Jimmy Fallon called!

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon called.... Well, Rob Connover his prop master called, which is almost the same thing. Jimmy writes "thank you notes" and he's publishing a 2nd book so he need a bunch of 2's. Who you gonna call when you need a stack o 2's? We were happy to oblige and wanted to stay up but 12:30?? I can't do it. Snorrrrrreeeeeee.

off to Brimfield!

Sept. 9-10, 2011 We will be in Brimfield at J&J Promotions space C-31 but the easiest way to find us there is look for the X marks the spot. We put two big X's up on a sapling high above us. See you there!

Mrs. Sippy from Australia

A new wine bar in Australia just bought translucent blue and red letters Mrs. Sippy. It's not a bbq joint and it's not about the Mississppi River but more about the slang language from Australia.

Nike swooshed by

Nike purchased a bunch of letters for a new store in Omaha to make cool signs all over their signature shops.

Ready Made posts the story on line!

Ready made magazine wrote us up... here is the link

Home Sweet Home

We are located in the courtyard area in the back of the Belfast Opera House. Way cool old building with wood beams and bricks and granite our only friends. see this photo.

in the UK a marquee is a tent?

Yes I know. I think it's a bit weird. They did invent the language.... but marquee? Word origin please? Check out this images list of marquees. Did you know that in the UK they call Auto Body Shops ( and something about that term makes a Brit giggle) "panel beaters!"
http://panelbeater.whangarei.biz/

Patrick and Lauren

Went to my 2nd cousin's wedding Patrick Farinas "what I like about you"  ....a really talented guy marrying a beautiful talented girl Lauren. They cut a cd and one of the tunes was P&L so guess what one of the things they received as a wedding gift. Red Adlers. P&L

Monkey stickers

http://www.stickerjunkie.com/share1.php?design=0235669

Check out the new stickers we ordered from our favorites at stickerjunkie to get the stickers we send out with each order. 

Ready Made magazine gives us a wonderful lead story

We just received the new June-July print edition of Ready Made magazine. OMG!!!! we are the lead story on www.baycitycargo.com on page 21! It takes 20 pages of ads to get to the first story but there we are: the full right hand page of the magazine brilliantly written by Alexa Fornoff with great photos of vintage RM. It's not on line yet but we'll link to it when we find it. Look for it on your news stand!

back from Brimfield!

It's kind of like Woodstock for antiquers/retro/vintage/traders. I think it's like 300,000 people and 4000 vendors. Great food and lots of people in a relaxed rural setting and you better love porta potties. Or as the gal said to me.... "it's not bad if you can stand up." Anyway: Brimfield is amazing.

We were set up next to Emily's Vintage Cottage she makes these really cool cupcake pincushions among other things. Great Czech art glass buttons ... should have told her about my bead buying days in Morocco. Take a look at Emily's stuff: truly unique.

We had a good time for two long days. It is only 2 days but it feels longer. We came in the night before and set up. Had a tent for the first time and it was really nice as the sun came strong on Saturday and looked like rain on Sunday though it never did.

The show started off with an invasion of buyers from Germany, Australia, a really nice Japanese guy who had about my language skills when I traded in Morocco... we made a nice deal with him and other... "I'll take all this!" and in 3 hours we'd sold half of what we'd brought.

Met Kelli Faherty of Narragansett # 7 blog fame, she's an eloquent and prolific writer, very readable, bought a # 7 from me. Who would have thought?

We had all our 2nds out for 2$ each and the shoppers went nuts!

We met designers from all over the world at Brimfield: a big part of our business is dealing with commercial decorators and designers for hotels, restaurants, shops, etc. We love these people. Very professional and they appreciate our in depth selection. It's a jaunt from NYC so city people make it a day trip. Bay City Cargo was a big hit. For old and vintage marquee letters to use for 1001 things: we are the kings of the letter world. We're famous you know!

All over Brimfield people walk around carrying the weirdest stuff: a carved elephant umbrella stand, two Nazi swords, a huge street light, plant stands, it's a non stop show.

We had a great show, sold a ton of stuff. Will report more.

my web site

Do I keep forgetting to say that we operate from www.baycitycargo.com where we specialize in movie theatre marquee letters, retro and vintage retiree letters, old sign letters, etc? Bay City Cargo

letter falls from "Up in the Air"

For safety's sake get rid of those 

http://www.dailytribune.com/articles/2011/04/13/news/doc4da5bf63e9c23848531666.txt 

By Ann Zaniewski
For the Daily Tribune

Click to enlarge

The Uptown Palladium in downtown Birmingham. Kari Colling is suing Uptown Entertainment, Inc., the owner and operater of the Uptown Palladium movie theater, alleging she was struck on the head when an object believed to be the letter "H" fell from the theater's marquee. (Tim Thompson/For the Daily Tribune)

A Sterling Heights woman who watched the movie “Up in the Air” is alleging in a lawsuit that she was injured by something that came down through the air as she left the theater.

