Antique & Vintage Postcards

A carnival of neon erupts across ten stories of Broadway real estate as the famous Wrigley's Spearmint Gum electric spectacular blazes over Times Square — its green-costumed imp skipping rope amid a whirling aquarium of tropical fish, the slogans "Keeps the Taste in Tune" and "Steadies the Nerves" glowing against the night sky in this extraordinary linen-era advertising postcard. The reverse (card no. 6A-H442) reveals staggering statistics: the sign extended a full block from 44th to 45th Street on the east side of Broadway, stood ten stories high, contained 1,084 feet of neon tubing, nearly 70 miles of insulated wire, 29,508 lamp receptacles, and represented a one-million-dollar investment — enough electrical current to power a city of ten thousand. To the left, the marquees of the State, Palace, and Mayfair theaters shimmer in the wet pavement, while buses and pre-war automobiles line the curb — an unmistakably 1930s Manhattan night scene of unmatched vibrancy. This is among the most visually spectacular and collectible advertising postcards of the American linen era.