Electronic Bulb Signs In Fin De Siecle Margaret Weigel .
Electronic Bulb Signs in fin de siecle New York City: Technology, Spectacle and CommerceMargaret Weigel, Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyABSTRACTContemporary commercial advertising relies on an emotive, visual approach; low on wordsand heavy on images, sensational persuasions and cross-cultural myths, these packageseasily jump cultures and finesse language barriers to create portable one-bullet' globalcampaigns. But even before digital technology simplified vertical integration of commercialmedia, another type of spectacle were already wowing urban audiences with strong visualsand minimal written texts at the turn of the nineteenth century — the electronic bulb sign.Many of the issues present in contemporary globalization discourse can also be foundembedded these earlier cultural battles pertaining to this discrete medium.INTRODUCTIONYou may not have heard, but horizontal integration is all the rage now in globalpromotions.1 Chances are, however, that you have already seen evidence of thisphenomenon: television ads which resemble print ads which resemble in-store displays andpackaging, all which bear the same distinctive branded identity. Cross-platform promotionsSee Lehrer, Jeremy. "Border Crossing". In: Print Nov/Dec. 2000, and Crain, Rance, "Push for worldads has price: The bland leading the bland." In: Advertising Age, 10/23/00.1
which assert a single identity for an advertising campaign is not news, but increasingly,these campaigns are being constructed specifically for a global audience.In order to manufacture campaigns which fluidly translate across cultural and languageborders, advertisers have employed two primary strategies. First, the campaign's basictheme needs to be positioned in universal, humanist terms which avoid any culturallyspecific references: for instance, broad tropes which reference flying or children are good;the re-enactment of a 15th century Samurai legend Chinese legend or local Appalachian heroare not. Landscapes and locations too should ideally be fungible, as should the racialidentification of the primary actor(s). Overall, the campaign's narrative should engage withmythic tropes shared by cultures across the globe.Second, these campaigns are constructed with a minimum of textual content. Besides theobvious fluidity and cost savings of languageless media in a multilingual globalmarketplace, the lack of textual argumentation in advertising neatly circumventsproblematics embedded in modern commodity production. Since there the difference in thecomposition of, say, Ivory Soap and Camay is negligible, product differentiation isaccomplished through stylistic, emotive appeals.Much of global advertising, then, consists of all style, no substance, and a lot of flash: it doesnot explain the commodity's legitimate benefits or provide substantive information oncommodity price, manufacturer, physical location or eco-friendly production policies.Rather, it emphasizes the structural underpinning of advertisements, its fundamental core—2—
mission: to be looked at. In that, one could argue that it constitutes a spectacle.2 In that,modern advertising practices actually share a lot in common with one of the very firstmergers of technology, advertising and spectacle: the electric bulb advertising signs whichloomed large over Broadway more than 100 years ago. And yet, the viewing of modernadvertising has become normalized such that its spectacularity is contested by its intimacy,repetition, and manageable physical scale.Compare this then to the electric bulb sign of fin de siecle Manhattan, which was both anexemplary artifact of efficient marketplace communication, and a transgressive, disruptivecommercial medium. Its bright, flashing bulbs, iconic presentations, performative essenceand grand scale were reminiscent of lighthearted carnival experiences, and yet its machinicand nonresponsive existence transported it from the realm of the carnivalesque to that of thespectacular. In this text I will focus primarily on how the form, content and environmentalengagement of certain electric bulb signs rendered this medium spectacular, and how itemployed many of the same bag of tricks as modern-day global advertising pitches.It is important to distinguish between media which freely circulate in a system of "flows"3 ,and outdoor advertising. Outdoor adverting such as an electric bulb sign is tied to aphysical location and as such, it does not "circulate" a message to a market of buyers; rather,2 Global advertising conforms to the OED's definition of spectacles as ""the sight of view ofsomething"; "a thing seen or capable of being seen"; " A person or thing exhibited to, or set before, thepublic gaze as an object either (a) of curiosity or contempt, or (b) of marvel or admiration."; " Aspecially prepared or arranged display of a more or less public nature (esp. one on a large scale),forming an impressive or interesting show or entertainment for those viewing it.; "a thing seen".3For information of "flows", please reference the work of Manuel Castells and Anju Appadurai.—3—
