Douglas Leigh

For the skating coach, see Doug Leigh.

Douglas Leigh (May 24, 1907 – December 14, 1999) was an American advertising executive and lighting designer, and a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising.^[1][2] He is famous for making New York City's Times Square the site of some of the world's most famous neon signs,^[3] or electric billboards.^[4][5] Leigh also designed the colored lighting scheme for the Empire State Building.^[6]

Douglas Leigh
Douglas Leigh (r) with Mickey Rooney
Born	May 24, 1907 Anniston, Alabama, US
Died	December 14, 1999(1999-12-14) (aged 92) New York City, US
Alma mater	University of Florida
Known for	Being a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising

Biography

After financing his education at the University of Florida by buying the exclusive right to sell advertising for the yearbook, Leigh became a top salesman for a sign company in Birmingham. In 1929, he moved to New York and got a job at the General Outdoor Advertising Company, but quit in 1933 to strike out on his own.^[7]

The celebrated smoking Camel cigarette billboard in Times Square was designed by Douglas Leigh and mounted on the Hotel Claridge. (Photo, 1948)

Leigh then designed a sign for the St. Moritz Hotel in exchange for the right to live there and to use the hotel's address at 50 Central Park South for his business. From there, Leigh proceeded to transform the signs at Times Square.^[8] His first eye-catching creation was a billboard for A&P, advertising the store's Eight O'Clock Coffee with clouds of steam emanating from a large cup of coffee. A Camel billboard blew smoke rings from a steam generator,^[9] while one for Kool cigarettes featured a blinking penguin. One for Ballantine Beer had clowns tossing quoits on a peg. The Coca-Cola sign at Bryant Park gave an ever-changing weather forecast (featuring a house and pictures of sun, rain, snow, etc.) along with the slogan "Thirst knows no season" (Leigh paid a tenant's weekly laundry bills to stop her from hanging her laundry on her clothesline in front of the sign). Leigh's design creation of a large illuminated snowflake, which was 17 feet wide by 14 feet tall and had 12,000 crystals,^{[citation needed]} is hung at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street every holiday season. Many of Leigh's creations have been replaced with newer signs, for which Leigh set the bar.

Leigh also lent his talents as a consultant for outdoor displays and spectaculars to Freedomland U.S.A., a New York City theme park, during its 1960 debut. He is featured in the book, Freedomland U.S.A.: The Definitive History (Theme Park Press, 2019).

He was the step-grandfather of Prince Lorenzo Borghese.^[10]

References

1. Martin, Douglas (December 16, 1999). "Douglas Leigh, The Man Who Lit Up Broadway, Dies at 92". The New York Times.
2. Birthdate confirmed at the Social Security Death Index.
3. "Neon nights: When 'liquid fire' powered New York City". Mashable. June 24, 2015.
4. Cutler, Alan (Summer 2007). "A visual history of Times Square spectaculars". The Smithsonian Institution. Archived from the original on June 20, 2010.
5. Tell, Darcy (2007). Times Square Spectacular: Lighting Up Broadway. Harper-Collins. ISBN 978-0-06-088433-8.
6. City Lights. New York Media, LLC. May 22, 1989. p. 35. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
7. Gray, Christopher (October 25, 1998). "Douglas Leigh, Sign Maker; The Man Behind Times Square's Smoke Rings". The New York Times.
8. Pollack, Michael (September 12, 2014). "Answers to Questions About New York". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
9. Wild, Chris (June 24, 2015). "1940s-1950s New York neon nights". mashable.com. Mashable. Retrieved October 2, 2015.
10. "Paid Notice: Deaths LEIGH, DOUGLAS B." The New York Times. December 16, 1999. Retrieved July 5, 2021.

External links

• Current Biography 1940, pp 489–91.
• Douglas Leigh archives at the Smithsonian Institution
• Bio at Smithsonian website
• NPR "Douglas Leigh Obituary"