always a part of it for a very long time.

00:33:00.000 –> 00:33:12.000
So, we methodically, um… we wrote out the names of all the senators and assembly members, their political affiliation, whether or not they were in the committees that we were presenting in.

00:33:12.000 –> 00:33:21.000
And we, uh, we worked really hard to… we would… we had a section to see if they were committed to our bill, if they had agreed to.

00:33:21.000 –> 00:33:37.000
support us, and so… Um, when it… When this finally went to the Assembly, you know, we presented in, uh… we presented in the Assembly, the hearings, and so when it finally went to a vote on the Assembly floor.

00:33:37.000 –> 00:33:46.000
Um, I wanted to take a picture of the sign as it was approved, and so… When they started the votes.

00:33:46.000 –> 00:33:59.000
all the no’s, the red no’s just started piling up. There was this huge amount of red nose, and so I just started thinking, okay, I don’t want this… I don’t care if it’s unanimous anymore, but just please pass.

00:33:59.000 –> 00:34:04.000
And I just kept seeing the no’s just piling up and piling up, and then they started switching.

00:34:04.000 –> 00:34:12.000
back to yes, and then it actually did pass unanimously, and they had, uh, they had just done that as a practical joke to.

00:34:12.000 –> 00:34:20.000
the assembly member that sponsored the bill, because it was her first bill, and so it was a very scary moment, but, um.

00:34:20.000 –> 00:34:27.000
The bill passed the Assembly unanimously. And it passed the Senate unanimously, and then it was signed into.

00:34:27.000 –> 00:34:33.000
into law by, uh, Governor Sisolak. And so NEON is now one of our official state symbols.

00:34:33.000 –> 00:34:38.000
And we’re hoping that this will encourage people that are, you know, opening businesses.

00:34:38.000 –> 00:34:45.000
Um, to consider using Neon, because it is something that means something to the state.

00:34:45.000 –> 00:34:52.000
So, um, and this is Governor Sisolak signing the bill. This was actually pretty… there was a couple funny things about this, is that.

00:34:52.000 –> 00:34:57.000
There was, like, a girl in a lot of the pictures, she didn’t want to go, and she’d had to.

00:34:57.000 –> 00:35:11.000
wear a dress she didn’t like. So, in all the pictures, um… Uh, all the kids are smiling except for one who’s pouting and doing her best to show that she’s not happy. You can’t really see it in this picture, but…

00:35:11.000 –> 00:35:19.000
Um… So, this, again, back to… back to our.

00:35:19.000 –> 00:35:34.000
This is our host from Van Ness Auto, but when I… when we were developing… when we started, um… coming up with the Light Circus Neon Museum, I realized that this is our perfect ringmaster. This is the ringmaster.

00:35:34.000 –> 00:35:42.000
for the Light Circus Neon Museum. And so. After we have the show with the Nevada Museum of Art.

00:35:42.000 –> 00:35:46.000
We’d brought… we’d shown signs in a lot of different places. We’d brought signs to.

00:35:46.000 –> 00:35:55.000
Museum of Neon Art for Neon Speaks. We had shown at the National Automobile Museum, the Sparks Heritage Museum.

00:35:55.000 –> 00:36:05.000
But the goal was always to have a permanent presence, and to have, you know, not the entire collection, but to have, um.

00:36:05.000 –> 00:36:08.000
But to have these signs out, and for the people to enjoy them.

00:36:08.000 –> 00:36:18.000
Um… this year, we were lucky enough to. find a location. It’s a location we’ve known about, but working with the city of Reno.

00:36:18.000 –> 00:36:46.000
in order to, um… to have a location. So… We found a location, this is the National Bowling Stadium. Um, this is actually some of the movie Kingpin was actually filmed here. Um, up on the fourth floor, there’s a giant, um, that’s where they have these huge tournaments. There’s actually a tournament that’s gonna happen in March. Um, and we are on a section of the bottom floor, right on the corner of.

00:36:46.000 –> 00:36:51.000
University in 4th Street, which was the old Lincoln Highway. It’s a wonderful location.

00:36:51.000 –> 00:36:57.000
We have about 7,500 square feet with 14-foot ceilings.

00:36:57.000 –> 00:37:00.000
And so, is it big enough for all of the collection? It isn’t.

00:37:00.000 –> 00:37:05.000
But we are able to have a great deal of.

00:37:05.000 –> 00:37:14.000
signs in the… in this space. Um… And so, I kind of want to tell you what the museum is going to be. So we’re going to have rotating exhibits.

00:37:14.000 –> 00:37:20.000
you know, we have enough signs to, you know, keep it fresh, bring in new signs.

00:37:20.000 –> 00:37:33.000
kind of deciding which signs would be in the museum at the start was tough, because there’s, like, oh, well, that one would be… such a great sign. And so, um, we do have a lot to keep the museum exciting and dynamic and.

