Sign O’ The Times

Would you feel a sense of loss at the removal of a billboard? How about a store sign? What if it were huge and neon and had been there for 40 years?

There is an outcry over the closing of the flagship store of Sam the Record Man in Toronto, once the largest music retailer in Canada. But it is not the store’s closure that has people upset, but the loss of the massive sign depicting two spinning records. As soon as the announcement was made, Facebook pages and online petitions immediately sprang up, asking for the sign to be saved, designated a heritage site or to be preserved in a new location. All of this for an advertisement for a failed business.

I won’t deny the sign is a presence at its Yonge St. location. It has appeared in the backdrop of many a Hollywood film trying to pass Toronto off as some other city. It also played a significant part of the 1970 Canadian film Goin’ Down the Road, where the movie’s two hosers become entranced with big city living.

But does that make it a landmark? Some of the comments said tearing it down is akin to taking down the CN Tower, claiming it is just as recognizable a landmark for the city. This I seriously doubt. Many others who commented spoke of buying their first record/cassette/CD at the store, but that’s just nostalgia for their youth. Like them I also remember the first album that I bought with my own money (Depeche Mode’s Some Great Reward, if you must know) but I don’t fetishize the store I purchased it at.

It is just a sign. Sure, it looks interesting, but it is an advertisement and more will come and go in that place. Just down the block from the store is a public square that is rapidly being filled with flashing billboards and electronic signage, turning it into a miniature Times Square, the ultimate example of signs as culture. This is not a compliment. Once you’ve been to Times Square and marveled at how insanely bright it is (even in the dead of night) and thought of all the movies and TV shows you’ve seen it in, there is really little other appeal. The same goes for the Sam’s sign. At worst people will lose the chance to say “Hey, there’s that sign that I’ve seen in the background of a film before. Cool.”

It is interesting to note that most people are looking to save the sign and not the store or the line of business it represents. If but a small percentage of the people pining for the sign’s iconic status had regularly purchased music from the store, the sign wouldn’t be in jeopardy today.