WILDWOOD – If you see a bright, beautiful neon sign in Wildwood, send your thanks to Randy Hentges at ABS Sign Company, the lone commercial neon signmaker & repairman in Wildwood, or rather, the entire Jersey Shore.
It’s a heavy lift. Many of the famous neon signs in Wildwood – the Isle of Palms, the Skylark Motel, the Bel Air Motel – are old enough that they need heavy repairs after harsh winters and salty summers. The signs are heavy and often hard to access. Some require a crane and a specialized team to pull down from their nests above Wildwoods’ famous mid-century lodgings. The Isle of Palms sign, for example, was particularly challenging to access when it underwent a complete overhaul in 2001.
“It was a really sketchy one to work on because it’s up on the fifth or sixth floor on top of the elevator shaft,” Randy said.
Neon was the signage of choice in the 1950s and 1960s because it was easily visible from the windows of passing-by Studebakers and Pontiacs. It was also durable. The gases inside the signs, lit by electrical currents, can stay bright for decades. That’s assuming, of course, that the glass tubes housing the gases are not shattered by wind-driven debris, that the circuits aren’t knocked out of place, and that the metal structure of the sign itself doesn’t rot out with rust.
Many of the signs in the Wildwoods were built in the ’60s by a team led by Randy’s father, Robert Hentges. Robert was the founder of ABS Sign, and Randy now finds himself repairing signs that his own company built decades ago. ABS Sign was much bigger then, with over a dozen employees. They made neon signs at a rapid pace for customers all over the Jersey Shore. Today, neon is still part of the business, but Randy sees the work as more of a charitable service than a source of profit for his business.
“Sometimes we lose money on service work because so much can go wrong, and we often have to do more than we bargained for,” Randy said. “Neon was once the only choice for a large, bright sign; now it’s a deliberate thing you have to choose. I don’t talk people into neon, I want them to want it to be neon.”
Finding parts is also a problem. The essential components of neon signs – the glass tubes, the gases, the phosphors – were once commonly manufactured and sold. Not so today.
Randy had a close relationship with Spectrum Neon, in Pennsauken Township, and used them to fulfill excess orders when he got too busy. They were also a key supplier of parts. The last titan of New Jersey’s neon manufacturing fell when Spectrum Neon closed last year. Randy scooped up their excess inventory.
“They couldn’t even keep one guy employed. There wasn’t enough work.”
There were once a few key players in the local neon business. First, there was Allied Sign Company, opened in 1952. A competitor came to town when Charles Szczur, an Allied employee, went on his own to open Ace Sign Company in 1955. ABS Sign Co. came almost a decade later, in 1964, and is the only one still around.
So how does ABS Sign stay in business? Well— Randy and his team are master fabricators; neon work is just a small part of their day-to-day. Randy said he might go weeks without working on neon. His company makes a huge variety of signs and facades across the Wildwoods. He designed the new Curly Fries building at Morey’s Adventure Pier. The larger-than-life fries that tower over guests were made right here, out of foam, in the ABS Sign garage.
Sometimes, he is asked to make signs that look like neon but are actually a close facsimile. The new Runaway Tram rollercoaster at Morey’s Piers is centered around a massive sign that appears to be neon at first blush. But it’s an LED sign so close in style that most people won’t notice.
“We built the Runaway Tram for Morey’s, but where the location was, it wasn’t serviceable. It’s in the middle of the rollercoaster tracks! We came up with a new way to do it,” he said. The LED sign will be easier to service when the time comes.
Randy’s company assembled some of the most iconic signs in the Wildwoods, neon or not. The giant Coca-Cola sign at 3400 Boardwalk, for example, was made —and later repaired— by ABS Sign.
Editor’s Note: Randy confirmed something that has, to my mind, always been just a rumor. Yes, he said, Coca-Cola pays for that giant sign on the boardwalk. He was paid directly by Coke to make the repairs, first in 2018 and again in 2024.
Randy learned how to make neon signs when he was just a kid. He spent long hours in the shop learning the trade. He still works in that same garage, which opens up to the busy New Jersey Avenue on one side and to a graveyard of old neon signs on the other.
There’s one other neon signmaker in town, Fred Musso, but Randy said that he isn’t much interested in commercial work. He could not be reached in time for publication. Fred creates smaller neon signs that function more as art pieces than commercial attention-grabbers. Some of Fred’s work, like small versions of the iconic Wildwoods “W”, is for sale at the weekly Byrne Plaza farmer’s market. Randy said that, for a long time, he wanted Fred to work at ABS Sign because he could really use the help. There are very few people left who can hand-forge a neon sign, Randy said.
So, why does Randy keep working on neon? He told Do the Shore: “Because we’re stupid!”
Contact the author, Collin Hall, at 609-886-8600 ext. 156 or by email at chall@cmcherald.com – Collin is the editor of Do the Shore.
