Neon Sign

Metal, neon
Designer: Bob Galler
60 x 456 in.
Gift of Lawrence Leckhart
(2012-008:01)
Ronnie’s restaurant, coffee, and bake shop opened in May 1956 in Orlando’s Colonial Plaza shopping center. When the restaurant closed in February 1995, everything was sold at auction except the iconic neon sign, which was donated to the Morse Museum. Composed of multiple lighted pieces, the Ronnie’s sign represents the golden age of neon sign production. The sign’s designer, Bob Galler, told reporter Joy Wallace Dickinson that the mechanism responsible for lighting the sign was the size of a conference table. Today, these mechanisms are computerized and much smaller.