00:37:33.000 –> 00:38:03.000
And fun for locals to come back to. Um, we’re also going to have a lot of programming that has to do with Nevada in pop culture, in large part in the 20th.

00:38:04.000 –> 00:38:14.000
I’ve worked on a few of them. We want to show movies like Casino, The Cooler, the Sister Act, which was filmed in Reno and features a lot of our signs.

00:38:14.000 –> 00:38:19.000
Um, this is also going to be an event space, so we’ve made the… we’ve designed the space.

00:38:19.000 –> 00:38:29.000
And I’m going to show you some elements that can make it a little bit modular to be able to reconfigure the space when we have events like weddings, corporate events.

00:38:29.000 –> 00:38:49.000
holiday parties, you know, things like that. So… So… the space before was the… Bowling Hall of Fame. I think, um, the National Bowling Hall of Fame. And so there’s these mosaic, um, bowling ball, and…

00:38:49.000 –> 00:39:09.000
bowling pin, which are really cool, they’re actually still in the lobby. But this was the museum. It was very, very, uh… it showed its age. The carpet was this brown and tan, the, uh… The walls were tan and maroon and black, and it’s just very dated, and so.

00:39:09.000 –> 00:39:16.000
Uh, so this is the spot that we were taking over.

00:39:16.000 –> 00:39:28.000
So… Bill… are we… should we take a question now, or should we wait till the end, Brian?

00:39:28.000 –> 00:39:29.000
Okay.

00:39:29.000 –> 00:39:35.000
Well, no, let’s, let’s wait till the end. Well, just keep going, and you have about another… Uh, 10 minutes or so, if you can fit it all into there.

00:39:35.000 –> 00:39:41.000
Perfect. So… So this was the space.

00:39:41.000 –> 00:39:45.000
And then this is when it was starting to be cleared out.

00:39:45.000 –> 00:39:53.000
Um… and so, the thing about it is, is that Grover started that, you know, that everything in the whole Wide World Museum, but he never told me.

00:39:53.000 –> 00:39:58.000
Um, how hard it would be to start a neon museum.

00:39:58.000 –> 00:40:08.000
With almost no money and very little time. And so… but we have this amazing opportunity because we’re right downtown.

00:40:08.000 –> 00:40:16.000
And we are, um… There’s also these bowling tournaments within the building. Uh, there’s one that starts in March.

00:40:16.000 –> 00:40:29.000
Where we will be getting about… 80,000 to 90,000 people coming through over 100, uh… and 20-day period, and so there’s a real opportunity to, you know, be able to capture some of those people.

00:40:29.000 –> 00:40:36.000
and share our museum with them, which makes our project more viable. So I’m going to go through some pictures and show you kind of.

00:40:36.000 –> 00:40:41.000
when I was thinking about this presentation, you know, thinking about, you know.

00:40:41.000 –> 00:40:51.000
preservation, you know, this group and being, you know, preservation-minded and appreciating these important things, I thought it was a really cool opportunity to be able to speak to you now.

00:40:51.000 –> 00:40:55.000
While we’re in the process, we’re in the middle of this. I’m working.

00:40:55.000 –> 00:41:01.000
7 days a week, 12 to 16 hours a day, like, non-stop on this. And so.

00:41:01.000 –> 00:41:14.000
I’m not burned out yet, I’m still having a lot of fun, but we’re in the middle of this. This, you know, we’re in the middle of, um… you know, that we’re not here, we’re not in an empty space with the old carpet. The carpet’s been…

00:41:14.000 –> 00:41:32.000
Um, redone. We wanted a polished concrete floor. Uh, but the floor underneath here was really bad, and we got an estimate for $200,000, and it would have looked really ugly, so… We went with some mid-century style carpeting. So, I’m gonna go through and show you some of the pictures of.

00:41:32.000 –> 00:41:39.000
Of what we’re doing. So this is my friend Annie, who has helped me preserve so many different signs.

00:41:39.000 –> 00:41:46.000
And she came through and she was helping us… she was helping us.

00:41:46.000 –> 00:41:57.000
paying over these ugly tan colors. We did have to go over this one, uh, twice, because at certain angles, you could still see the light circuses coming, which isn’t a bad thing.

00:41:57.000 –> 00:42:05.000
But, uh, and maybe you still can from certain angles, but we just thought this was a fun way to break in the space.

00:42:05.000 –> 00:42:15.000
So, I’ve had to recruit a lot of friends and family to help. This is my father on the left. He’s, you know.

00:42:15.000 –> 00:42:21.000
His name is Griff, and he’s been an amazing supporter of the project. My friend Billy, who is a production designer.

00:42:21.000 –> 00:42:27.000
Um, he came… he came down from Oregon to help me work for.

