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Brothers Don, left, and Jeff Lace who own Lace Music Products in Cypress, paid to haul the huge 80-year-old sign that once advertised Sam’s seafood restaurant, then Don the Beachcomber in Sunset Beach, to their headquarters in Cypress. They plan to refurbish the sign and at some point open a tiki bar where it will be featured, on Friday, February 12, 2012 in Cypress.
With their dog, Sydney.
in Cypress, CA on Friday, February 12, 2021. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) -
Brothers Don, left, and Jeff Lace with dog, Sydney, at the headquarters of Lace Music Products in Cypress on Friday, February 12, 2012. The brothers paid to haul the huge 80-year-old sign that once advertised Sam’s seafood restaurant, then Don the Beachcomber in Sunset Beach, to their in Cypress office. They plan to refurbish the sign and at some point open a tiki bar where it will be featured. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG)
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Brothers Don, left, and Jeff Lace who own Lace Music Products in Cypress, paid to haul the huge 80-year-old sign that once advertised Sam’s seafood restaurant, then Don the Beachcomber in Sunset Beach, to their headquarters in Cypress. They plan to refurbish the sign and at some point open a tiki bar where it will be featured, on Friday, February 12, 2012 in Cypress.
With their dog, Sydney.
in Cypress, CA on Friday, February 12, 2021. (Photo by Mark Rightmire, Orange County Register/SCNG) -
First erected in the 1940s, the Sam’s Seafood swordfish sign, shown in 2007, has been removed from its post in Sunset Beach. It awaits its next life at a music store in Cypress.
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A crane lifts the 60-plus year-old swordfish sign in Sunset Beach on PCH Jan. 16 for transport to a music shop in Cypress.
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Long Beach resident Jim Foltz stands next to the swordfish sign his dad designed in the 1940s. The sign was removed from Sunset Beach on Jan. 16 and relocated to a music shop in Cypress.
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The famed Sam’s and then Don’s swordfish sign in Sunset Beach has been relocated to Lace Music Products in Cypress, where it awaits its second life. Half of the LED lights on the huge sign still work.
Don Lace can’t help but feel a bit disoriented now when he drives through Sunset Beach.
“I automatically want to see the water tower house on one side and the big fish on the other side,” he said. “It still makes me sad that the sign is missing.
“Then I remember, ‘Oh, yeah, I have it.’”
For more than 60 years the blue swordfish sign – first named “Sam’s” and later “Don’s” – hovered over Pacific Coast Highway. Then, on the early morning of Jan. 16, a crane – not the kind with feathers and wings – came along and swooped it up.
Soon after, the 1,700-pound So Cal landmark was strapped to the roof of a Toyota Tundra and, at five miles per hour, tenderly transported inland to the front of Lace Music Products, guitar-parts shop in Cypress.
At eye-level, the 29-foot-long and 14-foot high chunk of metal looks a lot bigger than it did when seen by car flying 50 feet overhead.
“It’s roughly the size of a submarine,” observed Don Lace, who, with his brother Jeff, co-owns both the company and the sign.
How the finned fish migrated to its new home is a whale of a story that starts – at least for them – when the Lace boys were growing up in a house not far from Sam’s Seafood.
“I remember being 5 years old and peering out my window with my binoculars at the swordfish,” said Jeff Lace, now 58.
Their late dad, Don Lace Sr., was an inventor. In 1948, he concocted the flashing lights that replaced kerosene lamps used to mark road construction. The elder Lace also founded Lace Music Products in 1979, bringing his sons into the business from the start.
“I’ve had this one job my whole life,” Jeff Lace said. Also an inventor, he came up with those grocery carts that stop rolling at a certain distance away from a store.
None of the three men were skilled musicians, but their engineering talents led to them to design innovative electric guitar pickups – devices that send string vibrations to amplifiers. Over the years, Lace Music regulars have included Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Pete Townsend and J.J. Cale.
Don and Jeff Lace are also both fans of all things Polynesian. They fell in love with tiki-themed restaurant Don the Beachcomber when it took over what was once Sam’s in 2009. “The music, the food, the vibe – it was great,” Don Lace said. “It was our home away from home.”