the market "circulates" around the message4; This message fixed in space is also targeted at amobile audience that is actively trying to reach some destination which is most likely 'notthere'; ergo, the presentation must be made quickly as there is no time to argue the details,since it is estimated that six seconds is the average exposure of an individual to an outdoormessage at one passing.5Although the primary subject of this analysis is the large-scale electric bulb sign"spectacular", it is necessary to briefly mention both theatre marquee bulb signs, as well asbulb's broader usage in select metropolitan areas as celebratory and decorative elements. Itis impossible to capture all the characteristics and effects of these larger electric bulb sign'spectaculars' through mere textual depictions; pictures and detailed descriptions have beenincluded whenever possible.Theatre marqueesBy 1892, the function of bulbs had also expanded, from strictly utilitarian uses to decorativeones, much as their function had expanded in the broader culture; strings of ornamentalelectric bulbs could be found at wedding banquets, ballrooms, formal dinners, and clubOutdoor advertising, it could be argued, therefore does not participate in the paradigm of "mediaflows" popularized in the work of Appadurai and Castells, but rather suggests more of a"planet/satellite" model.4Tocker, Phillip. "Standardized Outdoor Advertising: History, Economics and Self-Regulation". In:Outdoor Advertising, History and Regulation, John W. Houck, ed. (Notre Dame, IN: University of NotreDame Press, 1969), 15.5—4—
houses wherever electric power was available.6 It was the electric lights employed at NewYork's Metropolitan Theatre at the reception of King Henry of Prussia which allegedlyprompted the guest of honor to comment that he had never seen anything in anyauditorium to surpass their wondrous beauty.7 Employing electric bulbs as decoration bothcontinued existing traditions of employing festive lighting for occasions of significance, andexpanded upon the more particular practice of strings of electric bulbs as seen at the World'sFairs and International Expositions throughout the 1880s.Throughout the 1880s, electric bulbs were also being rapidly adopted for use by individualtheatres, appropriating incandescent bulbs to use as stage illumination and for generalhouse lights, replacing the existing arc lights and gaslights.8. San Francisco's 'California',London's 'Savoy' and Boston's 'Bijou' theatres all had converted to electrical lightingthroughout by 18829. From its adoption within the interior theatre space, electric bulblighting quickly spread to the facades of theatres, as well; the New York theatre ownerAdolf Zukor, for one, used approximately one thousand bulbs above his theatre to spell outThat meant larger metropolitan areas, since the electricity generated from Edison's direct current(DC) conveyance could not travel significant distances. See Starr, Tama and Edward Hayman. Signsand Wonders: The Spectacular Marketing of America (New York: Doubleday Books, Currency Imprint,1998), 33.6The Elblight System, for Electric, Display Illumination, Decorative Lighting, Signs, Emblems, etc. (NewYork: Elblight Company of America, 1910).7The Theatre Historical Society. A Pictorial Survey of Marquees, Annual No. 7. (Notre Dame, IN, andSan Francisco: Theatre Historical Society, 1980), 2.8Light! The Industrial Age 1750-1900: Art & Science, Technology & Society, Van Gogh Museum, and theCarnegie Museum of Art (Amsterdam: Thames & Hudson, 2001) 166; Nye, David E. The AmericanTechnological Sublime (Cambridge and London: The MIT Press 1994), 177.9—5—
'Crystal Palace'. In competition for the same theatregoers and eyeballs, other theatresrapidly followed suit.10The Introduction of Electric Bulb SignsIt is a testament to the ephemeral nature of historical inquiry that the occasion of the firstlarge-scale electric bulb sign is a point of contestation. One source claims that in 1891, NewYork's Madison Square was host to a large flashing bulb sign fifty feet tall and eighty feetwide imploring viewers to "See the Turtle a Snapping Success"11. Another source alleges thatthe first such sign promoted soup.12Both most sources, including period photographs, maintain that the honor goes to what isreferred to as the "Swept by Ocean Breezes" sign. In July, 1892, Manhattanites in the vicinityof Fifth Avenue and Broadway between dusk and midnight were greeted by the followingsequential messages blinking at them in green, red, yellow and white lights from the side ofa nearby building: "BUY HOMES ON/LONG ISLAND/SWEPT BY OCEANBREEZES/MANHATTAN BEACH/ORIENTAL HOTEL/MANHATTANHOTEL/GILMORE'S BAND/BROCK'S RESTAURANT." This first example of a commercialThe nineteenth century saw the relaxation of both formal and informal strictures against thetheatre. Although expressed Victorian hegemony held that all manners of artificial behavior (such aslying or acting) were sinful, it was maintained that theatre and other manners of 'light amusement'could be beneficial in small quantities as long as they served to refresh the mind and body. It is aquestion of debate whether the formal relaxation of legislation pertaining to the theatre was the resultof rising public opinion, or of entrepreneurial pressures to broaden the scope of theatregoingaudiences.10Weller, Janet. Barnumism and Broadway. PhD thesis, Communication Arts University of Wisconsin,1975, 94-5.1112Billboard Art, eds Sally Henderson and Robert Landau (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1980), 20.—6—
