By Mark Casey
Posted on Monday, August 5th, 2024
After unexpectedly starting my own business in 1974 [see “Vintage beer labels hold loads of inspiration”], I went to Michigan State University, where, instead of studying, I got involved with the school’s Entertainment Committee designing posters for the monthly rock concerts at the MSU auditorium. I did posters for Three Dog Night, Beach Boys, J. Geils Band, George Carlin, Hair the Musical and a few more before I dropped out and went on a road trip with my sign kit to see America.
A sign painting partnership
Wendy was freshly honorably discharged from the US Air Force and was working as a computer repair technician tending to Hewlett Packard’s commercial clients when we met in 1979. She made really good money.
An artist at heart, she loved the idea of painting signs—and loved the idea of not dealing with computer problems for a living. A few weeks into our marriage in 1981 she quit the computer lifestyle to paint signs with me all day in our garage. This was shortly after I finished my apprenticeship with Ernie and I wasn’t making much money yet. Despite HP trying to bribe her to stay by offering her a raise and a promotion, she quit.
In hindsight, both of us agree it was the best thing she could have done. We have so many happy memories: working hard, painting signs, and good times designing, carving, screen printing, sandblasting, routing, digitizing, engineering and installing signs together over the years!
We had a ritual that we performed every time we successfully finished a particularly complicated or artistic sign project (which happened several times every year): We went to the nearest bar afterward, usually the middle of a weekday afternoon, ordered a beer, clinked glasses and toasted how lucky we were to have our wonderful, rewarding and fulfilling lifestyle—and get paid handsomely for it. To this day we are big fans of friendly dive bars.
Having never traveled outside Michigan before, I meandered south to Florida, turned right, and went to California. MSU had used up all my money, so along my trip I’d offer to paint the windows or signs of gas stations (usually “CIGARETTES 59c”) in exchange for a fill-up of gas. Before I returned to Michigan, I worked briefly at a little sign shop in California where the shop owner let me sleep on the shop floor at night.
I made my way back to Michigan and sometime around 1977, I stopped in Danny Donati (Danny’s sign kit is now displayed at Mack Brush Co.) to ask some questions about painting signs. He kicked me out of his shop/garage. Chastened, I went to see Ernie Giordano, another outstanding Detroit sign painter—but whom I had never met. His shop was called Jordano Sign Co. I asked him if I could sweep his floor, clean brushes, and take out trash in exchange for watching him work.
He said, “Son, if you were serious about learning to paint signs, you’d work for me for two years for no pay and in exchange I’d teach you everything I know.”
I thought, “A FREE EDUCATION!” and I started the next day. I worked for my own customers at night and paid a token rent to my understanding parents. I was 21 years old.
Every single day Ernie had some type of sign prepared and ready for me to letter. That very first day it was dozens of feet of paper banners with two-foot-tall letters all laid out in charcoal. Ernie never asked me to sweep the floor or take the trash out. He was as serious about teaching me as I was about learning. In my two years with Ernie, he never had a cross word and always treated me with respect.
Ernie’s shop was a small 1½-car garage with a gas heater for winter. His household included his awesome wife Jane, his Italian mother who spoke no English, one son, and five daughters—all around my age.
Ernie never made a lot of money as a sign painter. He had seven brothers and had apprenticed at his older brother Liebo’s commercial sign shop, which was named Banner Sign Co. Liebo had started it in 1924 and it is still in business today. Virgil DeClair, Al Grand, and Lee (whose last name I have forgotten) were influential employees there who taught young Ernie. Another of Ernie’s brothers, Joey, was a walldog.
Banner Sign Co. did all kinds of hand-painted signs and a lot of showcard work. Ernie became a fine showcard artist. Around 1942 Ernie enlisted in the Marines, but never left the U.S. as they found him more valuable lettering Jeeps, trucks and airplanes.
When computers came along and crushed Ernie’s business in the ’80s, Ernie wasn’t ready to retire yet. Wendy, my wife, helped him transition to a vinyl sign shop. Wendy is a good sign painter and also had computer skills—when we met in 1979 she was working as a computer repair technician at Hewlett Packard. A few weeks into our marriage in 1981 she quit computers to paint signs in our garage all day with me.
Ernie never quite got the hang of making signs with the computer, but it got him through to retirement. Today, his daughter Francie continues to run Jordano Sign Co. Someday I hope someone asks her or her siblings about their father and living with a dad who painted signs in the garage. I’d bet they have some great stories.
Ernie was a very kind and gentle man, as was his walldog brother Joey. His whole family was a close-knit band of merry jokesters. Ernie built and flew RC airplanes and had a pilot’s license.
I have such fond memories of painting walls and semi-trailers together with Ernie and Joey. They had a great sense of humor, loved life—and really loved painting signs. While enjoying a nice afternoon of painting signs, Ernie would often say, “Isn’t this the nuts?” I always agreed with enthusiasm.
Ernie told me that he had been asked to bring up two apprentices in his time. I was his second. Ernie asked me if I would promise to bring up two apprentices in my time and I said I would. But I never did. Just as I was hitting my stride, the computers hit and life was never the same.
