CityRealty Insider > Neon: Ghost of Times Square Past

Neon: Ghost of Times Square Past

DECEMBER 1, 2009

We’ve come to associate the glow of neon with tawdry signs and times gone by, but at one time it made the city’s hottest spots sparkle.

The gaslit electric light was first discovered in the mid-1800s by German glassblower and physicist Heinrich Geissler, and in a few more years, neon gas was discovered and named (From the Greek word for “new”). French engineer Georges Claude soon created lamps from glass neon tubes and began selling them to U.S. companies for car lights.

In the 1950s, lighting design company Artkraft Strauss—founded in 1897 to make posters and show cards—became the top creator of neon signage in New York City. The company was responsible for the creation of the iconic signs that glittered over Times Square—including the famous “smoking” Camel sign—and by the middle of the century completely dominated the city’s outdoor advertising market.

Neon influenced art in the ’60s with Andy Warhol’s neon-hued pink cow, turned up as mass culture in the ’70s in ubiquitous bar and frat-house beer signs and translated to "unnatural” bright neon colors in '80s fashion, hair color and design.

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