The Contemporary Night Owl

While going through some articles this afternoon, I stumbled across this article from the May 10th edition of the Rapid City Journal about one man's quest to save and find new homes for Rapid City, SD's disused neon signs of businesses past. Like many other cities around the world, Rapid City is another city that is beginning to recognize the historical value of its signage and struggling to save, repair, and find new homes for some of those disused signs from the 1940s-1960s.

This article makes a good point about these signs not only being pieces of vintage Americana, but also works of art which were often designed and handmade by master neon artists many decades ago.

Anyway, here's the link to the article:

http://rapidcityjournal.com/news/local/new-home-sought-for-vintage-rapid-city-neon-signs/article_47c354e0-0b68-5ad6-8e03-1c40863a67a1.html

The Lipton's Tea sign that adorned Stockholm's Stureplan square for decades. This pic was taken when it was built in 1960. (Ruben Morne/Wikimedia Commons)

As those of you who have read this blog and my others are no doubt aware, one of my favorite subjects to blog about is neon signs. In fact, no blog about the nighttime world would be complete without at least a few posts about the neon signs that light up the sky of many a city at night!

Also as many of you already know, many of these neon signs have stood in their location for decades and have become famous historical landmarks in their own right. One famous neon sign I never heard of until this morning is the famous Lipton (or as it was called in the sign, 'Lipton's') Tea sign that once illuminated the night sky in Stockholm, Sweden.

From 1960 until sometime in the late 1980s, the Lipton's Tea sign stood in Stockholm's Stureplan square, which is its equivalent of New York City's Times Square. Passers-by who went past Kungsgatan and, later on after a relocation of the sign, Norrslandgatan, could see this brilliant sign beckoning them to have a cup of Lipton Tea. The clock was an actual moving clock that told the time and the slogan "alltid tid för Lipton's té", which translates to "Always Time For Lipton's Tea" in English, said it all!

This sign was designed and constructed by Graham Neon, which was a subsidiary of the Graham Bros. elevator firm.

Sadly enough, most of the neon signs that adorned Stureplan were torn down during the late 1980s when the square underwent renovation. The Lipton's Tea sign was one of them. And thus the giant multi-colored tea kettle that became a city icon was no more.....

Just like its cousins the Bond Clothing Co. sign that once hung over Times Square and the Glico Man that still hangs in Osaka, Japan, the Lipton's Tea neon sign was a Stockholm icon and was literally a sign of its time. Even though it hangs in Stureplan no more, it gave a lot of people some very warm memories and still keeps on pouring cups of tea in the hearts of those lucky people.


References:
-http://www.avblixten.info/e/esnas31sap751uzx.html (Swedish language article about the signs of Stockholm.)
-http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lipton%27s_t%C3%A9 (Swedish Wikipedia entry about the Lipton Tea sign.)