The San Diego company that is developing the 1.6-acre property said the sign would be donated to the nearby Pratt Institute of Fine Arts. But that has some neighborhood residents worried that Pratt will auction it off to wealthy collectors. They strongly suspect that "Wonder Bread", or "Wonder" or "Bread" — or just "W" or "B," for that matter — would be a hot commodity for the growing set of neon industrial art aficionados....Interesting. But what made me want to blog about this NYT article when I saw it in the paper version was a quote that doesn't appear on-line. Between the second and third paragraphs of what I've quoted, there's this quote from Bradburd:
Bill Bradburd, an artist who moved here from San Francisco, said the Wonder Bread sign was really a symbol of a "bait and switch" on the part of city officials. Mr. Bradburd, who lives near the bakery and is a co-chairman of the Jackson Place Community Council, said development was moving at such a fast pace that city officials who had promised to protect the character of Seattle's neighborhoods were instead seizing on the dollars flowing in.
Mr. Bradburd and others on the council want the sign displayed publicly near the site of the bakery. He is at odds with some, though, by proposing the sign be split up, putting "Read" over a local library and perhaps "Wonder" over a new elementary school.
But is the tension over these 11 red letters, each six feet tall, really about the sign?
"These battles over saving something old are proxy battles," said David Brewster, the founder of Town Hall, Seattle's cultural center, who is writing a history of the city since the 1962 World's Fair here. "They are really battles against traffic, although of course gentrification weighs in."
"I think it's part of the rightward movement, at least perceived rightward movement in the country," he said, "where a developer in sheep's clothing turns into a corporate pig."Why take that out? It's the spiffiest quote in an article about the politics of old signage.
These signs must have been considered quite ugly for a long part of their existence. And look at the Wonder Bread sign:
It actually is ugly, especially if you take into account all that metal junk holding it up. It's funny that it's Wonder Bread that symbolizes the rich goodness of the past, when Wonder Bread has traditionally symbolized the sterile blandness of the present.
"Seeing the cookies and bread on the assembly belts, it was a show," said Adrienne Bailey, who grew up near the factory and is now secretary to the Central Area Neighborhood District Council. "It was a smell blocks before you got there. Oh, I have beautiful childhood memories of Twinkies and pies, and a beautiful big red neon sign, all lit up."That reads like a satire, written in the 1960s, about what nostalgia would be like in the future.
Americans used to have memories of mom's homemade pies and now there's the love of the old factory that cranked out processed foods. And, strangely, those who favor the historic preservation of the site paint their opponents as corporate pigs.
IN THE COMMENTS: More ideas for how to break up the Wonder Bread sign to make other signs for other places.
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24 comments:
It is truly a sign of bad aging when we become nostalgic for things we once tried to ignore.
It sure is ugly. I've always been more fascinated with the unique names various establishments have, like the Monkey's Eyebrow, a convenience store in Kentucky which I have heard is now defunct. I once saw a roadhouse named the Brass Ass but it looked like you might find bodies on the floor if you entered the place so I didn't.
[S]trangely, those who favor the historic preservation of the site paint their opponents as corporate pigs.
That's great. Who here doesn't think that if Wonder Bread showed up today wanting to install a giant, ugly, neon sign, the very same people would be against the uglification by the corporate pig! Who knew corporate pig was such a catch-all?
Oh, I strongly disagree!
Maybe it's the graphic designer in me, but those big letters are really cool. There are some old signs like that here and there in Knoxville that are quite dilapidated, but I'd still be sorry to see them go.
CB: LOL. You don't have to use all the letters, of course, so there are many, many possibilities.
That signs reminds me... class action lawsuit for making sinister yummy white bread making kids fat with it's evil enriched flour....
The sign also makes me see Duncan McCleod and the Kurgan duelling it out with awesome swords, bad Queen soundtrack, and horrific '80s pyrotechnics.
Wonder Bread has such complex meaning for us, doesn't it? I have't eaten it in decades, but sometimes I think of buying it, along with some Skippy Peanut Butter and, of couse, some Marshmallow Fluff.
Far UGLIER than a little itty bitty Wonder Bread sign. I shudder at the time when historical preservationists do battle over this monstrosity.
What is typical of the "corporate pig" preservationist is the blind worship of anything that is resistant of change ... any change. Of course, that's where we are today ... up is down and down is up on the planet Uranus, right?
I knew there would be trouble as soon as we learned Bradburd was from San Francisco. As a San Franciscan, I know these preservationist rants well. People actually got nervous here when Rite Aid came to town. "They'll displace all the Walgreens!" Talk about satire.
Splitting up the sign sounds like a great idea to me. I hope they do that.
Now those old mural advertisements painted on the sides of old buildings you see in any city with old buildings, the ones advertising stuff for five cents--I'd like to those preserved to some extent. I've thought for years those would make for a nice photoblog post.
Strange, I think of the desire to keep things the way they are, to preserve things, as a conservative impulse (considering the root of the word is "conserve"). But the phrase "corporate pig" seems like a classic left-wing utterance, not to mention this fellow's concern about "rightward" movement. Maybe we need to think up a new political label for this confounding bunch of impulses... Since the core concern of this new party would be preservation, why not call them the Preservatives? The name is also deliciously apt for a movement to save the Wonder Bread sign!