electric bulb sign "spectacular" was the brainchild of E.J. Corbin, then the president of theLong Island Rail Road, in an attempt to entice urbanites to embark on a train out of thecity.13Figure 2.1"Swept by Ocean Breezes"Sign, 1892Courtesy New York PublicLibrary Picture ArchivesIt wasn't long after the success of "Swept by Ocean Breezes" spread up Broadway to 44thStreet and earned the twelve-block strip the moniker "The Great White Way" for itsBy 1892, tourism was a popular practice, as was vacating the metropolis on holidays. A 1881 NewYork Times editorial went so far to suggest that Fourth of July celebrations in the city were a waste ofvaluable taxpayer money, as most residents fled to seaside resorts, anyway. The editorial was laterchallenged by a forlorn citizen who requested more civic entertainments on the holiday to benefitthose New Yorkers who were stranded in the city.13—7—
proliferation of electrified business signs, theatre marquees, and advertising 'spectaculars'.And it wasn't long after the success of "Swept by Ocean Breezes" that cries of outrage werearticulated by the agents of hegemonic control, the bourgeois and the local constabulary.Anatomy of an Electric Bulb SignIn the following section, electric bulb signs from Manhattan between 1881 and 1917 can beread as a definitively modern medium: they both embodied the promise of a utopian futuretransformed by the miraculous powers of electricity, as well as its dystopian counterpart ofa ruptured society riddled with shallow, commercial entertainments. The electric bulb signwill also be defined as a spectacular artifact.(a).Reasoned vs. Iconic TextWhen electric bulb signs were first introduced into the urban landscape, they perpetuatedthe longstanding advertising practice of relying on text, and not images, to promote aproduct in a respectable fashion. Despite the proliferation of sensational advertising imagesat this time discussed in Chapter One, rational text arguments were often preferred in partbecause it was believed to demonstrate earnestness, and helped to counteract the public'simage of ad men as "bootlegging and bootlicking." "Earnestness in advertising is the primeessential", Judicious Advertising noted in 1903. “Earnestness is hypnotism; earnestness isinspiration."14 Textual communication was favored by the literate classes, as many ad menLears, Jackson. "Some Versions of Fantasy: A Cultural History of American Advertising, 18801930”. In: Prospect 9 (1984) 349-406, 368.14—8—
still carried the intellectual baggage of nineteenth century Protestantism, including theassumption that words conveyed meaning more effectively than pictures.15In the late nineteenth century, however, the more elemental revolution which contestedhegemonic nineteenth century paradigms of text, logic and reality itself was already wellunderway. In advertising practices in particular, the use of text and logic-based argumentsgrew increasingly problematized. The rise in mass production made it more difficult todistinguish one commodity from another: since two brands of soap may well have beenmanufactured at the same facility using the same materials, identical in every practical way,one was hard put to argue the logical merits of one over the other.:16 A shift towards moresuccinct, less wordy arguments was necessitated, too, by the accelerating pace of city life,and the reality of a busy consumer with no time or patience to read a lengthy textualpresentation. With text-based, earnest descriptions growing problematic for advertisers —and growing stale for an urban population easily distracted and accustomed to change —other tactics for differentiating commodities in a competitive economy were required.One such possible differential was to use an electric bulb sign to display the text in a novelfashion. Early electric bulb signs, in fact, consisted of virtually all text, regarding the electricsign space as a variation of a blank page to be filled with words. The promotional contentsof the "Swept by Ocean Breezes" sign (Fig. 2.1) and the "Snapping Turtle" sign, for instance,comprised of single or multiple strings of text. The "Heinz Pickle" sign (Fig. 2.3), which later15Lears 1984, 359.16Lears 1984, 370.—9—
replaced the "Swept By Ocean Breezes" sign at the Herald Square location, consisted ofmultiple text strings augmented by a flashing Heinz pickle logo. Even the New York Times17joined the flurry of textually-based electronic bulb signs, with its modest entry in 1896:"Have you seen it?"18 I call this use of abbreviated text on electric bulb, comprised of a singleword or a string of words "iconic text."The manner in which this iconic text used in electric bulb signs presented itself was, in fact,radical, a deconstruction of the trope of the rational argument. Far from the reasoned andarticulated arguments found in print copy at the time, electric bulb signs were limited todisplaying at most a handful of short, declaratory statements.19 All three text-intensive signsmentioned here were animated in the sense that one line was lit at a time20; during the day,the sign