Camel Smoke Ring Billboard designed by Douglas Leigh, 1941
“Times Square is the most familiar and most frequently reproduced fragment of urban real estate on the planet.” James Traub
Since its beginning just over a hundred years ago, Times Square has been through many incarnations, each one a reflection of the social and economic condition of its time. The square, which is not technically a square, has gone from being the epitome of urbanity in the early decades of the 20th century to the urban collapse of the 60s and 70s. Its revival in the early 90s, which many New Yorkers decried as the Disney-fication of Times Square, has led to its present guise as a capital of popular culture, with the corporate headquarters for such giant media companies as Condé Nast, Viacom and Reuters competing for space with the world’s busiest McDonald’s outpost and the largest Toys ‘R Us store. Yet what really attracts the thousands of tourists daily is its manifestation of global marketing, Times Square’s famous “Spectaculars,” so-called since before World War I. The first billboard on Times Square went up on Broadway in 1904, and by 1907 electric billboards began to dazzle the crowd. The most eye-catching early billboards were designed by O.J. Gude, dubbed the Sign King of Times Square, who in 1917 installed a 200-foot long spectacular on the west side of Broadway between 43rd and 44th, complete with 12 gleaming moving spearmen. Gude also cunningly joined the Municipal Arts Society, a leading opponent of big signs at the time, and influenced the city to adopt zoning ordinances that eliminated big electric signs anywhere in midtown except Times Square. The man who dominated the billboards from the mid-30s is the pioneering lighting designer Douglas Leigh. Some of his most memorable and spectacular signs for Times Square include A&P’s sign for Eight O’Clock Coffee with clouds of steam emanating from a large cup of coffee and a Camel billboard that blew smoke rings from a steam generator. For Pepsi Cola, he designed a spectacular that featured a 120-foot waterfall pumping 50,000 gallons of water a day. Leigh’s creations led to ever more innovative, colossal and dazzling displays on Times Square. Today the leading spectaculars are made up of millions of L.E.D.’s, capable of transmitting live footage and unimaginable pyrotechnics. As befitting the current environmental consciousness, 30 of the spectaculars in the area have switched to wind power via an electric supply agreement with ConEdison. The rent of these billboards, which run from $100,000 to $260,000 a month, has rendered the 1 Times Square building–the very one that lends its name to the square–empty of tenants except on the first 3 floors. The building is far more profitable to run as a billboard. With millions of people flocking to Times Square every year, and billions of people around the globe watching it daily on the news and on New Year’s Eve, advertising here has become a premium. Tourists come to gawk at the signs, which feeds their attraction for advertisers, who dream up ever more spectacular creations. But in the end, what makes this carnival of lights in Times Square different from Las Vegas? What will be the future incarnation of Times Square if it is to avoid devolving into Las Vegas? As it has done over a century, Times Square will undoubtedly change as the city of New York moves forward in the 21st century. As James Traub wrote, “The last word on Times Square will never be written.”
- posted by Ngoc Minh Ngo
