TORONTO ICON
People are unimpressed with Sam The Record Man’s new home, saying it belongs at street level,
Toronto’s infamous Sam the Record Man sign will soon spin again.
The legendary fixture was spotted going up at Ryerson University early Friday morning.
Although only half of the sign is up, Ryerson communications director Michael Forbes said there is no definite timeline on when the installation might be completed.
Forbes also said there is currently no set date for an official lighting ceremony.
Crews started installing the 15-metre by 11-metre neon sign, featuring two large records with spinning lights on the northeast side of YongeDundas Square overnight.
However, several Twitter commentators were unimpressed with its new home, saying it belonged at street level, where it would look more effective.
“You don’t get the scale of the sign, relative to street level, from that placement,” wrote Gil Meslin, an urban planner. Other tweeters agreed.
Laurin Jeffrey, a Toronto real estate agent, wrote, “Kind of a weird spot to put it, doncha think? Could it look like any more of a last minute ‘let’s just put it . . . there’?” and Kathryn Woodcock, a professor, said she was disappointed the sign wasn’t reinstalled on its former lot near Ryerson University.
A tweeter called Jon W. joked, “the Sam the Record Man sign going up in Yonge-Dundas Square feels like a hunter mounting the head of a deer on his wall.”
Toronto Star columnist Shawn Micallef said it’s too far away to be an authentic experience, and it may disappear beside all the other flashing signs in Yonge — Dundas Square.
“While I’m happy it’s back in public, a worthy piece of Toronto and Canada’s commercial heritage, the context is simply weird now. Too high and too distant to really have any strong meaning,” Micallef said. “It was originally close to the sidewalk and just above our heads: you could almost feel the neon, and certainly hear the buzz of the lights.”
The neon behemoth used to hang outside the late Sam Sniderman’s iconic music shop on Yonge St., a block north of Dundas St.