American Sign Museum
2515 Essex Place
Cincinnati, Ohio 45206
(800) 925-1110
(513) 258-4020, ext. 336
Fax: (513) 421-5144
E-mail: tod@signmuseum.org
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Neon sign finds home at museum center
By Mike Dunne, [Sacramento] Bee Food Editor
More than a year after it was lowered and carted off, the weathered neon
sign that hung over the original Shakey's Pizza finally arrived Tuesday
at the Sacramento Archives and Museum Collection Center.
The route from the restaurant site at 57th and J streets to the center
just off Richards Boulevard is short — but not without bumps.
Since it was removed last summer, the sign had been stored in the yard of
Capitol Neon, where partner Ron Underwood had agreed to keep it for 30
days.
"Thirty days turned into a year," said Underwood the other day. "We've
moved that sign 50 times if we've moved it once."
His patience with city authorities who hadn't picked up the sign was
exhausted, and he was starting to ponder dumping the fading relic.
"People think there's a market for these old signs, but there isn't."
Jim Henley, the city's historian, said the center was slow to retrieve
the sign for several reasons, including limited space and a suitable truck.
Not long ago, a driver he dispatched to pick it up said Underwood wanted
about $800 in storage fees before he'd release the sign.
Underwood said the actual figure was $500 — 10 months of storage at $50
per, with the first two months thrown in for free.
At any rate, the center doesn't have even that kind of money, said
Henley.
Late last week, Underwood agreed to waive the charges if Henley would get
the sign within a few days and hang a plaque next to it noting that it
had been donated to the center by Capitol Neon and Jerry Thompson, who owns
the building that housed Shakey's and who was starting to fret that the sign
had been abandoned. "It's sitting in a big field of nothing," he groused.
The center customarily acknowledges donors with signs next to artifacts,
said Henley, who promptly arranged for a moving company to move the
Shakey's sign to the center.
The double-faced sign is approximately seven feet high and about as wide.
Sherwood "Shakey" Johnson opened his first pizza place in 1954, and
Underwood figures the sign dates from that era.
At the center, it joins about 30 other local historic neon signs, but
they aren't on display, though Henley hopes to hold an open house and have
them lit up. He's not sure when, but the menu definitely will include pizza.
Reach the author at mdunne@sacbee.com.
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