The Signs of Love

This is a story of the convergence of love and NYC’s first, electronic billboard, which displayed a marriage proposal directly above the Crossroads of the World.

In 1978, the first electronic billboard appeared in Times Square. Known as Spectacolor, the billboard was created and designed by George Stonbely, who, a bit later, created the outdoor-advertising company (which is now Clear Channel Spectacolor, a preeminent developer of outdoor signage in the Times Square landscape).

To no one’s surprise, the billboard was installed on the northern face of the Allied Chemical Building (now One Times Square), when it was owned by Douglas Leigh. Leigh transformed the building from its original Gothic look to a more modern, austere look by recladding the building with white marble. Sherwood Equities and Jamestown has since purchased the building and transformed it into the sign tower that has become the international icon of New Year’s Eve.

When Stonbely operated the Spectacolor billboard, in an effort to attract round-the-clock attention, the public could “buy” time on the board for personal (family-friendly) messages.

A young Todd Miller took advantage of this program with a fantastic way to propose to his girlfriend. He recounted his first and only billboard buy.

During one of my weekend commutes from college in Florida to NYC, where my girlfriend was working on her master’s at NYU, I was browsing through an airline magazine when, there in front of me, was an advertisement for a 30-second message to be flashed on the first, electronic billboard of its kind. Not just any billboard, it was the Spectacolor billboard in Times Square.

Advertisement

I contacted the company, and they gave me the price and a list of times it could be done. They also offered the service of taking a picture of my message and sending it to me [parenthetically, they must have put the message up during the day as a test and then taken the picture, because the time I had it go off was 10:25 p.m., and it was quite dark out, and the picture was in the daylight]. Because I knew I was going to marry my girlfriend, all that was left was how to propose, and, because we loved A Chorus Line, I called the Shubert Theater and asked when the show ended. They told me 10:16 p.m. I gave ourselves seven minutes to egress the show. That left three to four minutes to walk the one block to the corner, turn right and look up.

I now had a few problems. The show let out five minutes early. The weather hadn’t cooperated, and was cold and windy. Not exactly strolling weather in Times Square in 1978, much less now. To make matters a bit more difficult to navigate, the local Times Square restaurant, where I was planning on giving my girlfriend (hopefully fiance by then) her ring, was directly across the street from the show.

Acting quickly, I told Terry I just had to take a walk to stretch my legs and get some fresh air – in Time Square, in the cold and wind, at 10:18 p.m. (seven minutes before the big moment). Terry wasn’t excited about the idea, but agreed nevertheless. Being from Wisconsin, she thought I was used to the cold, and it was a Midwestern “thing.”

We turned the corner, and wham, there it was. The entire block was lit up like a used-car lot. Terry had suddenly seen the sign, as did most of the people on Times Square, who looked around for us. She, of course, immediately agreed, and off to dinner we went (after all, it was cold).

Dinner went well, and she got her ring. We were married August 22, 1979, at Tavern on the Green. We had our prenuptial dinner at, yes, you guessed it, the then-tallest restaurant in the world, Windows on the World.

Advertisement

The Millers have lived happily ever after in Milwaukee and have seven wonderful children. We’re now proud grandparents of a little boy who’s 1½ years old.

(Todd said he was thinking of turning the lights of the Eiffel Tower on and off a few times for their 50th! Good luck with that one, Todd.)