Dydia DeLyser & Paul Greenstein
Dydia DeLyser and Paul Greenstein work together to study neon’s history and help to preserve historic neon signs. Greenstein has been making and restoring neon signs for 50 years, while DeLyser has been researching their history for over a decade and and serves as Secretary of the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, California, USA. They are the co-authors of the 2021 book Neon: A Light History.
Smallest neon sign
The smallest neon sign ever made was for a scale model of the Sands Casino that was part of a miniature set of Las Vegas created in 1980 for the 1981 movie One from the Heart (USA), directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Comprising luminous tubing with a diameter of just 2 mm (about the size of a pencil lead), the miniaturized signs were crafted by neon artists Larry Albright and Bill Concannon (both USA). Creating 2-mm-gauge luminous tubing was an unprecedented engineering challenge undertaken by Albright; for context, the smallest tubing commercially available at the time was 5 mm. The tubing used in the actual Sands Hotel casino sign, meanwhile, was 18 mm. The sign is still functional and is now housed at the Museum of Neon Art in Glendale, California, USA, after being donated by the Helen and Larry Albright Living Trust. The Sands Casino itself shut down in June 1996.