Flashback Neon Sign
by Curated December 10, 2024 · Gay News / Gay Pride / Gay Rights
Author: Darrin Hagen and Ron Byers
On June 17, 2023 a new sign was added to the City of Edmonton’s Neon Sign Museum. This marked the first time that a gay-owned business for “gay people and their friends” was acknowledged in such a public and immortal way. A ceremony was held on 104 Street with owner John Reid, dignitaries and friends of Flashback who chanted “Light it up, Light it up” and cheering as the power was turned on bringing the blue glow of the sign to Edmonton’s downtown once again.
In the Fall of 2024 a new plaque was added to the building. The following is the text of the plaque:
Edmonton’s first gay disco, Flashback, opened in a basement on Jasper Avenue in 1974.A wood and plexiglass sign hung over the stairs leading to the basement bar and dance floor. But soon, the runaway success of the club meant a new, bigger location was necessary.
Owner John Reid commissioned this neon sign for Flashback’s second location, which opened in 1977 at 10330 – 104 Street, just across the street from this plaque in the building now known as the Excelsior Lofts. This is where the club would achieve legend status.
Built by Blanchett Neon, the new sign originally cost between $1,200-$1,300.To keep it safe, it was housed in a wooden shadowbox frame with a clear plexiglass protective cover and hung inside.
For a while the blue glow from the sign emanated from the main entrance to the club, as it hung over the check-in window. Later, it was moved to the only window in the iconic nightclub, overlooking the loading dock entrance in the alley, where hours-long line-ups of hopefuls waited their turn to enter the Studio 54 of the Canadian Prairies.
Pictured is Lee Denning –
Mz. Flashback 5
May 3, 1959 – May 30, 2001
Lee represents the many lives
of Flashback patrons who died
of HIV/AIDS and left too soon.
His spirit and those of all lost
will live on through Lee as part
of this plaque commemorating
a place for gay people and
their friends.
In 1990, the club moved for the final time to the Manhattan Building (10345 – 105 Street).The sign was installed in the entrance to the club, overlooking the dwindling line-ups that marked the sad final chapter of the greatest disco Edmonton would ever know. The club finally closed in 1992.
The neon sign was adopted and kept safe by one of Flashback’s bartenders. For the next 35 years its blue glow lit up his downtown high-rise balcony, surviving summer heatwaves and polar vortexes, lasting far longer than any of Edmonton’s gay bars ever did. The condition of the original sign did not lend itself to appropriate restoration for the Museum. The sign showcased in the Museum is a replica sign.
The sign was donated by: Darcy Greenough & John Reid
City Neon has generously replicated this sign
Edmonton Sign Museum Sponsored by:
The City Of Edmonton – Heritage, Archives and the Arts
Alberta Sign Association
Funding for the Relight The Neon event on June 17, 2023 graciously provided by:
City of Edmonton Downtown Vibrancy Fund
Edmonton Downtown Business Association – Meet Me Downtown Grant
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