00:42:27.000 –> 00:42:33.000
A week or so, we’re building these islands. I’m going to explain more about these islands, you know, it has to do with the modular element.

00:42:33.000 –> 00:42:41.000
These are the islands, and these are very large, they’re 10 feet in diameter, and there’s a wall.

00:42:41.000 –> 00:42:46.000
that we’re building in the middle of them so that we can showcase a sign on either side.

00:42:46.000 –> 00:42:54.000
These are built on heavy-duty casters. So we are able to… they will be in the body of the museum.

00:42:54.000 –> 00:43:01.000
And we have them there to create kind of different experiences and different ways to explore.

00:43:01.000 –> 00:43:07.000
the museum different paths. Um, just different ways to see the signs.

00:43:07.000 –> 00:43:12.000
But in the… when we do have an event, we’re able to move these to a section of the museum.

00:43:12.000 –> 00:43:16.000
where they’re out of the way, so we can open it up for more people.

00:43:16.000 –> 00:43:28.000
Bringing the signs to the museum is always an exciting part of it. We’re not quite ready to install, but we’re bringing them to the museum to start, um.

00:43:28.000 –> 00:43:32.000
to start getting them ready. There’s always a lot of work. There’s cleaning.

00:43:32.000 –> 00:43:43.000
Um, this is my dad. We’ve had really, really good weather while we’ve been doing this. We haven’t had a lot of snow, which really would have complicated things, but we did have a really cold.

00:43:43.000 –> 00:43:47.000
rain shower when we were bringing some signs in, and so my dad’s always.

00:43:47.000 –> 00:43:55.000
been a trooper. He’s actually… he’s. 84 years old, and he is.

00:43:55.000 –> 00:44:04.000
He’s helping to make this happen. There’s Vegas Vic coming to the… to the museum.

00:44:04.000 –> 00:44:15.000
And so there’s just a lot of work to be done. You know, there’s some signs that we’ve gotten that the neon was broken, it needed to be replaced, and so we’ve been making patterns.

00:44:15.000 –> 00:44:24.000
This is Garrett. He is, um… Roger Daniels, the man that did the neon for Vegas Vic, he’s helping me.

00:44:24.000 –> 00:44:28.000
get these signs ready to go. He’s making neon patterns.

00:44:28.000 –> 00:44:41.000
That put my daughter to work helping to clean the signs, you know, these signs have been outside and they, uh… They accumulate some aging, and so here she is cleaning.

00:44:41.000 –> 00:44:53.000
This is Ken Hines from Color of Neon, um, doing, um… creating some new glass for the Rancho Sierra Motel. That was one of the ones that we showed you that was coming off the building.

00:44:53.000 –> 00:45:06.000
Uh, Ken is the only, uh… Neon… commercial neon shop in town. There’s another neon bender, Jeff Johnson, but Ken and Color of Neon is the only neon shop.

00:45:06.000 –> 00:45:12.000
uh, left in Reno, and that’s a really sad thing. And so, hopefully, through our project, we will, um.

00:45:12.000 –> 00:45:18.000
encourage some people to take up the mantle and to learn this… this art and craft.

00:45:18.000 –> 00:45:27.000
Which takes a long time. But hopefully we can keep it alive, and we can make sure that we can still have NEON in the future.

00:45:27.000 –> 00:45:41.000
And again, this is my dad, um… for the show at the Nevada Museum of Art, he cleaned off a lot of the porcelain signs, and so that’s kind of his expertise, and so… He’s got his soft scrub cleaning the silver spur.

00:45:41.000 –> 00:45:47.000
So, this is a project, you know. that just could not be done without the help of others.

00:45:47.000 –> 00:45:53.000
Um, so that’s basically the presentation. We have, um… I’m going to show you a couple signs.

00:45:53.000 –> 00:45:58.000
There are a couple slides coming up that are ways to, you know, if you are interested in.

00:45:58.000 –> 00:46:05.000
in supporting us, becoming a member or sponsoring, becoming a sponsor or sponsoring a sign.

00:46:05.000 –> 00:46:10.000
This is, um, this takes you to our founding membership, um.

00:46:10.000 –> 00:46:22.000
page, there’s different benefits for different members. different tiers of membership. Um, I think this takes you just to the general membership page. There are other memberships other than founding members. There’s couples.

00:46:22.000 –> 00:46:29.000
Um, there’s individual memberships. And I think there might be… this might be posted in the chat, I’m hoping.

00:46:29.000 –> 00:46:34.000
Um, you know, this is our individual membership, couples membership.

00:46:34.000 –> 00:46:45.000
Um… And… and this is the sponsor assigned. If there’s a, you know, there’s a lot of signs that will take a great deal of work to.

00:46:45.000 –> 00:46:48.000
to have ready to show, but if this is something.

00:46:48.000 –> 00:46:55.000
That interests you, that you are able to sponsor a sign at any sort of denomination, and if there was something special that you wanted to do.

