{"id":40625,"date":"2024-09-10T13:52:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T17:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/?p=40625"},"modified":"2024-09-10T18:01:40","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T22:01:40","slug":"johnnys-sign-restored","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/johnnys-sign-restored\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnny\u2019s Big Red Grill Sign Is All Aglow\u2014in Ohio"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Restored and radiant, the bygone Collegetown landmark has found a forever home in a museum<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Joe Wilensky<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 21-foot-tall Johnny\u2019s Big Red Grill sign\u2014an iconic Collegetown landmark for six decades\u2014is shining brightly once again in its new digs: the American Sign Museum<\/a> in Cincinnati. The red, J-shaped neon sign, which is emblazoned with the restaurant\u2019s name and a jolly-looking Cornell bear, was originally installed in 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Located at 202 Dryden Road and beloved by generations of Cornellians, the eatery was operated by the Petrillose family from 1919\u201381.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Early
Collegetown classic: Johnny\u2019s in the early 1950s.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

(The Hot Truck<\/a>, the mobile pizza kitchen that Johnny\u2019s launched in 1960, eventually outlasted it, becoming its own legendary destination.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Ithaca granted the sign historic landmark status in 1980. Even long after the Big Red Grill closed, it remained an outsized fixture on the building\u2019s fa\u00e7ade\u2014and one of Collegetown\u2019s most identifiable symbols.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The City of Ithaca granted the sign historic landmark status in 1980.
<\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When the sign was finally taken down for safety reasons in 2009, the building\u2019s owner put it up for sale on eBay\u2014with the listing touting \u201cthe mother of all neon signs,\u201d and a chance to \u201cown a piece of Collegetown lore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having read about the sale in the media, Carolyn Levine Coplan \u201976 saw an opportunity: to snag \u201ca cool birthday gift\u201d for her husband, Neil Coplan \u201976, BA \u201975. The auction had only one other bidder\u2014and she won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"the<\/figure>\n
The sign going up in 1949, still standing in 2005, and restored at its new address in 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

But she hadn\u2019t realized just how massive it was: two stories high and weighing 700 pounds. As she recalls: \u201cI was shocked to learn that its height and weight made it prohibitive for me to actually hang it anywhere.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding no Ithaca-area organizations that would accept it as a donation, she eventually connected with the American Sign Museum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And as it turned out, museum founder Tod Swormstedt is the son of a late alum: Dave Swormstedt \u201951, who was an undergrad when the sign was originally installed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

I was shocked to learn that its height and weight made it prohibitive for me to actually hang it anywhere.<\/p>\nCarolyn Levine Coplan \u201976<\/strong><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

For transport to Cincinnati, the sign was disassembled into two pieces and strapped onto a flatbed trailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Years passed, as it underwent restoration and awaited the completion of its ultimate home in a newly expanded wing of the museum, which now boasts more than 600 signs and welcomes about 64,000 visitors a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In July 2024, the Johnny\u2019s sign made its debut\u2014looking as good as new. After enduring decades of Ithaca weather, it has been completely rewired, its transformers replaced, and its glass and neon restored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Tod
Provided<\/figcaption>
Preparing it for transport to Ohio in 2009.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Standing as the tallest resident of the new wing, it shares space with such items as a rotating, ball-shaped \u201c76\u201d gas station sign from the 1960s and a 14-foot-tall, \u201950s-era figurine from a Big Boy hamburger joint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe special part about this sign is its story\u2014that it had this relationship to a major college in a small town,\u201d Swormstedt says of the Johnny\u2019s icon. \u201cIt makes it more real, more personal, than just a sum of nuts and bolts and metal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Top: Video by Erin Holland \/ American Sign Museum. Photo of new wing courtesy of <\/em>Signs of the Times. Archival images provided by Mimi Petrillose.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Published September 10, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Restored and radiant, the bygone Collegetown landmark has found a forever home in a museum<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":67,"featured_media":40685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"alumni_hub_syml_posts":[39423,39967,6692],"footnotes":""},"categories":[224],"tags":[],"cornell_year_post":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-40625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cornelliana"],"yoast_head":"\nJohnny\u2019s Big Red Grill Sign Is All Aglow\u2014in Ohio - Cornellians | Cornell University<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Restored and radiant, the bygone Collegetown landmark has found a forever home in a museum\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/alumni.cornell.edu\/cornellians\/johnnys-sign-restored\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Johnny\u2019s Big Red Grill Sign Is All Aglow\u2014in Ohio - 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