"I remember driving up Sixth Street with my dad in a 1950 Chevy, driving along the cobblestones, a 10-year-old boy, and looming off in the distance was a 13-foot neon hot dog," Davidson reminisced. "It was just like a magical sign to me.
"And when you went inside, you felt like you were in a historic shrine. My dad was taking me to a place his father took him. The hot dog was the icon, the crown."
On Thursday night - after months of planning, daring, faith and setback - the hot dog will glow again, perched on the roof of the North Star Bar in Fairmount. Mayor Rendell will flip the switch. A doo-wop group will sing. Commemorative T-shirts will be given away. Hot dogs from Levis of Jenkintown - an offspring - will be served. The public is invited.
The hot dog is in place. This week, Davidson plans to make one more trip to the North Star roof to attach all the neon tubing and the letters spelling LEVIS.
When Levis closed in 1992, the neon hot dog - built in the 1940s, when signs were signs - had to be torn down. The bricks it was anchored to were coming loose. A crane came, and workers tied up Sixth Street for two days.
The building's owner, Marc Polish, tried to get the Smithsonian Institution to take the sign. "But what do they know?" Polish huffed.
The hot dog ended up in salvage.
Until Davidson bought it, for $350.
"Well, of course, nobody else bought it," said Davidson. "I mean, who's going to buy a 13-foot broken neon hot dog other than me?"
Davidson, 47, has restored hundreds of historic neon signs and displayed dozens of them all over the city, from diner windows to storefronts. He even gives tours of what he calls the Neon Museum of Philadelphia.
But the hot dog comes with extra relish.
