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A local man who鈥檚 obsessed with neon has spent the past few decades putting together a sizeable collection of signs and other neon artifacts. Now, facing an uncertain future, those signs and other artifacts are in search of a new home.

Bob Kaufman had a neon business in Seattle for two decades after moving here from California. He helped rescue some famous vintage neon over the years, like the original 1940s Ivar鈥檚 sign from Pier 54, and original letters from the Paramount Theatre. He also did a lot of small jobs for individual collectors and a number of home installations for elaborate man caves. And during those 20 years, he amassed what sounds like a fairly interesting collection.

Their specific history aside, neon signs are broadly popular as local landmarks and naturally draw public and media attention, such as when the Elephant Car Wash sign went to MOHAI last year, or when local historian Brad Holden uncovered the previously untold story聽of prolific local neon designer Bea Haverfield.

But Bob Kaufman is no casual, occasional consumer of neon culture. He says he first got hooked on neon in his native California in the early 1980s.

鈥淚 didn’t come from much, and I always loved these neon store fronts,鈥� Kaufman said. 鈥淭hey had neon around them. There were signs that drew you in. There was this beautiful red fire glass, these blue argon, cobalt colors on a wet early evening when things were good.鈥�

Kaufman, who previously worked as a photographer and in the film industry, brings a cinematic eye to his deeply nostalgic feelings for neon.

鈥淔or evening entertainment on a Friday night, you see the 1950s diner,鈥� Kaufman said. 鈥淎nd you have glow on the sidewalks and it drew people in. And that glow could capture [the color], like Kodachrome film back in the day, and nothing touches that image because it tells a story.”

鈥淵ou feel like you’re in that time, and nothing else matters,鈥� he added.

Kaufman says he doesn鈥檛 own any big neon icons, exactly. Instead, he has about 20 to 30 small neon signs, and they鈥檙e not all from the Northwest, though many of them are. What the collection does include are a number of 鈥渟alesman samples鈥� and signs that were built to advertise neon sign shops. It also includes several individual neon letters.

But Kaufman didn鈥檛 collect only signs. He also built a sizeable stash of neon research materials, too.

鈥淚 have one of the largest privately owned archive collections in existence,鈥� Kaufman said. 鈥淚t entails pretty much every oral written history of anything that was published on neon in the last hundred years, every book, [and] most [are] first editions. [These are] things that are not publicly available.鈥�

Along with collecting, Kaufman also acquired a dream of someday creating a neon museum here, which he says just didn鈥檛 pencil out as the Seattle real estate market got more and more expensive.

According to Kaufman, there are about a half dozen or so serious neon museums around the country, including in The Dalles, Oregon; the in Cincinnati, Ohio; and in Las Vegas, Nevada. He says that most of those are really focused on the glitz factor of neon signs. That is, they display the big, colorful, iconic and interesting signs, which is perfectly fine with Kaufman.

However, from Kaufman鈥檚 perspective, at least one aspect of neon sign history is missing from many of those glitzy museums.

鈥淲hat [most museums] don’t show and [have] never shown is the people, the designers, the artists that made those signs possible,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he people who never ever got credit for being true artists of their time [for] taking what those businesses stood for and turning them into signs that drew the population of people in that created a business.鈥�

Kaufman believes the tradesmen who designed and built neon signs 鈥� the builders are known colloquially as 鈥渂enders鈥� for the bending of glass tubes that make up neon signs 鈥� are true artists who deserve more credit than they鈥檝e ever received.

鈥淚t’s the artist that makes those signs possible,鈥� Kaufman said, who also collected works by neon artists as well; neon made as decoration rather to promote a particular business.

This 鈥渨orkbench-level鈥� view of the entire spectrum of the neon industry 鈥� maybe call it 鈥渂ehind the signs鈥� 鈥� is unusual and potentially more historically valuable than a focus only on iconic signs. It鈥檚 also at least partially informed by the many old-timers in local neon businesses who Kaufman met and got to know over the years, and from whom he acquired much of his unusual collection 鈥� which also includes a complete neon workshop set-up dating from circa 1940.

As unusual and interesting as Kaufman鈥檚 perspective on neon signs and neon history is, it鈥檚 no help for the tough reality he鈥檚 now facing, and which the pandemic hasn鈥檛 made any easier to address: serious illness.

鈥�Unfortunately, I have some really big health issues and I need to have open-heart surgery,鈥� Kaufman said, explaining why he now wants to find a home for his collection.

鈥淚 want to pass on the torch. I don’t want to put any other burden, if something were to happen, on my family before I do this,鈥� Kaufman said. 鈥淚 was in a position in the end of 2019 to have this done, but thanks to COVID, everything’s been postponed.鈥�

鈥淭his is not the way it was supposed to happen,鈥� Kaufman said, echoing what so many of us feel about countless dashed plans in the past year. 鈥淏ut you live with it.鈥�

To be clear, Kaufman is not looking to sell his collection. He wants to donate it to the right organization or institution. You can tell it means a lot to him, and that he鈥檚 worried about the future of his family, but also of what he鈥檚 amassed. Like any passionate collector, it鈥檚 hard to think about your life鈥檚 work 鈥� the collection you painstakingly assembled 鈥� being cast to the wind once you no longer have control of it.

成人X站 Radio spoke with a representative of one the major neon museums about Kaufman鈥檚 collection. Staff at many of the neon museums in the United States know who Bob is and have at least some idea of what he has in his collection. It鈥檚 too early to say, but there might be an effort coming together to help the collection find a home, or maybe multiple homes, within the neon museum community.

And maybe if some kind of deal comes together to save the collection, it will all happen on a Friday night like the one that first inspired Bob Kaufman鈥檚 love of neon all those decades ago.

That would certainly make the sidewalks and wet streets glow as only a neon sign can do.

You can hear Feliks every Wednesday and Friday morning on Seattle鈥檚 Morning News and read more from him聽here. If you have a story idea, please email Feliks聽here.