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| Photo: Damian Sullivan |
LAist reports on moves to preserve the Arby's sign on Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood. The fast-foot outlet recently closed due to rising rent. Judy Siebelman, of the family who operated the Arby's, reached out to the
Valley Relics Museum, Van Nuys; the
American Sign Museum, Cincinnati; and the
Museum of Neon Art, Glendale. Reading between the lines, none was anxious to add the sign to their collection. Hollywood isn't the Valley, and the Cincinnati museum
acquired a near-identical sign from Santa Monica's Arby's in 2012. The Santa Monica sign was first offered to MONA, but they turned it down citing the sign's size. MONA director Corrie Siegel now hopes a way can be found to preserve the Hollywood sign in place. The philosophy is that it's preferable "to keep neon signage in the context of which it was created to convey history and act as an aesthetic beacon."
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| The Brown Derby sign, 1930s. Museum of Neon Art, Glendale |
We understand that LACMA cannot preserve every painting found in someone's attic. The public sometimes fails to grasp that neon museums must be selective as well. MONA's Brown Derby sign has come to epitomize a certain Hollywood era. It's far from clear that Arby's 10-gallon hat has that kind of potential. One factor is that the hat is a multiple. There are 3413 Arby's outlets in the U.S. alone, and many if not most had similar signs. Very large signs are expensive to store, conserve, and move in and out of storage.
There are challenges to preservation in place too, starting with the fact that tenants of a property generally prefer to advertise their own business rather than a defunct one. Just this month it was reported that the former Hollywood Arby's will house a pop-up of New York-based Prince St. Pizza. Despite an alarming hand-out image, the sign will not be rebranded.
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| Rendering of rebranded Arby's |
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