Buffalo Rising Online

Sep 5th 2007, 12:00pm By Elena Cala Buscarino

When I heard about the Golembek/Kavanaugh initiative to repair the neon tango dancers designed by artist and illustrator, Laura Rankin, I immediately got in touch with my friend and her cousin, Reed Rankin of RPM Entertainment Productions. Upon getting the press release from Reed, Laura, who now lives in Maine, wrote the following:

Boy, this takes me back...

I think we put that project together somewhere between 1980 and 1982. (The actual year can be found on the copyright date in the lower right hand corner of the Tango sign.) I haven't been on Elmwood Ave. for over 10 years so I didn't realize that the Tango Dancers and the blue neon lines were in such disrepair. Bravo to the Buffalo Argentine Tango Society, Councilmember Joseph Golembek, and Barbra Kavanaugh for creating and finding the resources to restore it. Thank you!

At the time, it was an exciting project to work on. Dan Sack, Andy Ferullo and I were invited to participate, and I designed the Tango Dancer billboard. I think I still have the original drawings from the project. (I hope I do. They were here somewhere last time I checked.) I'd never done anything for a moving neon piece and all the criteria I had to be mindful of was challenging, especially the number of times neon could overlap (2, not 3). Then I had to draw the thing to scale--10' x 20'--on these huge rolls of brown paper that were tacked to the wall in a neon shop on the West side. (I can't remember the name of the shop.)

Anyway, the project has a special place in my heart.

I thought the blue we chose for the neon lines on the buildings was gorgeous. (I have a memory that the particular blue had to be imported from Germany because the richness of the color wasn't available in the states at that time. We looked at dozens of neon color samples.)

Also, I can't tell you how fitting it is that the Tango society wants to restore it --and not just because of the obvious Tango billboard. The blue neon lines on the buildings were purposely designed to be of different lengths as well as at different heights from the ground. It's more interesting from a design point of view, sure, but the concept was that the lines would represent a kind of 'visual music' as you looked, or drove, down Elmwood Avenue.

The blue neon created a visual rhythm... maybe even a Tango...

I especially loved the blue neon lines on a rainy Buffalo night: how they seemed to be everywhere--on the buildings, splashing in the street, on the sidewalks, in windows, on faces, and sliding over passing cars.