| UNDER THE SUN | Modern Phoenix Donna Reiner: “The Maroney’s sign isn’t neon, but it’s so iconic and so pretty, that we said ‘Yes’ when they called us to come get it.” Sign Language How Donna Reiner saved the Maroney’s sign. BY ROBRT L. PELA way,” said Donna Reiner of the Arizona Vintage Sign Coalition. “If the sign is a good one, you just have to step in and try to save it.” Rescuing a giant sign was more difficult S during the Christmas holiday season, she pointed out. “But then it’s also easier to get a huge sign down off a building when that building is going to be torn down. Because then we don’t have to be careful not to damage the building. And in this case, that building is now as flat as a pancake.” She was referring to the Maroney’s Cleaners and Laundry sign on East Indian School Road. The longtime local dry cleaner was relocating because its strip mall location was being torn down, and Reiner was determined to rescue and pre- serve the towering, lighted eight-piece nameplate. “I never get used to it,” Reiner said of all the tear-downs. “I’ll drive by and see a building going up and I’ll think, ‘I know something else was there before. But what was it? Like that little parking lot next to the Orpheum Lofts. There’s a Hyatt there now. It went up practically overnight.” Reiner and a handful of other like- minded preservationists cofounded the Sign Coalition several years ago. “We keep our eyes on signs,” she explained. “Old ometimes you just have to res- cue a big, pretty sign from a building that is about to be de- molished. “That’s what I think, any- ones, and primarily neon ones. The Maroney’s sign isn’t neon, but it’s so iconic and so pretty, that we said ‘yes’ when they called us to come get it.” The coalition got a call from Alison King of the preservation group Modern Phoe- nix. “The Maroney’s people told her, ‘We’ve got this sign, but it’s got to be out of here by next week.’ Let’s just say it was a short turnaround. If you add in the holiday season and COVID and the fact that the company we use to remove signs for us was booked solid, well. It was a challenge, but we got it done.” Usually, the coalition had more time to remove a sign, she said. She was grateful to have had help in saving the Maroney’s sign from colleagues at the Arizona Preservation Foundation, the Mesa Preservation Founda- tion and Preserve PHX, another local his- tory project. She admitted that the coalition keeps mum about where it stashes all the big lighted signage they salvage. “It’s out in Mesa and it’s a secret site,” was all she would say. “It’s that way so that we sign lovers can make sure the signs stay safe. We have that beautiful Watson’s Flowers sign, and the Bill Johnson’s Big Apple sign. We’ve got a Moe Allen sign. There might be a motel or two. It’s a healthy collection.” Meantime, Reiner and others are scout- ing around for a large enough lot where the signs can be remounted and lighted up again, perhaps in a public sign museum of sorts. “Like they did in Casa Grande,” Reiner said, referring to that town’s Neon Sign Park, home to 14 old lighted >> p 16 11 phoenixnewtimes.com | CONTENTS | FEEDBACK | OPINION | NEWS | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | FILM | CAFE | MUSIC | PHOENIX NEW TIMES JAN 13TH– JAN 19TH, 2022
