A look at the iconic signs of Long Island
The Smithtown Performing Arts Center sign wilh new, illuminated metal letters on East Main Street. Credit: Rick Kopstein
Think of the red glow of “Burgers Franks” beckoning hungry travelers to All American Hamburger Drive In, in Massapequa. The historic Hildebrandt’s in Williston Park. The 1950s-era “Patchogue Music Center” still above Family Melody Center. Thornhill’s in Sayville.
Long Island's iconic signs include the Hildebrandt's neon in Williston Park and the old Patchogue Music Center sign above the Patchogue Family Melody Center on South Ocean Avenue. Credit: Yvonne Albinowski, Newsday / Steve Pfost
Long before digital printing and LED lighting, signs like these were handcrafted from stainless steel or porcelain-coated metal and illuminated by glass tubes bent by hand and filled with neon or argon gas.
Today, fewer of those old signs — and the craftspeople who know how to make and repair them — remain. Still, there are those dedicated to preserving this mid-century aesthetic either by restoring the old neon sign or recreating them with LED lights.
“There aren’t that many of them still left around,” said David Bauer, 68, the village historian in Smithtown. “So I always enjoy seeing the ones that are here.”
The first neon sign in America appeared in Times Square in 1924, and the sign’s popularity peaked in the 1950s before declining in the 1960s, in part due to health concerns over fabricators’ exposure to glass containing lead, according to The Neon Museum Las Vegas. Some original neon signs on Long Island, like at the Silver Sands Motel in Greenport, live on after painstaking restoration. Others, like the recently installed sign over the Smithtown Performing Arts Center, have been recreated with LEDs.
Greenport's Silver Sands Motel neon was restored. Credit: Silver Sands Motel
FEWER GLASS-BLOWERS
“It changed things a lot: there’s nothing like neon, but the trade has become less and less glass-blowers,” said Mike Compitello, 70, a neon sign maker and electrician with Going Sign & Servicing Co. in Plainview from 1987 until 2017.
His work has lit up numerous signs in Times Square and across Kennedy and LaGuardia airports. And even now, retired and living in North Carolina, his passion continues.
“I don’t golf, I don’t fish . . . so I have a neon plant in the garage, and I still do it,” said Compitello, who restores old signs people bring in and fabricates new ones to sell. “I get a rush out of it. I look at these pieces like art. I’ll drive around with my wife like, ‘Look at that job, look at this job!’ I’m finding now that more people want that old custom look.”
That goes for Long Island too, as current owners of enduring businesses still lean on this rare breed of craftsmen to keep the old look going — and glowing.
NEON IS PRICEY
Krisch’s Restaurant & Ice Cream parlor, which opened in Brooklyn in 1920 and moved to Massapequa in 1955, is leaning into its history as it rebrands, according to its sixth owner, Scott Cackett.
This includes the installation of a classic soda fountain and retro counter, as well as bringing its old stainless steel neon sign that reads “Krisch’s ICE CREAM” back to the front.
Scott Cackett, the current owner, in front of Krisch’s Restaurant & Ice Cream parlor, which opened in Massapequa in 1955. Credit: Elizabeth Sagarin
“I did a whole new, modernized sign concept, but it’s gonna go back to the original ’50s,” Cackett said, pointing out a “Luncheon” sign from the era. “People love the idea of Krisch’s being old school.’”
Christopher Mandell from Five Town Neon Sign in East Rockaway, which has maintained Krisch’s signs over the years, said neon work is costly — about 50% to 75% more than LED lights — but “significant” looking.
“There’s millions of signs,” said Mandell, noting their company is one of the few in the tristate area that still fabricates neon signs. “But you want to make your sign noticeable as someone’s driving down the street. And certainly those old style neon signs are.”
In 2011, when Hofstra University classmates Shane Fritsche and Mike Alpert bought the Mineola Diner — the stainless steel landmark at the corner of Jericho Turnpike and Willis Avenue since 1948 — its famous neon was completely broken.
The Mineola Diner neon underwent repairs after it was purchased by new owners in 2011. Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
“The transformers popped, and they had no more gas because they were true neon,” said Shane Fritsche.
Understanding the local importance of that facade, they put out a call to Franklin Neon Sign Repair in Queens and Freeport Signs and Rigging.
With them to the rescue, “MINEOLA DINER” buzzed back to bright red life soon after.
“The people in town were happy to see the sign they used to see when they were kids,” Fritsche said. “With everything changing every five years, it’s nice to have a spot that’s remained constant.”