But between the end of Sam’s and the arrival of Don’s there was Kona, which lasted for only two years. During its short life, Kona’s owners switched out the sign’s Deco-ish neon bulbs with LED rope lights.
Although popular, Don’s closed in 2018 after its landlord raised the rent. Himalayan Grill moved into the space, but left the Don’s sign as is.
Meanwhile, Huntington Beach officials became increasingly concerned about the seaworthiness of the aging fish and, specifically, its rusty pole. “It was one good Santa Ana wind away from blowing through the roof,” Jeff Lace said.
The city offered the massive placard up for free to anyone who would pay to haul it away. “It’s like getting a ‘free’ pony,” Jeff Lace remarked. “The expensive thing is the maintenance.”
Ever since the exit of Don the Beachcombers, the brothers have dreamed of opening their own tiki bar. The fish sign, they figured, offers the ultimate in vintage tiki decor for their future endeavor.
“We’re kicking the tires, looking around,” Don Lace, 62, said. “Then this sign falls out of the sky into our laps – though, luckily, not literally.”
After much research, they found someone who would re-situate the swordfish for $3,500.
“That’s less than an ad in a guitar magazine would cost. And it will be a great for promoting our business,” Jeff Lace said, as if the whole idea was purely pragmatic.
“Everyone knows this sign. It’s iconic!”
The brothers created a Facebook page, Don’s Sign, to chronicle moving day in photos and videos – romantically describing the fish as “a beacon of art to all that traveled by it.”
Next came a small-world twist – all the way from England.
Some British tiki collectors saw the news about the sign and contacted a friend, Jim Foltz, way across the puddle in Long Beach. As many in the tikii-phile community know, Foltz’s father, neon manufacturer Fred Foltz, had a hand in the sign.
“They messaged me, ‘Are you the one who got the sign?’” Jim Foltz said. “I said, ‘I was just there yesterday. It was there then!’”
Foltz called pals at nearby Kaitin Surf Shop, who confirmed the sign had vanished. Then he called Himalayan Grill and secured Don Lace’s contact info.
Only hours after the sign arrived at Lace Music, Foltz was there checking it out.
“Every single time we drove by that sign when I was a kid, my mom said, ‘Your dad made that sign, your dad made that sign,’” recalled the 61-year-old longshoreman.
Fred Foltz, who died a decade ago, produced signs and lighting at his Long Beach shop, Rocket Neon.
Although Jim Foltz and his siblings know their dad installed the lighting for the Sam’s sign, they cannot say for sure whether he also sawed the sheet-metal cutout.
Originally located in Seal Beach, Sam’s dates back to the 1920s when it expanded from a bait shop to a restaurant. The eatery apparently added its first neon sign when it moved to Sunset Beach in the 1940s. Sam’s burnt down in 1959 and reopened in 1961.
“Friends ask me, ‘Why didn’t you take the sign?’” Foltz said. “Where would I put it? I don’t think they understand how big it is.
“Still, if I’d known it was up for grabs, the Laces might have had some competition.
“But I’m happy they got it,” Foltz added. “They really care about it and want to restore it.”
The Lace brothers assume the sign will never fly high again. “I doubt any city would grant a permit for a 50-foot-tall sign nowadays,” Don Lace said.
Instead, they will figure out a way to display it ground-level at their restaurant-to-be.
Perhaps, the Laces say, they will slice the fish in two lengthwise with one side reading “Sam’s” and the other “Don’s.” Perhaps they will even restore the neon lighting. Foltz’s brother, a neon designer in Washington state, has offered to do so at no cost.
“Our restaurant will be sort of ‘Disneyland’s Tiki Room meets ‘Lost,’” Jeff Lace said, referring to the TV show about a mystical island. He plans to project scenes of tropical showers and birds on the walls and ceilings.
Until then, they will use the sign to promote their line of tiki-inspired ukuleles set to debut later this year. They also envision it atop a float at the Huntington Beach Fourth of July parade.
“I’m amazed by these guys,” Foltz said, “The sign truly couldn’t have found a better home.”
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via Irvine Sign Company
