12 FEBRUARY 26-MARCH 4, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | MUSIC | CAFE | CULTURE | NIGHT+DAY | NEWS | LETTERS | CONTENTS | says. “That was very common in the 1960s, which carried over from the infancy of the sign industry, something we still have even today, with these old signage agreements that have been grandfathered in. The business model was based on the idea that you’d pay for this sign for fi ve or ten years, and then you’d want to update it, so they’d sell you a new one. That’s also why we see so many generations of classic signs. Like the Oriental Theater, for example, that’s been updated quite a bit over the course of its life. “So when the Denver ordinances began,” Matuszewicz continues, “we saw sign com- panies push back. That was their property, and they still had residual income coming in from the maintenance contracts. That went back and forth for a long time, and saw a case move all the way up to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear it because they said they’d already ruled that cities had that right. Following that, Denver was one of over 700 cities that adopted those same ordinances that brought about the disappearance of too many great old signs.” After that fi ght was lost in the early ‘70s, the city and local businesses fi gured out how to make good on some of the costs through tax incentives and the like, as sign companies realized that if establishments had to take down old signs, they’d need new ones. “They actually started a program called SOS — Scrap Old Signs. They’d go out on the weekend and just clear-cut the signs, and then those companies would send out sales reps the next week with new plastic signs they could put right on the buildings,” Matuszewicz says. “They were advertising these neon replacements called Plastilux, these formed plastic faces with fl uorescents behind. Service trucks went from requiring skilled artisans to just needing to stock four sizes of fl uorescent bulbs.” But the preservationists and craftspeople started fi ghting back. In fact, Matuszewicz has just emerged victorious from the latest sign-saving skirmish: Last month, Stephen Antonakos’s “Incomplete Square” on Law- rence Street was listed on the Colorado State Register of Historic Properties. “It’s the fi rst neon artwork physically at- tached to a building to receive independent historic designation in Colorado, distinct from more typical listings in which neon appears only as a contributing feature or as a freestanding sign, such as at the Rabbit Ears Motel in Steamboat Springs,” explains Matuszewicz. “The sculpture measures 52 by 52 feet and operates 24 hours a day, combining exposed red neon with concealed blue neon that washes the adjacent wall, an approach characteristic of Antonakos’s ma- ture style. It represents his sixth large-scale public artwork and is the oldest surviving example from the ‘Geometry and Neon’ se- ries that defi ned the remainder of his career. Despite its artistic importance, the work has remained largely unknown locally; in three years of restoration advocacy, I encountered only one person who was familiar with it.” Save the Signs has already submitted grant applications to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the State Histori- cal Fund; there’s also a fundraising page to help pay for its restoration and ongoing care. Bebout is another Sign Posse member engaged in the battle to save the signs. His induction into neon preservation came through unconventional means, too. “I started as a poet and fiction writer,” he says. “But right around the time I became disenchanted with that — it just wasn’t for me — I saw this documentary on Netfl ix called Neon. That night, I had a dream about neon. What it really woke up in me was this concept of putting text into the real world, against this backdrop of Americana and its marketing, for better or for worse.” It also connected Bebout back to a time in his relative youth. “When I was 19, I was homeless and had warrants in a bunch of different cities,” Bebout admits with a grin. “So we took back roads across the country, avoiding highways, living in a van. We ended up going through a lot of these off-the- highway towns, saw a lot of ghost signs, things that were emblematic of American life through the years.” He fell in love with vintage Americana then — so when neon was presented to him as both an art form and historic element, he jumped in. Not that the leap was easy. “I tried to get apprenticeships, and just couldn’t land any,” Bebout recalls. “I fi nally ended up taking a job in Cincinnati, and they had the American Sign Museum there. When I saw that, I was just fucking fl oored.” By then, Bebout had connected with Scholl, who introduced him to people at both Morry’s Neon and Acme Neon, but they had no apprenticeships avail- able., either. “So when I came back to Denver, I started fi xing signs for YESCO, with like no experience. I’ve been teaching myself ever since. It’s been a rough road, but Todd [Matuszewicz] has helped a lot.” Bebout’s self-apprenticeship may have been tough, but it’s paid off. His restoration work is notable, and includes both the Bran- din’ Iron Motor Lodge sign and the Jonas Bros Furs sign perched by the intersection of Tenth and Broadway. “That building is a state landmark, which includes the signage — but the signage isn’t protected indepen- dently,” Bebout says. “As we saw with the Benjamin Moore sign, same story: landmark building, sign included, but apparently that means they can just take that sign down and replace it with LEDs as long as it looks vaguely the same.” Save the Signs not only wants to protect as much signage as possible, but fi nd a place in the metro area to host an outdoor sign park — somewhere to store some of the larger signs that have been preserved, and display them in such a way that the public can enjoy and appreciate them. “We’re currently looking for city and private partnerships to make that happen,” Bebout says. “We’re actively seeking that, because it has to happen. Some of these signs are upwards of forty feet tall. Having a place to put these signs when they come down is important, because right now, we have to turn some away.” As evidence, Bebout shows off a large hat sign from the King’s Derby Restaurant that stood in Idaho Springs. “We’re going to have to send this away. It can’t stay here. Just to get it down and in this building, we had to cut it into sections,” he adds. The signs that Bebout has been able to store, along with the ones Scholl collected that are being kept by his widow, read like a business history of Denver. Sid King’s Crazy Horse Bar on Colfax. The S&J Garage (ad- vertising “Complete Auto Service”) that used to be on Broadway. Bell Plumbing, Heating, and Air. Lefty Martin Appliances. Bobcat for Service. The Famous Chef sign that had been hidden for years under the PT’s Strip Club signage on East Colfax. And, most recently, the corner-box Bar Bar sign that was saved when that dive bar on Champa fi nally gave up the ghost. “The mission of Save the Signs stays the same,” Bebout says. “It was around before us, and it will remain after us. And people really dig it when they become aware of it.” As evidence, Bebout relates a recent ex- perience his family had at Disneyland, in the large area with the Cars theme. “The climax of that movie is in this run-down town that no one is paying any attention to anymore,” he says. “And the heroes of the fi lm have all the town signs restored, and when they turn them all on, it’s beautiful. Everyone is amazed. The same thing happens every night at California Adventure when they recreate that moment. Families gather to wait for it. Hundreds of people with their phones out, doing a countdown for these old signs to come to life. It’s nostalgia, it’s a sense of community. Someone once said that home is a place we long for but that we’ll never see again. I think signs bring that sense of home back again.” That’s the beauty of neon, and the his- tory it illuminates. “We already have these gorgeous signs, these gateways to our cit- ies,” Matuszewicz says. “You don’t have to construct it. You don’t have to do anything. You just have to celebrate it.” Email the author at [email protected]. Culture continued from page 10 Before Save the Signs came Scrap Old Signs; a move by the industry to stay profi table after city ordinances made neon signage diffi cult. SAVE THE SIGNS