00:46:55.000 –> 00:47:09.000
We can work out a program like that. Thank you so much for… Thank you so much for listening to my talk, and I would love to answer any questions that you might have.

00:47:09.000 –> 00:47:17.000
Well, Will, that was… just remarkable. It’s a truly inspiring story about, uh.

00:47:17.000 –> 00:47:21.000
While one person, yourself, but of course you have lots and lots of help.

00:47:21.000 –> 00:47:33.000
Um, taking on something that… you know, is essential, and just running with it, and doing it. And, I mean, involving your class, those pictures were so adorable of your class.

00:47:33.000 –> 00:47:39.000
Uh, it looked like, what, grade 7, grade 6, grade 8, maybe?

00:47:39.000 –> 00:47:40.000
5th and 6th grade, do these students not only getting a civics lesson, but.

00:47:40.000 –> 00:47:42.000
Fifth and 6th grade, yeah.

00:47:42.000 –> 00:47:56.000
Um, uh, being able to participate in something as meaningful and interesting and even historical as that, so… all power to you, and God bless your dad. Oh my god.

00:47:56.000 –> 00:47:58.000
How old did you say he was? 82? 84, and he’s still up there slugging around neon signs.

00:47:58.000 –> 00:48:08.000
84. You wouldn’t… Oh yeah, you wouldn’t be able to tell. He’s… but he’s, you know, I sometimes have to remember.

00:48:08.000 –> 00:48:17.000
I sometimes have to remember, I’m like, oh yeah, he’s 84. Because moving these signs and dealing with these signs is awful.

00:48:17.000 –> 00:48:21.000
Um, and so, I have to remember, I’m like, oh yeah, he’s.

00:48:21.000 –> 00:48:29.000
He’s 84 years old, but he’s my biggest supporter, and uh… I’m grateful to have his… his… is support.

00:48:29.000 –> 00:48:37.000
Well, it’s really a remarkable story, and we have… you have dozens and dozens and dozens of comments here, most of which.

00:48:37.000 –> 00:48:43.000
are saying, what a wonderful job you’re doing, and keep up the good work. But we also do have.

00:48:43.000 –> 00:48:47.000
And I’ll pass all those on to you, of course, but we also do have.

00:48:47.000 –> 00:48:50.000
some questions for you, and I’m going to start with Bill.

00:48:50.000 –> 00:48:59.000
Uh, who, uh, who had his hand up. Bill, if you’re there, I’ve just, uh… I’m muted you, or you can unmute if you like.

00:48:59.000 –> 00:49:07.000
If you had a question to ask. Yeah. Oh, okay, well, maybe you can come in a bit later.

00:49:07.000 –> 00:49:15.000
Uh, if you do have a question. Uh, but let’s get to… Well, let’s get to, um… Oh, turned off my video.

00:49:15.000 –> 00:49:23.000
Let’s get to some of the questions. So, um… Nancy Sturm, who is, uh, past president of the SCA.

00:49:23.000 –> 00:49:34.000
has a lot of… had a lot of questions. Actually, Nancy, I don’t know, do you want to… Ask them some of your questions directly, too. Let me see if I can get you unmuted here.

00:49:34.000 –> 00:49:40.000
Uh, where are we? Did you want to ask, um, Will some questions, Nancy?

00:49:40.000 –> 00:49:41.000
I would just… there you go.

00:49:41.000 –> 00:49:55.000
Well, thank you. Will, congratulations on your work. I did, um, get some answers from your colleague, Annie. I was curious about when the first, um, the first sign you collected was, and that peer you were talking about.

00:49:55.000 –> 00:50:04.000
Um, it was 1996, Annie said, I will say that SCA had a terrific conference in Reno, I believe.

00:50:04.000 –> 00:50:09.000
I honestly can’t recall whether it was in the late 90s, early, early 2000s.

00:50:09.000 –> 00:50:12.000
But, um, I was curious, as I was listening to you.

00:50:12.000 –> 00:50:27.000
about why we didn’t visit your museum, but now I understand why. It was… it’s, uh, this personal collection. And, um… Um, I guess I’m wondering, at this point, how many, how many signs have you collected, um.

00:50:27.000 –> 00:50:33.000
Yeah, how many signs have you collected do you own now, I guess I should say.

00:50:33.000 –> 00:50:34.000
Wow.

00:50:34.000 –> 00:50:45.000
So, just about 200, and some of those signs are massive, and those aren’t… Like, I don’t consider, like… one letter of a sign being assigned, so I have about 200, like, signs, so the Sahara would be one sign.

00:50:45.000 –> 00:50:46.000
And so, about 200 different, uh. Science.

00:50:46.000 –> 00:50:58.000
Right. And so you’ll be storing these off-site, um, at a warehouse, I guess is where you keep them now, or something, and then you’ll rotate from the warehouse?

