The First Billboard in Times Square
Times Square NYC is known for its bright lights and bustling crowds. Today, giant billboards with 25,000-LED-screens that take up an entire city block illuminate the crossroads of the world! With Welcome to Times Square, you can even put your own photo or video on a billboard and be part of all the action for as low as $150. But what was the very first electric billboard in Times Square? Let’s travel back in time and find out.
The First Electric Billboard in NYC
If you read our blog frequently, it’ll come as no surprise that before Times Square, the area was known as Longacre Square. Longacre Square was relatively bucolic in comparison to Times Square today.
Approximately 20 blocks south of Longacre Square, in what we know today as the Flatiron District, history was being made. The year was 1892, the same year that Ellis Island opened. At the intersection of Broadway and 23rd street, affixed upon a commercial hotel property known as the Cumberland, was New York City’s very first “billboard made of light.” This electric billboard belong to the LIRR, and was created to attract passerby to Long Island! The very first NYC billboard read: “Buy Homes on Long Island Swept by Ocean Breezes.” With dimensions of 80 feet by 60 feet, NYC’s very first electric billboard was huge. It could not be missed nor left out from other marketing around it.
Other electric billboards quickly followed! “21 Styles of Shoes” for a local shoe store. “57 Good Things for the Table” for Heinz. The Heinz electric billboard even flashed to create extra attention!
A little over a decade later, the Flatiron district was no longer the hot new area for business. In 1904, Longacre Square became Times Square. That was the place for advertisers to maximize their marketing! Which business was the very first to advertise in Times Square using an electric billboard?
The First Times Square Electric Billboard
While today electric billboards are synonymous with Times Square, the idea of giant electric signs were pretty engrained in the New Yorkers mind at this time. The road Broadway has been electrified in 1890. 1892 saw NYC’s first electric billboard. And 1904, the year Times Square became Times Square, saw the first Times Square electric billboards.
Advertisers loved New York City, a city that advertised itself as a city of superlatives. The biggest, richest, boldest city in the world. It seemed natural it would also be the advertising capital.
The company that claims the first electric billboard in Times Square is Trimble Whiskey. It was 1904, and five blocks north of the New York Times Building, Trimble Whiskey created an electric sign of two disembodied hands clicking celebratory glasses high in the sky!
While this first Times Square electric billboard must have been stunning, the New York Times left it completely out of its reporting. The Times considered the Razzmatazz of electric advertising to have no inherent news value. What the Times did cover was the boom midtown developing around its new office building. Everything from election turnouts, to investors, to European aristocrats, to tourism. While the Times may not have thought it newsworthy, the electric billboards trying to catch the attention of all this new foot traffic were no doubt a shining sign of the times. Quickly following Trimble Whiskey was Studebaker, Budweiser, and Regal shoes.
Who Designed the First Electric Times Square Billboard
The mastermind behind many of Times Square’s first electric billboards was Oscar Gude. It was Gude who thought of taking drawings and writings and putting them into electric technology. 1879 was the first incandescent bulb, and less than two decades later, bulbs were being used to create advertising that forced pedestrians to look up! Over the years, Oscar Gude designed over 20 electric billboards, each more elaborate than the last. Author Darcy Tell said that Gude “almost single-handedly transformed Times Square into America’s premiere outdoor advertising market.” He took advantage of Times Square’s unique design. It is almost like a stadium in reverse. The audience is in the middle, or on the field, as it were. The show is in the bleachers. The audience looks up and is dazzled.
As you can imagine, some New York locals rallied against these giant colorful signs, calling them garish. Zoning laws prohibited electric signage in several parts of the city. In Times Square, however, today the lights shine brighter than ever! In fact now, much of Times Square is required to have electric signage!
You can be a part of this history with Welcome to Times Square. Learn how you can be on an electric billboard for as low as $150.