In the late middle ages white, fine, soft textured bread, called "manchet" was the province of the wealthy and the noble. The brown, coarse bread was for the peasants. Now Wonder Bread, which would have indeed been a wonder to those pre-Modern people, is for the peasant class while the "nobles" (and probably the Preservatives quoted in the article) pay 6 dollars a loaf for organic 38 grain artisanal bread at Whole Foods.
CB wrote: I don't think I could tell Seattle from Minneapolis, or Atlanta from Houston from Miami from San Diego.
I haven't been to Seattle, Minneapolis, or San Diego, and I've only been in Houston very briefly. But dude, if you can't tell Miami from Atlanta, you've got real problems! There's an ocean of difference, literally!
"..while the "nobles" (and probably the Preservatives quoted in the article) pay 6 dollars a loaf for organic 38 grain artisanal bread at Whole Foods."
BDTWB ...Better dead than Wonder Bread
knighterrant wrote: "It is truly a sign of bad aging when we become nostalgic for the things we once tried to ignore."
No, I'd say it's the way of the world. Nothing takes us back like the things we used to take for granted, once we realize that they're missing. When there are fifty old signs like the Wonder Bread sign, they're an eyesore. but when the last one is about to be dismantled, we object.
Joni Mitchell: You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. Of course the twist is that fifty years after they take paradise and put up a parking lot, we are feeling sentimental about the parking lot, and we're not sure that we want it replaced.
Rosebud. My old Schwinn Typhoon. The smell of the attic room in which my mom stored our winter coats.
Things like the Wonder Bread sign are icons not because they were disdained for so long, but because they've been around for so long. As John Huston says in Chinatown, "Course I'm respectable. I'm old. Politicians, public buildings, and whores all get respectable if they last long enough."
Ann:
Have to disagree with you. Aromas can be nostalgic. Smells from my yute that I can share include the cookies being baked at a Nabisco plant in Philly and the beer brewing at the old Schmidt's Brewery at 2nd & girard.
Mary:
Never heard that saying before re Schmidts- took me a minute to get it. And yeah it was the pits-even for a high schooler. Only old men drank it by choice- guess that is why it went belly up.
Did you make that saying up?
In Madison, they actually repaint those old signs for products, like this. That's not an ad for a product anyone buys anymore, just a preserved ad on a building.
If you can't tell Seattle from Minneapolis, you're blind and insensate!
See, there are these lakes, a huge sound, the ocean, and mountains everywhere in Seattle, with temperate and waterlogged weather. Minneapolis is flat, on a river, and is bitterly cold in winter and very hot in summer.
"All the metal junk holding it up"
That was the look back then. You were supposed to see all the workmanship and devices that went into it. In through much of the 30s and 40s machinery was transparent (the old see-through RCA Victrola)....a lot of that's coming back to. It was considered progress to see all those girders and wires etc.
Then, in the late 50s, standards changed and things became opaque. You weren't supposed to see the workmanship. Telephone wires and cables were buried underground. Unsightly billboards were banned.
Maybe things are coming full circle. I, personally, like the transparent look. Full disclosure and all that.
I loathe looking at telephone poles and high-wire cables, though. Those need to be buried underground and kept out of my sightlines!
P.S. Does anyone remember the old Father Coughlin billboards with his slogans? Can you imagine keeping those up in the name of preservation ??? !!!!
Peace, Maxine
There are some wonderful tract homes that have individual floorplans. If you look at some of the most famous master planned communities (Levittown etc) all the homes have an individual look, and no two like floorplans are next to eachother.
The master-planned communities of the 50s and 60s were very nice, and obviously there's a reason why those homes have increased in price.
Peace, Maxine
With the demolition of NYC's Penn Station in the 60s the modern preservation movement was born: http://www.nationaltrust.org/magazine/archives/arc_mag/pennstation.htm
Maybe the same will be true for Wonder Bread and old signs? ha ha
(Full disclosure: I am a proud, and avid preservationist)
Howzerdo: I love preservation too. I was taught to love modernism back circa 1970s and thought all the ornate things were incorrect. That was such a destructive attitude. But that mistake doesn't mean we should go all the way to the opposite extreme and never tear down anything! And what about the problem of suburban sprawl? Isn't it good to revive the city with housing?
Strange, I think of the desire to keep things the way they are, to preserve things, as a conservative impulse (considering the root of the word is "conserve"). But the phrase "corporate pig" seems like a classic left-wing utterance, not to mention this fellow's concern about "rightward" movement
My girlfriend, who is fairly conservative politically as am I, is finishing her M.S. in Historic Preservation this May. We both were baffled by ideology involved in the preservation movement. Saving old buildings seemed a very Conservative thing to do, but as we have found out that a lot of preservationists are not really interested in preservation for its own sake, as much as they are interesting in using preservation to stop development. There is quite a lot of Left Wing ideology.
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