Douglas Leigh

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Douglas Leigh

Born	May 24, 1907 Anniston, Alabama
Died	December 14, 1999 New York City
Nationality	United States
Alma mater	University of Florida
Known for	Being a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising

Douglas Leigh (born on May 24, 1907, in Anniston, Alabama – 14 December 1999, New York City) was an American advertising executive and lighting designer, and a pioneer in signage and outdoor advertising. He is famous for making New York City's Times Square the site of some of the world's most famous electric billboards. Leigh also designed the colored lighting scheme for the Empire State Building.^[1]

[edit] Biography

After financing his education at the University of Florida by buying the exclusive right to sell advertising for the yearbook, Leigh became a top salesman for a sign company in Birmingham. In 1929, he moved to New York and got a job at the General Outdoor Advertising Company, but quit in 1933 to strike out on his own.

Leigh then designed a sign for the St. Moritz Hotel in exchange for the right to live there and to use the hotel's address at 50 Central Park South for his business. From there, Leigh proceeded to transform the signs at Times Square. His first eye-catching creation was a billboard for A&P, advertising the store's Eight O'Clock Coffee with clouds of steam emanating from a large cup of coffee. A Camel billboard blew smoke rings from a steam generator, while one for Kool cigarettes featured a blinking penguin. One for Ballantine Beer had clowns tossing quoits on a peg. The Coca-Cola sign at Bryant Park gave an ever-changing weather forecast (featuring a house and pictures of sun, rain, snow, etc) along with the slogan "Thirst knows no season" (Leigh paid a tenant's weekly laundry bills to stop her from hanging her laundry on her clothesline in front of the sign). With the exception of the Empire State Building, Leigh's creations have been replaced with newer signs, for which Leigh set the bar.

He was the step-grandfather of Prince Lorenzo Borghese.