Time Machine: Giant Iowa corn sign

How many light bulbs does it take to light a 42-foot-tall ear of corn?

It varied, depending on the year and on who was counting.

The new Iowa Theater opened in June 1928 in downtown Cedar Rapids, marked by an electric corn sign, thought to be the largest sign of its kind in the state.

The sign weighed 2 tons and had 3,436 lights, the theater reported. It cost $9,000, or about $165,000 in today’s dollars.

“Emblematic of the tall corn state, an electric sign in the shape of a giant ear of corn is being erected today at the corner of the Iowa Theater, First Avenue and Third Street (SE),” The Gazette reported May 9, 1928. “The word I-O-W-A is spelled out in colored lights on a background of yellow kernels, trimmed with green husks.”

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The theater was the dream of Indianapolis theater man Calvin Bard, who had been impressed with Cedar Rapids when he visited the city years before.

The theater’s corn sign itself became an immediate attraction.

When the theater opened June 6 to long lines of eager patrons, those who couldn’t get inside lined up across the street to watch the twinkling corn sign and the brilliant marquee.

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Eye-catching events

In 1930, theater manager L.M. Garman attached a pole atop the corn sign for vaudevillian “Mysterious” Stanton to climb and attempt to break an endurance record for pole sitting. Garman placed an ad in The Gazette for a manicurist and a barber who were willing to be hoisted in the air to offer their services to the pole sitter.

The Eastern Iowa Corn Huskers competition on Dec. 19, 1933, was held at the theater with the giant corn sign, of course A dozen expert huskers gathered on stage and worked feverishly to husk as many ears as they could in seven minutes. The winner was Frank Olinger of Toddville, who husked 94 pounds of corn.

In 1943, The Gazette’s “Around the Town” column reported 3,580 10- and 25-watt lights were in the corn sign.

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World War II

Then came the brownouts of World War II, ordered in early 1945 to preserve coal. The corn sign went dark.

When Marine Pvt. William Orton returned home from service before the war’s end, the brownout was still in effect. It was lifted May 8, 1945. “I made it a point to see (the sign) the first night the brownout was lifted,” Orton told The Gazette.

In 1946, a Coe College fraternity sent its pledges downtown to count the bulbs in the corn sign. The pledges, no dummies, just asked theater manager A.H. Talbot. The answer he provided at the time: 3,570 green, yellow and white bulbs.

Sign’s end

In December 1965, the new owners of the Iowa Theater, the Dubinsky Brothers of Lincoln, Neb., remodeled the theater but said it would cost too much to repair the corn sign. The O.F. Paulson construction company used cutting torches and a crane to remove the sign from the building.

The sign was offered to the All-Iowa Fair at Hawkeye Downs, but the fair board wasn’t interested.

Then it was proposed the sign could go behind center field at the Cedar Rapids Memorial baseball stadium, where it could be turned on whenever the home team hit a home run. (That story said the sign had 3,450 bulbs and 41,500 watts.)

Paulson offered to recondition the sign, install it at the ballpark and provide replacement bulbs without charge.

In February 1966, the Veterans Memorial Commission delayed installation of the sign until March because of a question about ownership. The commission thought the sign should be theirs. The baseball club wanted to claim it.

In March, commissioners again tabled the proposal, with four members calling a sign a “white elephant.” The baseball team thanked Paulson for his offer of the sign but decided against installing it.

Peter D. Looney in his book, “Lost Cedar Rapids,” said the corn sign “was put in storage but has since disappeared, probably for its scrap metal value.”

In November 1982, the Linge family gave the theater building to the Cedar Rapids Community Theater (later Theatre Cedar Rapids). In 1988, the theater’s Joan Sammons said “nobody seems to know” what happened to the corn sign.

Audrey Linge, the building owner, said, “I loved the ear of corn. It sounds corny, but it is darling.”

In 2002, Paulson’s construction company closed, and numerous green, yellow and white light bulbs were among the items auctioned.

Gazette columnist Dave Rasdal talked to Ted Paulson in 2007, reporting the sign had had 4,084 lights that could flash and produce a waterfall effect.

“Nobody really wanted anything to do with” the sign after it came off the theater building, Ted Paulson said. “My recollection, with all the bulbs on it, it took about $900 a month to light it.” He thought the sign finally ended up in a salvage yard.

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