Kari Colling is suing Uptown Entertainment, Inc., the owner and operator of the Uptown Palladium movie theater in Birmingham, alleging that she was struck on the head with an object believed to be the letter “H” from the theater’s marquee.

Colling said in her Oakland County Circuit Court lawsuit that the letter either fell from the marquee or was dropped while someone was changing the letters to movie titles as she was exiting the theater at about 10:30 p.m. Jan. 8, 2010.

According to the lawsuit, Colling suffered severe shock and a concussion, with injuries to her head, neck, face, jaw and shoulders.

“She ended up going to the hospital, and she’s followed up with her family doctor and a neurologist,” said her attorney, Brian Kingsley.

Kingsley said the incident was reported to theater management immediately after it happened.

“We have not seen the lawsuit, and therefore we are not in a position to comment at this time,” Barbara Zanetti, senior director of Uptown Entertainment, said Tuesday.

Among the allegations in the lawsuit is that Uptown Entertainment, Inc., through its employees, was negligent in maintaining the theater’s exterior premises in a reasonably safe condition.

Colling is asking for damages in an unspecified amount greater than $25,000, the minimum amount for a case to be heard at the circuit court level. The matter has been assigned to Oakland Circuit Judge Leo Bowman.

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Silent Screens

A great book of photographs as a photographer travels the USA and finds closed theatres everywhere he goes. Silent Screens.

where do we get our letters?

Here's a great story on the Menlo Park, Ca. theatre The Park  This is a pretty common story as theatres consolidate or are closed due to competition, etc.

Snap Lok letters

Snap Lok letters are among the letters still available that have been around for many years. They were some of the letters which emerged in the 40's and 50's to take the place of Adler metal and plastic letters and come in many sizes up to 31" and many colors. We see primarily the red and black and have many of them in stock. They are still available in new letters also.

lighted cases

We are in the midst of becoming representatives for lighted cases to better display the letters. There will be standard and custom shapes and styles.

Brimfield Mass antiques show

I am headed for Brimfield in May. We'll be in the JJ shows.

Moon Glo

I am looking at purchasing a large collection of the oldest letters: Moon Glo. These show white letters which are actually cut outs from black tin that slides and locks together. It looks great and I am thinking about bringing it in just to enjoy and be able to say I am the letter King by God and no letters shall go unstocked! :)

My Colonial Theatre

http://www.filmjournal.com/filmjournal/content_display/news-and-features/features/cinemas/e3ife769a54dccdeea9bfdcc5d5c78990b7?imw=Y    here's a great article on my Colonial Theatre in Belfast, Maine   or check this out http://www.bonnevilleconsulting.com/colonial/colonial-theatre-history/photo-tour-colonial-theatre

Retro Road Map

We heard from Mod Betty of Retro Road Map. She has a life which we all aspire to revisiting classic American iconic food, music, structures, music. Go Betty. And come to Maine soon!

Moon Glo letters

This style of letters is called Moon Glo. I received some samples in the mail today. These look like black rectangles but with letters cut out so all you see is white letters surrounded by black space. It was very popular earlier on and still is in many settings. We are considering buying in about 500 of these letters. Do you like them?

my Italian family home village

  My family on my grandmother's side came from Altavilla Silentina in southern Italy. Here's a link to a picture of the village. I still have a horde of incredibly lively cousins! I cannot wait to go back.

Montalban Theatre

We were honored to have The Montalban Theatre in Hollywood recently source letters with us. We still remember Ricardo. He was the original Most Interesting Man , the "Continental",  and who can forget "fine Corninthian leather". Ricardo Montalban was a great actor but also a arts benefactor and philanthropist. He and his memory lives on at The Montalban Theatre.

My love of movie theatres

As a kid I always went to the movies. We'd go to the Teaneck Theatre in Teaneck, NJ, the Oritani and Fox in Hackensack, NJ, and sometimes to the Palace in Bergenfield, NJ. Little did I know that all those years would lead me to a much loved life in the movies. Or rather: showing the movies. I now own the Colonial Theatre in Belfast Maine, The Temple Theatre in Houlton Maine, I run www.bigscreenbiz.com a web site for movie theatre owners or people who want to own or run a theatre, and I've become a consultant working all over the USA helping people with reopening or running theatres. And it lead to a large pile of old vintage movie theatre marquee letters in my basement turning me into the foremost movie theatres letters dealer in the world. That's where Bay City Cargo came in. I'll be telling you my story as the blog goes on. Welcome aboard.