Long located in downtown on Olympic near FIDM, the Museum of Neon Art was forced to vacate its home a few years ago after rents rocketed sky high. MONA finally found temporary digs in the Historic Core, at 136 W. 4th St., earlier this year.
The problem with the new space: The front door is too small to haul in some of the museum's impressive pieces. But at the same time, some pieces that have been in storage for years is finally being displayed.
We visited the museum on Saturday night to take one of the MONA's famed double-decker bus nighttime neon tours, courtesy the museum's Eric Evavold. More on that tomorrow. But first up, today, some shots from the new MONA space:
Larchmont Hardware recently went out of business -- another victim of escalating rents; in this case, in pricey Larchmont. The MONA managed to save this piece.
Here's how it once looked, before being removed.
Maria's favorite, the flying woman.
Chris & Pitts' BBQ!
The remaining letters (remarkably, all but the "K" survived) from the Miracle Mile's "The Darkroom." (Where El Toro Cantina and Busby's are now located.) Urban anthropologist Eric Lynxwiler, who happened to be taking the tour as well (he frequents as an MC on the neon tour, but was taking the night off), housed the letters for a while during the MONA's move, and filled us in on how the letters were saved.
Eric also posted the story on his Flickr account:
When the store changed tenants, the stainless-steel sign was tossed out and thought to be lost forever.
Decades later, the man who was hired to remove the sign from the facade came forward. He had recognized the sign's importance and kept what he could salvage of it (minus the absent K) in the rafters of his sign studio and, just a few years ago, donated it to the Museum of Neon Art (MONA).
As a fan of Wilshire and neon, this piece was an incredible find and I was thrilled it went to MONA and back on public display. However, after just a few years back in the public eye, the museum lost its lease and shut its doors for a year. Although MONA has now reopened in a new-yet-temporary space, the sign had to go somewhere in the interim.
And, of course, I volunteered to store it and a few other museum signs in my loft in downtown LA. Yes, that's right, I was storing The Darkroom sign in my loft for the past year and was giddy to share it with anyone who walked in my door. It fit perfectly right under my window.
And here's how The Darkroom looked back in the day.
Another SoCal fave: Manny Moe and Jack, of Pep Boys fame.
"The Zodiac Room," plus an old exit sign from the Grauman's Chinese Theater.
A sight once seen all over SoCal: The Van de Kamp bakery.
Funland!
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