Walgreens Signage Returns to Times Square

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It's a historic moment in neon signs! Walgreens, which hasn't had a Times Square presence in years, will debut an enormous LED display tonight at 8pm. The specs: Two "diagonal slashes" on the face of 1 Times Square, another screen on 42nd Street, and some more displays inside the store, for "a total of 29 surfaces, or about 17,000 square feet." In other words, it's going to be huge.

The occasion also gives the NYT an excuse to drudge up some awesome half-century-old local color. Did you know that the Times Square Walgreens was "censured during World War II for creating the worst neon glare in Times Square, at a time when nighttime sky glow created potentially lethal silhouettes of ships offshore"? Since then, plenty of other companies have, um, outshone them, but it looks like they'll soon be restored to their former position of eyeball-searing prominence.
· A Drugstore's Blazing Return to Times Square [City Room]
· Billboard Blinds Times Square [Curbed]

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