Paddy Rowell Sr., Flexlume Sign Corp. (Buffalo, NY), continued his generous museum support by donating a die-cut, chasing-lightbulb and neon-illuminated “DRUGS” sign the company had originally built in 1951. When the store went out of business in the late 1980s, Paddy’s crew removed the sign and stored it until late last year, when we picked it up on a roadtrip east.
Rowell has donated more than a dozen signs to the museum, the majority of which are highly prized, opal-glass signs Flexlume produced in the early 20th Century into the 1920s.
Several Midwest advertising and petroliana shows prompted new additions. One of the more interesting ones, a tri-panel display, was originally mounted on parking meters and afforded changeable-advertising messages. The piece was purchased at the Coin-Op show in St. Charles, IL, in March 2008.
Back-to-back Ohio petroliana shows – the first, in May, in Dayton, followed by a second, in June, in Columbus – brought several other new items. One of these was a changeable-neon sign from the early 1960s, called “NeoNeon,” and marketed by J. Allan McDonald and Assoc. Inc., then of Pittsburgh. The object included the original, somewhat weathered, shipping carton.
New business-office address
As many readers already know, ST Media Group Intl., ST’s publisher, moved in mid-June to new offices, after having been located at 407 Gilbert Ave., in downtown Cincinnati, for more than 50 years. The new address is: 11262 Cornell Park Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45242.
The move means the museum’s business office, including accounting and IT support, has also moved to the Cornell Park Dr. address. The actual museum’s address remains the same: 2515 Essex Pl., Cincinnati, OH 45206. The museum will accept mail at either address. Phone and email remain the same.