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Headquarters
I shot this on the same trip to Odessa where I took this and this. It’s not as dramatic as the other two shots, but I sure did like the way those letters cast a shadow onto the window blinds behind them. So impressed, in fact, that I stood in the middle of the street to get the picture. (That wasn’t as dangerous as it sounds: as it turns out, there is very little traffic in downtown Odessa on a Sunday afternoon. You might want to keep that in mind when planning your own trip there.)
Odessa, Texas
photographed 12.8.2013
Tower
Evidently the fine folks in Odessa like their signage to be big. There was this theater marquee from a couple of days ago, and now this fantastic structure, which marks the location of the Great Oil Basin Shopping Center.
This sign is three or four stories tall, and I suppose at some point in its past it actually SAID the name of the shopping center. In neon. In neon that blinked and flashed and all that other fancy stuff neon signs can do.
But now it’s mute. Oh, and red.
Odessa, Texas
photographed 12.8.2013
At the theater
The sign alone would have been worth a photograph. Add in the shadow…and I had to stop.
Turns out that the sign, for the Scott Theater (which opened in 1959), was a revolving marquee fashioned after signs at the New York World’s Fair. The sign weighed 5 tons, and was said to have cost $35,000. It was also said to be able to withstand winds of 130 miles per hour. Mr. Bill Martin, whose company designed and built the sign, said it was “the ultimate design for the future of all marquees.”
The theater closed in the late 1980s. And the sign hasn’t blow down yet.
Odessa, Texas
photographed 12.8.2013
One Day | One Image 