An Hour to Kill in Los Angeles
October 2004

Chinatown, Los Angeles: East Gate

In the birthplace of the neon sign, Chloe Veltman takes a tour of illuminations great and small, starting from a museum dedicated to the subject

The first neon sign in the USA appeared in 1923 above a Packard car dealership in downtown Los Angeles. In the 80 years that followed neon became a potent symbol of US commercial culture, then spluttered out with the advent of back-lit plastic signs; it is now largely consigned to art galleries and museums. Right across Olympic Avenue from the old Packard building is the Museum of Neon Art (MONA), which preserves the country's neon heritage, encourages contemporary neon art and -- for those with three hours to kill on a Saturday evening between June and October -- runs evening tours of the still neon-rich central area of LA.

The 'Neon Cruise', aboard an open-topped double-decker bus, takes in an array of landmarks from a four-handed Buddha with moving eyes in Chinatown and a flashing sphinx at the Egyptian Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard to a sound-activated installation of flashing, multicoloured hoops at the International Jewelry Center and the new 'Snow White the Musical' sign on the rooftop of the Equitable Building at Hollywood and Vine.

For Eric Lynxwiler, who has been leading the cruise for five years, no piece of neon is too small or dilapidated to warrant attention, so long as it has a story behind it. In many places the neon -- or its absence -- tells something about LA's history. In Chinatown, for instance, every rooftop was once silhouetted with candy-coloured neon piping, until the 1970s energy crisis came along and swept it all away. And in the Theater District, the façade of what was once the ritzy State movie palace on Broadway now trumpets the words 'Iglesia Universal', while > 'Jesus Saves' radiates in devilish red neon from the tops of two adjacent buildings nearby. As Lynxwiler puts it, 'neon signage says much more than "liquor," "motel" and "live nude girls".'

Copyright 2004, Conde Nast Traveller.