Mesa history: Tour set to show off best of Main Street's neon signs

• The proliferation of motels and new enterprises serving tourists led to new signage: neon
• Many of the durable signs have survived
• A Sunday, April 3, tour will feature stops at some of the best of Main Street neon

A recent Mesa History column focused on a remarkable local artist.

In a career that spanned more than a half-century, Mesa-born Paul Millet gained a statewide reputation as a topnotch designer and fabricator of neon signs — building hundreds — more likely thousands — in his career.

Because his work was seldom signed, and his records were mostly discarded, we can’t identify all of Millet’s prolific output.

It is probably safe to say many Millet-fabricated signs are still lighting up the night sky along Main Street.

Neon comes to Mesa

As the highway system developed, the Valley enjoyed a unique convergence of Federal Highways 60, 70, 80 and 89, which ran along Main Street, and continued through Tempe and Phoenix until exiting on the west side.

As the automobile replaced the horse and buggy, a nationwide network of paved roads began appearing in the 1920s.

Cars enabled a new era of travel. In what once took days, families could now travel across an entire state or more in just one day.

Long distance travel was no longer constrained by rails. People could move about when and where they wanted — opening a new industry: tourism.

Starting in the 1930s roadside lodging appeared — appropriately named “motel” — a contraction of motor and hotel. Roadside restaurants, souvenir shops, service stations and other traveller-oriented businesses sprung up.

The proliferation of these new enterprises led to new signage.

In order to attract attention, businesses needed larger and brighter signs to attract attention of passengers in cars zipping along at speeds of 45 miles an hour or more.

Georges Claude, a French engineer and chemist, introduced his new invention just at the right time. He called it neon. In 1923 a Los Angeles Packard dealership spent $24,000 installing the first neon in the U.S.

It’s extraordinary brilliance that could be seen at great distances and its durability made neon the material of choice for roadside signs.

With great signmakers like Guerrero-Lindsay and Paul Millet, who began his career with the Guerrero-Lindsay company, Mesa’s Main Street proliferated with the best of neon art.

Tour of the signs

Many of the durable signs have survived. And they will be the subjects of an upcoming tour of Main Street neon.

The Mesa Historic Preservation Foundation, the group that led the Diving Lady restoration; and the Arizona Vintage Sign Coalition have teamed up to present "Mesa’s Main Street Neon By Night," which will be led by Hip-Historian Marshall Shore and Vic Linoff.

The Sunday, April 3, tour will feature stops at some of the best of Main Street neon, including Watson’s Flowers, the Kiva Motel, Ham Bone Restaurant, Bill Johnson’s Big Apple, the Diving Lady and the Buckhorn Baths.

A portion of the $35 ticket cost will help restore the Watson Flowers sign damaged in a 2015 storm. Seating on the air-conditioned vintage school bus is limited.

Information and tickets for the 6-9 p.m. tour can be found here.

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