THIS massive neon Pepsi sign, using Pepsi’s old script logo and old-style bottle, used to be best seen from Dag Hammarskjold Park on East 47th Street and 1st Avenue in Manhattan, though you can stroll up and almost touch it in its new park setting in Gantry State Park in Hunters Point. Pepsi had been a presence there for decades, but its riverside bottling plant closed in 1999. When I worked overnights in Midtown for a few weeks a few years ago, I checked it out from Manhattan and it’s still readily seen. Now, however, you can get up close and personal.
The big sign was built in 1936 by Artkraft Signs and comprised a 120-ft.-long sign grid covered with the product name. Shaped in the classic, 1930s, Art Deco, cursive script, the letters were formed with open-face channel letters outlined with exposed, ruby-red, neon lighting. Capitals “P” and “C” stood approximately 44 ft. high. Smaller letters ranged from 15 to 18 ft. high. Pepsi purists note that the “double dot” colon, which appeared with the original Pepsi name, was replaced by the dash in 1942 to “modernize” the logo.
Note the relatively modern Pepsi bottle neck logo (in use from 1970-1987). It was added when Artkraft Strauss refurbished the big sign in 1994.
Pepsi-Cola was first formulated by pharmacist Caleb Bradham in New Bern, North Carolina, in 1898 as “Brad’s Drink.” Within its first year of production it was renamed Pepsi-Cola from the digestive enzyme pepsin and kola nuts, which were both in the formula.
Some people cannot tell the difference with Coca-Cola, but it’s more apparent, say, than the difference between Oreo, Hydrox and generic store brands of chocolate sandwich cookies.
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11/15/22