was much like a large billboard but under the cover of darkness, the viewer was ledthrough the animated phrases sequentially.21 Since it was quite possible that the viewerwould not linger to witness the execution of the entire sequence, a string of statementswhich constructed a linear argument ran the risk of not being read in its entirety. Instead,such signs favored independent, discrete declarations; the "Swept By Ocean Breezes" and17Then known as the New-York Daily Times18The New York Times, / /1896.Text on signs were limited in part due to the size of the letters in order to be legible on the sign asseen from the street. The large dimensions of signs and their impact will be discussed later.19In the early days of electric signs, animated effects were provided manually, by a crew of workerssituated near the sign (usually in a small house on the roof) tugging on a series of lever. See Starr1998, 54.20The crucial differentiation between electric bulb signs as viewed during the day and as viewedduring the dusk and nighttime will be explored in depth in Chapter Three.21— 10 —
"Heinz Pickle" signs both featured phrases for which viewing order was immaterial to thelarger argument.22. The necessity of linearity had been short-circuited.In order to be legible by both night and day, it was necessary for iconic text on electric bulbsigns to be illuminated, the text constructed from its own light source. The injection of thetechnologically luminous into the formation of standardized letters and words lent aspectacular dimension to an otherwise formalized typeface, further dislocating the text fromthe staid, traditional, nonspectacular realm of linear argumentation. It was in fact iconic text,and not images, which comprised the preponderance of electric bulb signs along the GreatWhite Way during the period under investigation. Figure 2.2 shows two examples of iconictext.The Heinz Pickle sign read " Heinz 57/Good things for the table/As Exhibited at Buffalo and atHeinz Pier." A later iteration maintained the same construction, but changed the text to read "Heinz57/Good things for the table/Sweet Pickles/Tomato Ketchup/India Relish/Tomato Soup/PeachButter." See Figure 2.3.22— 11 —
Figure 2.2Two examples of "iconic text." Before brand logos were designed with simple composition in mind,brands were built upon both the company name and its representation through specific font. Thisrepresentation was reiterated in print advertisements.From Outdoor Advertising: History and Regulation John W. Houck, ed. (London and Notre Dame:Notre Dame Press, 1969).The text featured on theatre marquees was a combination of branded, font-specific iconictext used for theatre identification, and less specific illuminated text used to list theattractions.As period photographs of Broadway and in Times Square will attest, theatre marquees andelectric bulb signs consisting primarily of text comprised the majority of bulb signs in theManhattan landscape. But illuminated images found on many electric bulb signs furtherfacilitated the decline of textual arguments, as well as cultivated an appealing visualrepresentational style which could be easily grasped by just about anyone. Even if onecouldn't speak or read English, the metatext of electric bulb signs was hard to overlook."What a magnificent spectacle", remarked one spectator at the time, "for a man who couldn'tread."23(b).23Iconic ImagesStarr 1998, 61.— 12 —
Much of the movement away from traditional text-based arguments in advertising waspredicated not on the practical problems of differentiating mass-produced commodities orcapturing the attention of the hectic pedestrian, but on a conscious effort by advertisers toemploy a simpler, even more emotive language predicated on visual representations. Buticonic text was still text, and required a measure of literacy and intellectual processing forthe message to travel. The uncomplicated lines and curves possible with electric bulb signtechnology, however, were thought to be suitable for simple, uncluttered representationsable to pierce the protective psychic armor of the modern consumer, even more so thancould iconic text.Corporate logos— simple, graphically ori
packaging, all which bear the same distinctive branded identity. Cross-platform promotions 1 See Lehrer, Jeremy. "Border Crossing". In: Print Nov/Dec. 2000, and Crain, Rance, "Push for world ads has price: The bland leading the bland." In: Advertising Age, 10/23/00.
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2 Construction Signs, & Parking Signs 3 Resident Parking Signs 4-8 Regulatory Signs 9-10 Street Cleaning Signs 11 Street Cleaning/Snow Emergency Signs 12-14 Tow Zone Signs 15-17 Warning Signs 18 Guide signs & Street Name Signs December 2013 NOTES: 1. This document is a guide and provides recommended minimum sign sizes.
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M2.06 Selection of Signs M2.07 Classification of Signs M2.08 Sign Materials M2.09 Storage and Handling of Signs M2.10 Installation of Signs M2.11 Sign Maintenance M2.12 Hidden Signs M2.13 Obsolete Signs M2.14 Temporary Signs M2.15 General Sign Support Information M2.16 Wood Posts M2.17 Steel Posts -- Small Signs M2.18 Timber Poles
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