Neon man's crusade

NOTE: The talk referred to in this article has been rescheduled. See below.

LEN DAVIDSON has a bright idea. You could call it "electric" - or even, in '80s-speak, "tubular."

Yes, Davidson is a neon man, a collector and restorer of classic neon signs and a neon artist himself. He wrote the book on vintage neon, 1999's "Vintage Neon" (Schiffer Press), and is always ready to sing the praises of Philly's great neon signs from the mid-20th century, what he calls "imaginative cartoon drawings in light." He'll do so in a talk on neon's history.

One thing you learn from talking to Davidson: There's neon and there's neon. A glowing "PSFS" is a key part of our skyline, but Davidson is most interested in the funkier signs depicting people and things. The Levis hot dog, the Howard Johnson's lamplighter or the Sherwin-Williams paint can covering the Earth - all are a kind of signage that delights the eye with zippy color and the mind with whimsy.

You may have seen some of Davidson's own latter-day creations in this vein - the Zipperhead logo on South Street and the Down Home Diner, the animated trolley car atop Mt. Airy's Trolley Car Diner, to name a few.

Davidson sees renewed interest among art historians in the medium and wants to get many of the pieces he's collected back out into the public eye. He's proposing a "neon corridor" alongside the newly expanded Pennsylvania Convention Center - a few blocks' worth of displays, mostly in storefront windows, of classic neon signs from Philadelphia's rich history.

Davidson believes this would add a jazzy, colorful, historically significant tourist destination to Philly's current menu. Some local movers and shakers are on board with the idea.

Reading Terminal Market head Paul Steinke is a fan of the plan, as is John Claypool of the Center for Architecture. (Its 1218 Arch St. headquarters now houses 13 of Davidson's classic neon pieces.) And legendary city planner Robert Venturi gives a thumbs-up, tying in the neon corridor with his own proposal for a vintage sign display on Arch Street.

I'm also a fan, but I should mention I've known Davidson since the early days of the Dumpster Divers, a local artists group he co-founded in 1992. The Divers' ethic, taking a fresh look at what's being discarded by society and questioning how it might be repurposed creatively, is completely in sync with Davidson's neon evangelism. Hearing him talk about neon as art, the appeal is clear.