1964 description of Salt Lake City roto-sphere

    Vintage trade magazine showing the details of the Granite Furniture rotosphere. Photo and text from December 1964.

    Comments and faves

    1. Tom Spaulding (56 months ago | reply)

      I think I might be scared to walk under neath that thing It doesn't look too securely anchored.

    2. JAVA1888 (56 months ago | reply)

      Its freakin awesome to look at tho! Love it!

    3. Vintage Roadside (56 months ago | reply)

      They're going to work the rotosphere into the new building going up at this site. Since there are so few left it's great to see one saved.

      Tspauld - you can almost picture it impaling one of the cars on the street!

    4. ★

      Roberto41144 and arts enthusiast added this photo to their favorites.

    5. arts enthusiast (56 months ago | reply)

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Sugar House, Salt Lake City, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

      Vintage Roadside, as a Salt Laker who grew up 1/2 mile from here, I am in love with this sign! Thank you for posting this! It's wonderful to see it in its new 1964 glory. I'm sure you've seen photos of how it looks now; mainly the vertical beams to the right of "Granite Furniture" are gone, and the panels above and below "Granite" are solid-colored now, without the sputnik design.

    6. Vintage Roadside (56 months ago | reply)

      Arts - thanks for your comment. I'm glad you enjoyed seeing the ad. I was thrilled when I was flipping through the magazine and found this description of the then new sign.

      It's fantastic it's still there to see.

    7. ★

      Roadsidepictures added this photo to his favorites. (56 months ago)

    8. Roadsidepictures (56 months ago | reply)

      Wow! This is great! I knew Ellie would see this ;-)

    9. Vintage Roadside (56 months ago | reply)

      Roadsidepictures - thanks! It's great to find a piece of history to go along with something like this sign.

    10. arts enthusiast (56 months ago | reply)

      I should mention that I almost missed this. Agilitynut sent me the link without mentioning the subject of the photo. You should have seen my eyes pop when I clicked on the link!

    11. ★

      bigbrownhouse added this photo to her favorites. (56 months ago)

    12. agilitynut (55 months ago | reply)

      Only two Roto-Spheres went to Utah (both to Salt Lake City): #9 in 8/60 and #222 in 11/66 (one of the last since about 234 were made). So this must be #9 (how exciting -- to me anyway!). You gotta wonder what business used the other one and where it went.

    13. Vintage Roadside (55 months ago | reply)

      Agilitynut - thanks for the wonderful history of the Utah rotospheres. Hopefully somebody out there can uncover where the other one was placed.

    14. arts enthusiast (55 months ago | reply)

      I would love to know.....hmmm, where to begin....

    15. agilitynut (55 months ago | reply)

      After some more poking around, I come up with these facts. The mystery SLC Roto-Sphere was shipped to YESCO (Young Electric Sign Co.) in SLC on 11/16/66. Perhaps they might have some info about where it was installed (and what happened to it). Looks like still have a location in town: (801) 487-8481.

      The Granite sign was shipped first to Balton & Sons in Memphis (why I don't know). It does appear to have been built slightly differently than the others (I assume to produce its unique two-way spinning action rather than the three-way).

    16. arts enthusiast (55 months ago | reply)

      Interesting update, agilitynut. I went into Yesco a few months ago to beg for a photo of their famous Dee Burger sign that was also a part of my childhood. A very nice lady there emailed me an image from their archives. I'll see if I can impose on her kind nature once again and ask if she has any info.... I'll look into it after Thanksgiving.

    17. agilitynut (55 months ago | reply)

      arts-e: Get down on your knees for a photo of it to share w/the rest of us! Thanks.

    18. Vintage Roadside (55 months ago | reply)

      Agilitynut - thanks for the continued research on the history of these. It's always fantastic to learn more about where these once were.

      Arts - I really hope you can come up with a photo, that would be fantastic!

    19. ★

      Bryen. added this photo to his favorites. (54 months ago)

    20. bigbrownhouse (52 months ago | reply)

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Vintage Utah, and we'd love to have your photo added to the group.

    21. Vintage Roadside (52 months ago | reply)

      Thanks for the invite bigbrownhouse - photo added.

    22. ★

      firstyearta, Lovemidcentury, and Eric "Claptøn" Nelsøn added this photo to their favorites.

    23. agilitynut (47 months ago | reply)

      Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Roto-Spheres & Sputnik Signs, and we'd love to have this added to the group!

    24. ★

      blacksheepburlesque, Lost Fun Zone, presidentadow, Ian Sherman, and 2 other people added this photo to their favorites.

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