Label
Western Motel
1955
Salvaged by the Museum of Neon Art in 1983, the Western Motel neon sign once overlooked Venice, California, and retains much of its original hand-painted color.
Themed to a loosely Western style, the motel stood at 2435 Lincoln Boulevard and played off a mid-twentieth century infatuation with the romance and freedom of the Wild West, cowboys, Native Americans, cacti, and lassos became popular graphic statements of neon light for countless motels throughout the American West regardless of how far away the motel was located from a real cowboy, Native American, or any vaguely Western vista. Such motels offered a touch of themed escapism represented here by decorative wagon wheels lining the front lawn and little else.
The Museum’s Western Motel sign is not to be confused with the Best Western line of hotels which debuted in 1946 as a referral chain of independently operated motels.
Technically, the Western Motel sign is more involved than one may think, as the neon lasso wrapped around its edge is made of a 20-millimeter diameter glass tube, which is quite difficult to bend. The Museum tasked Brian Currie, a glass bender with forty years of experience, to the difficult job.