McHale’s Long-lost Neon Sign Found

The website Lost City (www.lostnewyorkcity.blogspot.com) reported finding McHale’s Bar’s neon sign inside Emmett O’Lunney’s pub on W. 50th St between Broadway and Eight in NYC. McHale’s had suffered its demise in 2006. The website reported O’Lunney’s owner had made an offer on the sign days before McHale’s closed, and, when he bought it, restored and installed it.
McHale’s disappearance left Broadway stagehands and members of theatrical unions without a primary watering hole. James McHale had bought the bar, then known as the Gaiety Café, in 1953, after having served in World War II. The bar’s long wooden bar hailed from the 1939 World s Fair.