00:50:58.000 –> 00:51:06.000
Yeah, so we have… we have a… we have some semi-trailers, storage units, and we bought a property where we’re building a steel building.

00:51:06.000 –> 00:51:12.000
Um, and just to be able to… work on them off-site, you know, when signs come down, we need a place for them to land.

00:51:12.000 –> 00:51:24.000
Um, sometimes they’re massive, and so we have a piece of property where we would be able to accommodate any sign that comes down. So, because a lot of times, that would be a problem, like, where are we going to bring this, and so… Now we have that.

00:51:24.000 –> 00:51:32.000
Right. And, um, and just my final question, I guess you have a board of trust… a board of directors, and um… and that sort of thing at this point?

00:51:32.000 –> 00:51:47.000
So, we were… so, initially, Nevada Neon Project was a non-profit, and so… We are not a non-profit right now, because I did not want to take donations for.

00:51:47.000 –> 00:51:55.000
a location that I cannot, um… that I do not have full control over. We don’t own this building. We have a lease.

00:51:55.000 –> 00:52:08.000
But I didn’t want to accept donations. Um… when… when… eventually, I want this museum to outlive all of us, and so eventually we will become a non-profit, but I didn’t want to take.

00:52:08.000 –> 00:52:15.000
donations from people. Um… in the event that I can’t promise how long.

00:52:15.000 –> 00:52:17.000
we will be there in this location. So, I want to accept donations.

00:52:17.000 –> 00:52:21.000
I see.

00:52:21.000 –> 00:52:26.000
Um, when I know that what we will be doing is as permanent as possible.

00:52:26.000 –> 00:52:27.000
Thank you.

00:52:27.000 –> 00:52:29.000
You what?

00:52:29.000 –> 00:52:34.000
Okay, thanks a lot, Nancy. Um, we have a bunch of questions. Shelly Morris asks.

00:52:34.000 –> 00:52:40.000
Are all signs going to be displayed with their lights on in the museum?

00:52:40.000 –> 00:53:01.000
Yes. So… We will… every sign that we have in the museum will be lit. There’s a couple signs that don’t have neon, just a couple that we just love and we want to have in there, but we will have everything illuminated. Um, our goal is to have more signs lit up in the museum.

00:53:01.000 –> 00:53:04.000
then are lit up in the Las Vegas Neon Museum Boneyard.

00:53:04.000 –> 00:53:13.000
Um, when we had the show at the Nevada Museum of Art, we had some giant signs in there, and we didn’t light them up entirely.

00:53:13.000 –> 00:53:20.000
Just because of power requirements and otherwise, and that really upset people. They’re like, why is only one letter lit? And so, with this.

00:53:20.000 –> 00:53:24.000
We’re going to make sure that everything is, um… is lit, and that’s the best way… that’s the, you know, that’s the magic of Neon, is what, is with them all lit up.

00:53:24.000 –> 00:53:30.000
Okay.

00:53:30.000 –> 00:53:37.000
Now, I have a question. Before we get back to the viewers’ questions. I’ve got one as well, and you just clicked on it there.

00:53:37.000 –> 00:53:48.000
maybe this is a little sensitive topic, um, if you don’t want to answer it, you don’t have to, but there’s lots of other neon museums out there, for example, American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, and there’s one in Vegas, and there’s a couple in LA, and so on.

00:53:48.000 –> 00:53:51.000
Mm-hmm.

00:53:51.000 –> 00:53:59.000
Um, how… what’s the relationship like between all these museums? Do you compete for signs and things, or how does that work?

00:53:59.000 –> 00:54:10.000
So that’s a really good question, and I’m glad you mentioned that, because that was one thing that I had written as a note that I wanted to say. So, for the sign museums like the American Sign Museum.

00:54:10.000 –> 00:54:15.000
Ignite Sign Museum and the Museum of Neon Art.

00:54:15.000 –> 00:54:33.000
They have all been extremely supportive, um, offering any, you know, just as much advice and information as I… requested. They… there… there is no sense of competition. Um, this is… we’re feeding the same beast.

00:54:33.000 –> 00:54:44.000
to show off these signs. And so. It’s a really great relationship. A lot of those relationships have been fostered through Neon Speaks. Randall Ann.

00:54:44.000 –> 00:54:53.000
And I’ll put on Neon Speaks, and that’s where a lot of these people have been able to come together to, um.

00:54:53.000 –> 00:54:59.000
to really celebrate me on and uh… And to help us succeed.

00:54:59.000 –> 00:55:04.000
My… the light circus Neon Museum is different than.

00:55:04.000 –> 00:55:11.000
The Neon Museum in Las Vegas in a couple different ways. First of all, their scope is entirely Las Vegas.

