Neon: It's a Gas

To Rudi Stern, a Manhattan lighting designer, neon signs are more than glaring advertisements. They are "an anonymous art form that is indelibly part of the American landscape, as much a part of us as our highway system." But neon signs are rapidly being replaced by more modern forms of outdoor advertising, and to prevent the complete disappearance of neon from the American scene, Stern has decided to move it indoors. With Partner Mel Romanoff, he has opened a Manhattan gallery called Let There Be Neon, devoted exclusively to selling discarded neon signs--and a few brand-new ones --as glowing decorations for the home.

Stern's affinity for neon developed in the late 1960s, when he began collecting castoff neon fixtures from stores that were simply throwing them away. "I finally had about 40 of them hanging on the walls of my loft," he recalls. "Some of my friends saw them, liked them and even bought them. That's when I first got the idea of selling neon fixtures for use in the home." It took Partner Romanoff longer to succumb to neon, but now he too is an incurable addict. Recently he suffered through "this terrible old Ida Lupino movie because every nightclub they went into had these fantastic neon signs."

Today the cavelike walls of Let There Be Neon are decorated with some 80 classic objects of the fading art. There is something to fit the taste of every neon connoisseur, from a 1938 WE RENT TUXEDOS AND BRIDAL GOWNS sign ($125) to a magnificent $225 fixture reading IRVING'S KOSHER. For those with a political bent, there is a huge sign exhorting the voters to ELECT LAZZARA SENATOR for $100. ("We don't know if he won or not," says Romanoff.) The gallery also includes some contemporary fixtures designed especially for home decorating: large neon circles ($100) that can be substituted for chandeliers over dining tables, and decorative pieces consisting of luminous outlines of flowers, telephones, umbrellas--even a pair of lips.

Ultimately Stern and Romanoff plan to hire a glass blower who will create fixtures to order. The first orders have already begun to roll in. "A man who collects things with mushrooms called and said he's been thinking for years of a neon mushroom," says Stern. "We told him we'd make him one and he's ecstatic."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.