Editor’s note: This story by Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart was originally published in the Des Moines Tribune in February 1964, about three months after the Travelers umbrella was first erected.
When Ned. G. Kendall of the Travelers Insurance Companies threw a switch on the roof of the Insurance Exchange Building on the evening of Nov. 1, 1963, a huge red umbrella – 50 feet wide and 40 ½ feet tall – opened on the Des Moines skyline.
The umbrella – the tip of which turns the 10-story building into a 14-story building – is a neon sign.
It’s the largest neon sign in Iowa; and there isnt another like it in the world.
Not yet…
The idea for displaying the big insurance group’s nationally known trademarks high in the sky originated in the Des Moines offices.
“And the national office went right along!” they say. (I think this means the men at national headquarters didn’t turn pale when told that a big red neon umbrella would cost several thousand dollars.)
Now, since the big sign has been so well received, local company representatives wouldn’t be a bit surprised if others should open on other rooftops across the country.
The local umbrella was built by the Iowa Neon Sign Co., 1934 Cottage Grove.
It took a month and a half to bend 1,277 feet of neon tubing into a dozen sections, and then prepare them for a lifetime in the sky.
More:How downtown Des Moines’ iconic Travelers umbrella sign was almost lost, then saved — but don’t ask the cost
When everything was ready, the sections were trucked down Keo and hoisted by crane to the roof of the Brown Garage.
Then a pickup truck with a donkey engine – a winch – on its back was driven half a block away to Riley’s Parking Lot on Fifth Street, and a cable was run, first to the garage, then to the 11-story roof – and that’s a lot of cable.
For about two weeks the donkey worked, hoisting the sign to the Insurance Exchange roof.
Then the assembly was completed.
And then the switch was thrown.
No one at Travelers was more pleased and excited than were Al Campbell and George Wingert at Iowa Neon.
After congratulating them I turned practical and asked if they’d had to pay rent for the use of the roof of the Brown Garage.
They hadn’t.
And what about the parking lot?”
“The donkey and its truck paid the regular daily parking fee while they were there,” said Al Campbell. “Worth every penny of it.”