Arc of Triumph : Art Form Emerges From Inert Period of Neons of Neglect

Neon reached its heyday in the Fifties about the time that Elvis Pelvis was getting into trouble on “The Ed Sullivan Show” with moveable-hip rock ‘n’ roll.

It reached its nadir in 1973, at the height of the energy crisis, when then-President Nixon ordered the lights turned off in Las Vegas.

Vegas and neon have about the same relationship as the Vatican and Catholicism.

It’s New, New, New

With another decade right around the corner, neon is enjoying a comeback. This time, it has gone beyond the boulevards--where urban redevelopment has given it a boost--to homes and offices and the studios of artists, who view it as an emerging “new” form.

Of course, neon isn’t new at all. The neon sign was patented in 1915. But Sabah Toma is hardly one to argue.

“The comeback is because of the Eighties and the image of the decade,” said Toma, owner of the downtown shop, Mr. Neon, which opened last November on 6th Avenue. “The Eighties are all flamboyance and color. High visibility. Look at the clothing and designs of the day. Neon is a great way to advertise with bright, flashy colors. It’s eye-catching and appealing to the senses. It’s also memorable. You tend not to forget a neon sign.”

San Diego has a fleet of neon shops, wholesale and retail, but Toma claims to be the only Mr. Neon who specializes in custom-made signs for personal use. He also works on a contract basis with several of the bigger shops when they need customized work.

Toma’s clients range from the personal to the professional, from City Council members wanting to jazz up a living room, from hoteliers and bar owners to the San Diego Symphony, which hired him to advertise its Summer Pops season.

The front window of his storefront shop is filled with neon planes, palm trees, a Cadillac convertible and the state of Texas with a gold lone star about where Waco would be.

Moons, Masts and Mugs

He’s done quarter moons, Pegasus (the winged horse), boats and children’s faces. He is now working on a 6-foot-plus basketball player whose jersey will glow out LAKERS, and whose neon body will adorn the entrance to a new bar at La Costa.

A neon concoction can run from $200 for some of the smaller items to several thousand dollars for larger creations.

Toma, 34, had been working in the insurance business and feeling frustrated. Empty. Hopeless. Unfulfilled. He had worked as a hairdresser in his native Iraq and loved the creativity of shaping a woman’s curls just the way she wanted them. He longed for a redux of creativity in his own life--especially in his work.

Neon was a hobby. So he busied himself by selling neon signs at swap meets. Then, he met Victor Salem, and things really started to glow.

Salem is a downtown merchant. He has gotten a name for himself by giving food to the homeless and helping out the indigent with cash donations. Toma said that just to help him follow his dream, Salem came forth with $70,000 of his own money. Thus was born Mr. Neon, with Salem, Fawzi Tominna and Toma as equal partners. Toma, however, is sole proprietor.

Newest Nabob of Neon

“Sabah likes neon, plus there’s a lot of demand for it,” Salem said. “Neon is coming back. It’s gonna be like the Fifties all over again. Neon will be very, very big in the Nineties. Toma is a good salesman and a hard-working brother. I know he’ll do a great job with Mr. Neon. He is Mr. Neon, and I believe in him.”

Toma serves the business as salesman and part-time glass bender. Bending the glass tubes involved in neon is a major part of the craft. Handling those duties is Guadalupe Duran, 70, who’s been a glass bender, working with neon, since 1934.

“Neon was virtually dead for a long time, maybe 20 years,” Toma said. “One of the reasons was the age of the benders. Most are very, very old. It’s hard to find a good one younger than 50. Lupe is one of the best in the world. To be a good bender, you have to practice, practice, practice. I’d say you need to work at it four to six hours a day for three to five years. Because it faded away for so long, it’s hard to find a young guy who can bend, much less with any skill.”

Toma said the division of work in the shop is simple--Duran does the complicated projects; Toma the most elementary.

Neon and argon are the main gases used in filling the bent glass. The emergence of neon as art has led the more enterprising to try other gases as well. Neon creates a bright-orange glow, argon a pale-lavender effect. Toma said commercial sign makers tend to limit themselves to those two. But artists are starting to dabble in helium, which is flesh-colored, and krypton, a silvery-white gas.

Toma said much of the process of making a neon sign involves clearing the tubes of all other gases in the air, then pumping in inert gas that glows when electrified.

Of Mice and Millionaires

He likes the effect--he’ll go with the glow--and the work in general. He loves owning a shop that attracts passers-by of all persuasions, from the homeless to the millionaire wanting something elaborate for a study. Clients’ requests often have the effect of leaving him bemused, if not scratching his head.

He just finished a sign that a group of Buddhists installed in a temple. He’s made owls and mice in the strangest shapes for customers who take the things quite seriously--and don’t like being teased about them.

As one indication of the neon renaissance, Toma points to Horton Plaza, which has one shop that sells neon signs and others that use neon as a sheer seducer to stop and buy.

In the Sixties, neon signs gave way to many other luring forms, silk screen being one. But now, the neon shops are overrun with work, Toma said, and by his count alone, being behind four to seven weeks on orders is not unusual.

“Who would have thought it?” he mused. “But it’s happening. It’s really happening. Neon has nothing in front of it now but the brightest future. And nowhere is that more apparent than San Diego.”