00:55:11.000 –> 00:55:25.000
And we realized that the story goes beyond. Las Vegas, and so we have the entire state. Um, our exhibition philosophy is different, um, although these signs came from outside, we really.

00:55:25.000 –> 00:55:33.000
Treat them as important historical. objects that need to be preserved, so a lot of them will never go outside again because, um.

00:55:33.000 –> 00:55:43.000
We want them to be around for hundreds of years. And then also, we are very, um… proactive in our preservation. We don’t wait for signs to come to us.

00:55:43.000 –> 00:55:50.000
We watch the news, and we make sure that signs are not lost. So, uh, preservation is an.

00:55:50.000 –> 00:55:55.000
proactive activity that you need to be watching, and so.

00:55:55.000 –> 00:56:01.000
We are very vigilant to make sure that important signs are not lost.

00:56:01.000 –> 00:56:02.000
Okay, great, thank you. Let’s get back to the questions. Now, Stephanie Stuckey.

00:56:02.000 –> 00:56:05.000
I hope that.

00:56:05.000 –> 00:56:09.000
Uh, who is the person who recruited you for tonight’s, uh.

00:56:09.000 –> 00:56:17.000
Uh, presentation. She has a question. Stephanie, I have unmuted you if you want to ask the question yourself, maybe I’ll start it off.

00:56:17.000 –> 00:56:26.000
Um, she asked, how do you know so much about NEO? Are you self-taught, or where did you gain all this knowledge?

00:56:26.000 –> 00:56:27.000
There you are, Stephanie, go ahead.

00:56:27.000 –> 00:56:34.000
You ask it just right, Brian. Yeah, like, it’s fascinating! Like, did you just figure this out yourself, or, you know, how did you gain all this incredible knowledge?

00:56:34.000 –> 00:56:35.000
And thank you for doing this. This is… this is fabulous.

00:56:35.000 –> 00:56:42.000
It’s just… Thank you, thank you for having me. What I’ve learned.

00:56:42.000 –> 00:56:58.000
about NEON has just been immersing myself. Um… immersing myself in NEON. When I first started doing this, I didn’t know anything. I really didn’t know anything, and, you know, the first sign that we tried to take down, I had no idea how heavy it was.

00:56:58.000 –> 00:57:14.000
A friend of mine and I, we almost died trying to preserve it, but it’s just being completely immersed in this. The more that we’d saved, you know, that I would start to learn that it’s a really pretty basic technology, you know, that it hasn’t really changed in 100 years. You have the glass.

00:57:14.000 –> 00:57:19.000
You have the, you know, the electrodes, the transformers.

00:57:19.000 –> 00:57:25.000
And that there… it’s… it’s a lot simpler in certain ways than some people think.

00:57:25.000 –> 00:57:40.000
learning how difficult it is to bend. I am not a bender, but I respect the heck out of people that are, and so it’s really just been a matter of just learning by doing, you know, figuring out what does it take to preserve these? You know, what do you need?

00:57:40.000 –> 00:57:51.000
to, um, what do you need to actually. uh… to do this, and so… And I’ve also learned a lot from other people, you know, through Neon Speaks.

00:57:51.000 –> 00:57:56.000
I’ve learned a lot from the people that have been brought together by that symposium.

00:57:56.000 –> 00:58:09.000
And they’ve been really cool about sharing the knowledge. That’s one thing, is that this isn’t… a really guarded, you know, group of people doing this, that people are… that they’re excited about, um.

00:58:09.000 –> 00:58:25.000
about this preservation effort on… that a lot of people are doing, and so we want it to be bigger all over, because I can’t preserve things all over the country, and they can’t either. So, you know, we kind of support each other in the efforts that we’re doing.

00:58:25.000 –> 00:58:27.000
Regionally.

00:58:27.000 –> 00:58:38.000
Okay, thank you. Um… Steve, uh, sorry, um… Paige Gomez asks, is the Carl sign from Reno in the hands of the Light Circus now?

00:58:38.000 –> 00:58:54.000
It is not. Um, when the sign… When the sign, um… it was damaged by the wind, and it was kind of hanging, uh… Hanging precariously on its perch, I contacted the owners, and they, um…

00:58:54.000 –> 00:59:09.000
They mentioned, um… I discussed with them if it wasn’t going to go back up, that we would love to preserve it, and um… the sign came down, and we actually haven’t heard from the owners. I need to check back with them, but hopefully.

00:59:09.000 –> 00:59:13.000
It hasn’t been destroyed, because we think that sign’s important to save.

00:59:13.000 –> 00:59:19.000
Okay, um, we have a question. When will the museum open? Do we have a… We have an ETA.

00:59:19.000 –> 00:59:31.000
See. Well, we have an ET… you know, it’s very loose, because… so, we… we didn’t even get, you know, the carpet installed until, like, right around Christmas.

