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Alert-Lite Neon (ALN) Signs
Roxy Rose Score’s grandfather, Rio Score, founded Alert-Lite Neon in 1946, raising his son, Rio Score II, in the family trade. Like her father, Roxy was raised in the family neon shop, learning the neon trade from childhood along with her brothers in a rigid-but-informal apprenticeship that stressed speed and accuracy along with the highest level of expert craftspersonship.
Alert-Lite built their business in wholesale, high-output production neon: though each piece of glass was shaped by hand, “tube benders” like Rio and Roxy often made hundreds—or even thousands—of the same letters, words, or symbols. Working long hours with their bare hands holding hot glass over gas flames made benders like Rio and Roxy strong, and decades of care schooled them in the finest points of their craft.
But the pressures of production neon did not often emphasize artistic expression, and Rio and Roxy were each compelled to express their craft skills creatively, using neon as art.
Alert-Lite Neon, located at 11116 Tuxford Street in Sun Valley, Los Angeles, closed in November 2018 and Rio Score II passed away in February 2019.