Neon Majorette Returning to the College Limelight

The landmark high-stepping neon majorette, which flashed its image from the back of the College Drive-in movie screen onto busy El Cajon Boulevard for 36 years until its removal two years ago, will be resurrected sometime in 1988.

Ironically, the sign will pulsate onto College Avenue from the wall of a shopping center--the very same kind of suburban development that forced its removal in March, 1983, when the drive-in and the sign were torn down at their El Cajon Boulevard and College Avenue location.

The developers of the $40-million remodeling project at the College Grove Center mall, at California 94 and College Avenue, thought that the 58-foot-high baton-twirling woman would “fit-in” with the art deco theme planned for the center, said William J. Stone, the developer.

“Neon is coming back and we could get the piece for an equitable price,” said Stone, president of William J. Stone and Associates.

The decision to bring back the gigantic neon work delighted members of the 5-year-old Save Our Neon Organization, a San Diego group whose purpose is to preserve and restore vintage neon works, primarily those from buildings condemned by downtown redevelopment.

“There are not too many locations that can accommodate a sign of that size and we are happy that the sign will remain close to its original location,” said Greg Calvert, who along with his wife, Juliette Mondot, and Gloria Poore form the nucleus of the privately funded SONO.

The sign was donated to SONO after the drive-in was razed to make way for a shopping center. Each piece of the 1,930 feet of neon tubing was painstakingly catalogued and packed for storage, Calvert said.

After several meetings, Stone said, executives of the shopping center decided toincorporate the neon sign in a logo for the mall.

SONO was paid $5,000 for the sign, Stone said. “We basically just covered their storage costs and what they had into it,” he said.