00:59:31.000 –> 00:59:56.000
And so when I was going through the, um… the slides, I realized how much… how much we’ve accomplished in a relatively short amount of time. Um… So, there’s a major bowling tournament that starts in March, and so we are doing.

00:59:56.000 –> 00:59:57.000
Oh, Derek.

00:59:57.000 –> 01:00:02.000
everything we can moving heaven and earth to try and make sure that we are open and functioning by that date. And so, if there were 8 days a week, I would be working that 8th day, too, so… Um, so we’re… but it’s… it’s fun. I mean, it’s like, you know, I’m not burned out, and I’m excited, because.

01:00:02.000 –> 01:00:10.000
The closer we get, I just… I’m so excited to share this with people, because I really think this… will be a happy place.

01:00:10.000 –> 01:00:11.000
People to visit.

01:00:11.000 –> 01:00:21.000
Yes. I’ll just give you the last question that we have time for, and Shelly Morris asks, which sign in your collection came from the furthest away?

01:00:21.000 –> 01:00:32.000
Uh, that would be Piccolos from Omaha. And then the second furthest would be, we have one from Tijuana called, uh, Las Quattro Reynas, the Four Queens.

01:00:32.000 –> 01:00:37.000
So that one… that’s our only international. sign.

01:00:37.000 –> 01:00:50.000
Okay. What, what, uh, when you’re teaching, or you’re teaching grade, grade 6 or grade 5, so that’s… that’s elementary school, it wasn’t a particular subject, you just had the class for everything, right?

01:00:50.000 –> 01:00:51.000
Oh, math, okay.

01:00:51.000 –> 01:00:58.000
Oh, I taught… I taught math. language arts, and then I finished off teaching math, but I’m not doing that anymore now, but… The sole focus is the Light Circus Neon Museum.

01:00:58.000 –> 01:01:05.000
So, can you… you can somehow make ends meet, or put bread on the table, and working full-time at the museum?

01:01:05.000 –> 01:01:21.000
Well, um, I’ve… I have… I’ve had some loans from my father, and so that’s, um… And so, we’re just… Just getting by until… until we open. And so, it’s a… it’s a sacrifice, but…

01:01:21.000 –> 01:01:34.000
I think that, um… that it’s going to be worth it. I think that the business is something… this is what I’m meant to do, and I’m excited to… to… to run this museum, and I’m excited to share it, and I think that it will be.

01:01:34.000 –> 01:01:40.000
Um, I think that it will be successful, because I think it’s a genuine, authentic.

01:01:40.000 –> 01:01:48.000
Uh, project that is… you know, just homegrown and means something to Reno, to Nevada, and also.

01:01:48.000 –> 01:01:53.000
You know, the entire country, I think. Neon is… neon is an important part of our.

01:01:53.000 –> 01:01:55.000
our cultural heritage, so…

01:01:55.000 –> 01:02:00.000
Well, that… that is… it’s just such an inspiring story. It’s absolutely wonderful.

01:02:00.000 –> 01:02:04.000
So I’d like to thank you again, Will, for.

01:02:04.000 –> 01:02:09.000
coming to tell us about it, and also for our audience, and we had a very good audience tonight to.

01:02:09.000 –> 01:02:14.000
Um, tune in, and take some of your afternoon and evening to listen.

01:02:14.000 –> 01:02:20.000
Um, just before we go… I like to remind everybody about next month, when on Wednesday.

01:02:20.000 –> 01:02:25.000
February 11th, at our usual time, 8 p.m. Eastern, 5 Pacific.

01:02:25.000 –> 01:02:34.000
Christine and Pete will discuss the history of squished pennies, their collaborative art project, The Squished Penny Museum, and the Future of Squishing.

01:02:34.000 –> 01:02:40.000
Now, SCA members. will be receiving the relevant details and registration link.

01:02:40.000 –> 01:02:44.000
for the January talk by email, and others can register through the SCA.

01:02:44.000 –> 01:02:53.000
Website, uh, directly. Thank you again for spending some time with us. If you’re not a member of the SCA, you will get an email.

01:02:53.000 –> 01:02:59.000
either this evening, or sometime tomorrow, inviting you. to join the SCA and enjoy.

01:02:59.000 –> 01:03:09.000
All the benefits of membership. And keep in mind, everyone, that the recording of this presentation will be available on the SCA’s website.

01:03:09.000 –> 01:03:16.000
Probably tomorrow, and anybody is welcome to, uh… Look at it, to view it with no charge.

01:03:16.000 –> 01:03:27.000
just go to our website, www. dot SCA hyphen roadside dot org, and click recordings, and you’ll see it there. So, if somebody wanted to see it, but they missed it.

01:03:27.000 –> 01:03:32.000
or miss some portion of it, then, um, it’s available.

