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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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 Posted: Thu Jul 03, 2025 7:29 pm Post subject: |
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W.B.:
Well, you indeed absorbed all of that data/information/speqs like a sponge.....GOOD WORK, my friend! 
Did not know that there were any "preserved" remains regarding the fabled "zipper" sign.......again, what a travesty that could not have been declared a landmark, and allowed to operate for future generations.........
"NYO"
["NEW YORK TIMES"] |
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W.B. Fishbowl
Age: 58
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 4248
Location: New York, New York, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 3:08 am Post subject: |
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| NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 wrote: | W.B.:
Well, you indeed absorbed all of that data/information/speqs like a sponge.....GOOD WORK, my friend!
Did not know that there were any "preserved" remains regarding the fabled "zipper" sign.......again, what a travesty that could not have been declared a landmark, and allowed to operate for future generations.........
"NYO"
["NEW YORK TIMES"] |
With One Times Square having been totally rebuilt (again), they appear to have in place a new zipper that's totally LED, and in color at that.
But, much obliged for your observations about my memory . . . for years I was called a "sponge" over that. My late mother, who was a typist and a transcriber, however, by her own admission, had a mind on such matters reminiscent of a sieve. |
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W.B. Fishbowl
Age: 58
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 4248
Location: New York, New York, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 3:59 am Post subject: |
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And back to the '72 photo with the Bond zipper, here's a look (and history) of those Naxon Telesign display fonts . . . re-created, but definitely based on photos and such . . .
https://www.flickr.com/photos/24498044@N03/53123166031/ |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 10:18 am Post subject: |
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W.B.:
Again, appreciate both the info anf the linl I'll certainly enjoy reading this later!
Oh, 1 TIMES SQUARE has a color LED zipper?
News to me!
(any photos?)
I don't know if you recall these, but, through the 70s and into the 80s, many drug stores used these miniature "zipper" signs in their display windows; many years back, in a book on model railroading, the author made a comment about using these signs as animated "advertisements" on a model pike, if, of course, you could coax your local druggists to part with it, after he was through using it!
Also, while speaking of the "spectaculars" of days gone by, there was a large "CAPITAL" (airlines} "spectacular" in downtown Atlanta, into the early 1960s (I don't know if a "UNITED" sign replaced it, after the takeover)
This one early 1960s photo I've seen seen (in a book on "CAPITAL") suggests a "small scale" Times Square, as there were other large electric/neon signs there, including one for "COCA-COLA"; in that photo, trolleybus overhead is also visible.........
"NYO"
["FLY CAPITAL VISCOUNTS!"] |
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W.B. Fishbowl
Age: 58
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 4248
Location: New York, New York, USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:14 am Post subject: |
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| NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 wrote: | W.B.:
Again, appreciate both the info anf the linl I'll certainly enjoy reading this later!
Oh, 1 TIMES SQUARE has a color LED zipper?
News to me!
(any photos?)
I don't know if you recall these, but, through the 70s and into the 80s, many drug stores used these miniature "zipper" signs in their display windows; many years back, in a book on model railroading, the author made a comment about using these signs as animated "advertisements" on a model pike, if, of course, you could coax your local druggists to part with it, after he was through using it!
Also, while speaking of the "spectaculars" of days gone by, there was a large "CAPITAL" (airlines} "spectacular" in downtown Atlanta, into the early 1960s (I don't know if a "UNITED" sign replaced it, after the takeover)
This one early 1960s photo I've seen seen (in a book on "CAPITAL") suggests a "small scale" Times Square, as there were other large electric/neon signs there, including one for "COCA-COLA"; in that photo, trolleybus overhead is also visible.........
"NYO"
["FLY CAPITAL VISCOUNTS!"] |
Oh yeah. Peachtree Street. To the right of the Coke spectacular, there was a news zipper operated for a few years starting in the early '60's by WSB in Atlanta. The controls? None other than Naxon Telesign, with their 1938-39 origin "square, blocky" type.
The clock on the Coke ad was initially controlled by Time-O-Matic, and first installed in 1949; by the mid-'60's, their controls were replaced with those of bitter rival American Sign & Indicator. (Again, I could tell which controls were used by the shapes of the numerals, which tended to differ from company to company.)
An American Sign & Indicator computer, meanwhile, was used for the controls of the Spectacolor display mounted from late 1976 to mid-1990 on the 43d Street side of One Times Square above the "zipper" . . . |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:30 am Post subject: |
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W.B.:
Greatly appreciate this additional info; as I've said, this sort of thing has fascinated me since early childhood-------indeed, a study unto itself!
Recall "Reddy Kilowatt"? (I think he was before your time!)
There was once, I recall, (well over 60 years ago) a large electric sign in the Newark area (seen from the windows of an PRR/H&M "joint service" train) that "Reddi" switching a lamp on and off.
That sign had to be around for sometime before I came along, because Mom and my older brothers remembered it, when going to visit my maternal grandparents, who then lived in South Orange......
"NYO"
["NEWARK"]
Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:38 am; edited 2 times in total |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:35 am Post subject: |
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The interesting story of an ol' buddy, of mine, "Reddy"*.......
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reddy_Kilowatt
(read also of restored historic "Reddy" neon sign in Alabama!)
["PUBLIC SERVICE"]
*Be sure to read of "Reddy's" association with famed animator Walter Lantz! 
Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Fri Jul 04, 2025 11:51 am; edited 1 time in total |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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W.B. Fishbowl
Age: 58
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 4248
Location: New York, New York, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 3:04 am Post subject: |
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Especially when you consider that neon didn't come to "the Square" until the mid-1920's . . . before that every "spectacular" was lit up by rows of incandescent bulbs . . . |
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W.B. Fishbowl
Age: 58
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 4248
Location: New York, New York, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:06 am Post subject: |
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| NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 wrote: | W.B.:
Greatly appreciate this additional info; as I've said, this sort of thing has fascinated me since early childhood-------indeed, a study unto itself!
Recall "Reddy Kilowatt"? (I think he was before your time!)
There was once, I recall, (well over 60 years ago) a large electric sign in the Newark area (seen from the windows of an PRR/H&M "joint service" train) that "Reddi" switching a lamp on and off.
That sign had to be around for sometime before I came along, because Mom and my older brothers remembered it, when going to visit my maternal grandparents, who then lived in South Orange......
"NYO"
["NEWARK"] |
I've seen the "Reddy Kilowatt" image from other places . . . don't think Con Edison used it all that much, that I know of . . . one Cleveland, OH TV station's newscast was sponsored as of the late 1970's by the local power company that used that mascot as its logo. |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 11:27 am Post subject: |
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W.B.:
If I am not mistaken, going back to the early/mid 1960s (at least) didn't Con Ed have a "mascot";a "cartoon" utility worker, and using the slogan, "DIG WE MUST!"?
Back in the early 1960s, I still recall the nearsided "Quincy McGoo" as "spokesman" for "GE Soft White Bulbs"; I still, to this day, have a souivener pin of ol' McGoo, holding a GE bulb (this was a promo at the time)
Way back then, my late brother was a utility worker for what is now PSE&G; I used to love that the doors of his company "ECONOLINE" van were adorned with the SAME "triangle in a circle" insignia displayed on all the PS buses......
Man, I'm really showing my age, again, here...... 
"NYO"
['PUBLIC SERVICE COORDINATED TRANSPORT"] |
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W.B. Fishbowl
Age: 58
Joined: 02 Oct 2014
Posts: 4248
Location: New York, New York, USA
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 3:06 pm Post subject: |
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| NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 wrote: | W.B.:
If I am not mistaken, going back to the early/mid 1960s (at least) didn't Con Ed have a "mascot";a "cartoon" utility worker, and using the slogan, "DIG WE MUST!"?
Back in the early 1960s, I still recall the nearsided "Quincy McGoo" as "spokesman" for "GE Soft White Bulbs"; I still, to this day, have a souivener pin of ol' McGoo, holding a GE bulb (this was a promo at the time)
Way back then, my late brother was a utility worker for what is now PSE&G; I used to love that the doors of his company "ECONOLINE" van were adorned with the SAME "triangle in a circle" insignia displayed on all the PS buses......
Man, I'm really showing my age, again, here......
"NYO"
['PUBLIC SERVICE COORDINATED TRANSPORT"] |
I.I.N.M., Con Ed's mascot, from at least the '50's to the '60's, was Tex Antoine's "Uncle Weathbee." Up to the point he left WNBC-TV for WABC-TV in 1966.
One of MAD magazine's specialty books - a parody of various movie genres - took a look at Edison's life, called "The Inventing Fool"; their tagline was, "You can't con Edison!" In it, he had white hair and bushy eyebrows from when he was a little lad. Yet their little dig at "historically challenged" biopics of old, no doubt.
The Sanitation Department's mascot in the '50's was someone named "Charlie Dooley"; one night the TWA "spectacular" on Times Square "Elmer Fudd"-ized part of his name to "Charwie Dooley." Must've been a fault in the perforator, as 'L' was defined by levels 2 and 5 whereas 'W' occupied levels 1, 2 and 5. And Trans-Lux' "Flashcast" / "Adcast" systems used Western Electric 2-A perforators with 'A' (Commercial) keyboards to type out their messages, which were decoded by an apparatus Trans-Lux built in a Brooklyn factory. |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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| Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 3:56 pm Post subject: |
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W.B.:
Great info!
Strange, though I still clearly recall "Uncle Weathbee" with Tex Antoine, I cannot remember him associated with Con Ed!
I also DO recall the "Suzy Spotless " plugs (TV commercials, car cards, subway posters), back in the 1960s.
I also recall, awhile back, on one of the "Noo Yawk" networks, when there might be a shot of a certain area in the city, there being references to the "Con Ed smokestacks" (wasn't this plant in Queens?)
So far as "electrical history" in "Noo Yawk" goes, I still cringe when I think of the old subway stations, with there complex ganglia of ancient, massive electrical gear, being stripped and gutted, with no regard whatsoever towards possible preservation.
Too bad that the "Em-Tee-Yay" couldn't have taken one of those old substations, restored it, and converted it for use as a museum,
Back in the early 1980s, I purchased an old metal "DANGER-HIGH VOLTAGE" sign and an ancient voltage meter at the NYCTM; the older fellow at the gift shop told me that they were from an old substation ($10 bought the two!)
"NYO"
["DANGER-HIGH VOLTAGE!"]
Last edited by NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629 on Sat Jul 05, 2025 4:22 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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NEW YORK OMNIBUS 2629
BusTalk's Offical Welcoming Committee
Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 29759
Location: NEW JOISEY
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