A giant electric star has been relit on Santa Monica Boulevard
Route 66 is shining a little more brightly tonight with the repair and refurbishment of the giant neon sheriff’s badge in West Hollywood. The three-foot-by-three-foot sculptural star was created in 1997 as a gift from the City of West Hollywood to the Los Angeles County Sheriff, who has been responsible for overseeing this area since long before it became a city in 1984.
The 30-year-old sculpture sits on top of a tall pole near Santa Monica Boulevard and San Vicente Avenue. The six-pointed star is outlined with a single line of yellow neon, and two rings of neon framing the word “Sheriff” in the center. It may have rotated on brass rings and bushings at one time. Reportedly, it was a twin of a sign built for Universal Citywalk in the 90s.
“It’s like retro vintage!” exclaims Paul Stoakes of Signmakers, a Downtown sign manufacturer and restoration shop. “It’s phenomenal and iconic.” Stoakes estimates that manufacturing the sign today could cost up to $40,000.
Stoakes has been busy recreating massive 1930s-era neon signs for the former Earl Carroll theater in Hollywood and just got the job to restore a century-old theater marquee in Ontario. “I think I’m in a great position cause I’m like the last (neon) man standing,” Stoakes says. “I’m not going anywhere until I hang my shingle up.”
West Hollywood’s urban designer John Chase praised the sign when it went up. “The star-shaped sign is a spectacular object that changes the corner dramatically communicating a sense of public security with its neon symbolism,” he wrote in 1999. “Passersby had no idea the station was there. It calls attention to the building.”