“The people in town were happy to see the sign they used to see when they were kids. With everything changing every five years, it’s nice to have a spot that’s remained constant.”
— Shane Fritsche, co-owner of the historic Mineola Diner
‘STILL CLIMBING UP LADDERS’
Hale Storm, 71, owner of Freeport Signs and Rigging, said the trade is still fun, even at his age.
“I’m still climbing up ladders,” said Storm, who has lent his eye and craftsmanship to bowling alleys, movie theaters, pizza places and the Coney Island Boardwalk. “When you see signs that you did — and they’re still in business — that’s a reward.”
In Bay Shore, Lawrence “Larry” Widrow, 69, is another reliable fixer-upper.
Widrow’s father and uncle founded American Neon Sign Company in a Brooklyn garage in 1946 and he has been serving sign needs throughout the tristate region for 50 years.
“I’m no spring chicken anymore, but I know what I’m doing when it comes to neon,” said Widrow, who now focuses on neon repairs and restorations instead of fabrication.
In 2023, for the reopening of the Silver Sands Motel in Greenport, the new operators depended on Widrow to restore all the neon tubing inside its refurbished signs, including the glowing seahorse — that iconic turquoise-blue symbol of summer vacation for guests since 1957.
The Silver Sands Motel and Beach Cottages in Greenport was built in 1957. Credit: Randee Daddona
“There are very few people left who really know how to work with old neon signs, particularly as old as ours, and [Larry] was actually the only person I could find who I trusted to do it properly,” Alexander Perros, owner, creative director and developer of the motel, said in an email.
Widrow, he added, even tracked down and bought some of the only remaining supply of the original sign’s turquoise neon color in New Jersey, as the shade commonly used today “isn’t quite the same.”
“Guys like him care,” Perros wrote. “He understood why preserving those little details mattered.”
‘DEFINITELY AN ART’
To this day, Widrow does routine upkeep on several night-lit storefronts. That includes Mars Auto Parts in Bay Shore, which opened in 1948 and has flashed its well-known red block letters since ’65.
Alan Sobel, 83, the second-generation owner of Mars Auto Parts, said while it’s not cheap to maintain — each letter contains two glass tube units and its own transformer — he’s happy to keep Widrow’s work humming.
“Of course that’s what people recognize from our store,” Sobel said. “If you drive past at night, the whole front is lit, the whole sidewalk is lit. Neon signs are definitely an art.”
THEATER’S FINISHING TOUCH
The final stage of the yearslong renovation at the Smithtown Performing Arts Center was restoring the marquee to its former blazing glory, said board president Mike Mucciolo.
Mark Villafana, of Baldwin, a sign fabricator Going Sign & Servicing Co., Inc. in Plainview, works on the Smithtown Performing Arts Center sign. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin, Rick Kopstein
The original neon signs, in use from its grand opening as a movie theater in January 1933 through the 1970s, fell into disrepair by the ’80s.
Neglected and deemed too expensive to fix, the old signage was ripped off and replaced with “these ugly letter boards and vinyl plastic letters,” he said. The front marquee has since been flat vinyl.
But last year, with $530,000 in grants and other funding in place, Mucciolo set out to merge the old design with modern, cost-effective technology to beautify the theater and “improve the look of the town in general.”
Kevin Going, 62, owner of Going Sign & Servicing Co., knew just what to do.
Kevin Going is the third generation owner of the oldest sign making company on the island, Going Sign & Servicing Co., Inc. in Plainview. Credit: Debbie Egan-Chin
Going Sign & Servicing Co. was founded by Going’s grandfather in Mineola around 1920. Over the years the company has designed, fabricated and installed myriad signs, including the original “Late Show with David Letterman” sign and Stephen Colbert’s at the Ed Sullivan Theater.
But Going’s favorite jobs now involve poring over old photos and historic signs and marquees and replicating them to a T using “faux neon.”
Recently, faux neon was used to duplicate the Argyle Theatre’s 1950s-era vertical “BABYLON” sign, including a beam of blue light visible from Montauk Highway.
And with the flip of a switch, he proudly showed off the new lit-up metal letters for “SMITHTOWN THEATRE,” which soon would be installed at the East Main Street theater.
“Driving by, most people would think it’s neon,” Going said. “You’ve got to change with the times a little bit, but you still want to have that old natural look. . . . We like that old stuff.”