01:03:32.000 –> 01:03:35.000
So, uh, look forward to seeing everybody next week.

01:03:35.000 –> 01:03:42.000
And… sorry, not next week, next month, same time, same place. Is there any last words, Will?

01:03:42.000 –> 01:03:54.000
I’m just, uh, thankful to have been able to present to you today, and I hope that you will all be able to come to the museum once it’s open. I do not think you’ll be disappointed.

01:03:54.000 –> 01:04:02.000
And uh… and it’s just… it’s a labor of love, but I can’t wait to share it with y’all, so… So I hope to see you there.

01:04:02.000 –> 01:04:14.000
Okay, now, just before we go, Lawrence Johnson has his hand up, so I’m going to… If I can find him here… oh, Lawrence, I don’t see you on our… Honor, uh, participant list.

01:04:14.000 –> 01:04:22.000
But there we go, ask to unmute. So, you’re… you’re unmuted now, Lawrence, if you want to say something.

01:04:22.000 –> 01:04:25.000
Lawrence, I don’t know if you can hear us.

01:04:25.000 –> 01:04:28.000
It looks like he’s still muted.

01:04:28.000 –> 01:04:32.000
Well, yeah, he’s still muted, but he has the ability to unmute.

01:04:32.000 –> 01:04:33.000
Yes, we can. Go ahead, Lawrence.

01:04:33.000 –> 01:04:39.000
Oh, can you hear me now? Right. Um, Will, I’m, um, I’m in Melbourne, Australia, and I made a feature documentary.

01:04:39.000 –> 01:04:45.000
in 2016 called NEON, which is, um… being screened in the US a little bit, and I just want to say, if you take this presentation.

01:04:45.000 –> 01:04:47.000
Of course!

01:04:47.000 –> 01:04:54.000
And if you want to screen it at your museum sometime for free, as a, um, fundraiser or something.

01:04:54.000 –> 01:04:56.000
Um, we can be in touch.

01:04:56.000 –> 01:05:11.000
Of course I know you’re… I know your film, I love it, I’ve watched it, the Roxy theater, um, uh, for Neon Speaks. It’s wonderful, and… And I know that you’ve been very generous to share it with others to… for things like fundraising, and so…

01:05:11.000 –> 01:05:19.000
Um, I was actually meant to contact you at some point to ask you about that, so thank you so much for your generous offer, and.

01:05:19.000 –> 01:05:27.000
I think it’s a wonderful film, and… And it’s important, and I think people… Our group will love it, and thank you.

01:05:27.000 –> 01:05:38.000
Thank you. I love the images that I’d never seen, obviously, many of the images you presented today, but they’re so fabulous and beautiful, and it’s just fabulous that you’re putting the time and energy in.

01:05:38.000 –> 01:05:42.000
you know, to band everyone together to bring this to the public.

01:05:42.000 –> 01:05:43.000
Thank you.

01:05:43.000 –> 01:05:54.000
Yeah, but it’s, you know, it’s a collaborative thing, like, the work that you’ve done, and the work at, like, Neon Speaks, and it’s all… it all builds on… on everything, you know, your film brought a lot of attention to.

01:05:54.000 –> 01:06:09.000
to this, um… the effort of preserving this neon, and so this is all something that is built upon the effort of a lot of people and enthusiasm, and so it’s all… It’s all really exciting because it feels.

01:06:09.000 –> 01:06:14.000
collaborative, and it feels… I feel supported, and it makes the work easier to do.

01:06:14.000 –> 01:06:17.000
Yeah, and I like what you said about people sharing.

01:06:17.000 –> 01:06:22.000
just in terms of the other museums that people are altruistic, and it’s not a competition.

01:06:22.000 –> 01:06:30.000
And you all want to support each other instead of saving signs, and I know you need to wind up, so I might end my comment there, but thank you again so much.

01:06:30.000 –> 01:06:31.000
Thank you, I appreciate it.

01:06:31.000 –> 01:06:36.000
And thank you, Lawrence, for tuning in from. You said New Zealand that you were from, or Australia?

01:06:36.000 –> 01:06:37.000
Melbourne, Australia.

01:06:37.000 –> 01:06:43.000
Australia, yes, thanks for tuning in for halfway around the world. It’s, I think our.

01:06:43.000 –> 01:06:53.000
Somebody asked, what’s the sign that came from the fir- in your collection that came from furthest away? Well, I think, Lawrence, you’re our… fewer that came from furthest away, so congratulations.

01:06:53.000 –> 01:06:58.000
Thank you.

01:06:58.000 –> 01:06:59.000
Thank you.

01:06:59.000 –> 01:07:05.000
Anyways, with that, uh, we’ll wind it up. Again, thank you, Will, and thank everybody for watching. I will hope to see everybody again same time, same place next month.

01:07:05.000 –> 01:07:10.000
And with that, I wish you a good night.