During the late 1940s, the company that would later become W. Heath & Company began when a talented young sign painter from Chicago, named Wayne Heath, made his way to Los Angeles. Heath had trained at Chicago’s Beverly Sign Company, which was known for its use of custom colors and for the innovation of inserting type into color-filled geometric shapes to create a sign within a sign. Beverly Sign had spawned a resurgence of sign design that went well beyond a means of identification into a form of advertising art.
Heath arrived in Los Angeles in 1948 and soon formed Heath & Gorsich Sign Contractors with Tony Gorsich. Their first work was lettering for storefront windows and roadside billboards. Taking the concepts he learned in Chicago and adapting them to a far larger scale, Heath’s bold, imaginative designs would soon have a major impact in Los Angeles in the coming decade.
At Heath & Gorsich Sign Contractors, Heath and his partner Gorsich, began rethinking the possibilities of catching the attention of people driving past in cars. They introduced geometric shapes and bold colors, using plexiglass and neon for electrified and free-standing signs. By 1952, Heath, who bought out Gorsich and renamed the business W. Heath & Company was in the process of building a client list that would endure for decades. Heath was recognized for his highly imaginative advertising. “In Wayne Heath’s hands, the entire storefront became a sign,” explains Martin Treu in his book, Signs, Streets, and Storefronts. Heath used the compositional discipline he learned on small-scale poster boards at Beverly Sign Company and dazzled his new Los Angeles clients with full-scale storefront displays.
Heath’s design had a distinct advantage over his competitors. Verne Winchell, founder of the original Winchell’s doughnut shop in Temple City, California, and Harold Butler, a restaurant entrepreneur who opened the first Denny’s, enjoyed the brand recognition Heath’s distinctive signs brought them. Heath was on the cutting edge of an influential sign making movement. “He changed the way signs are designed,” said Jack Lloyd, a longtime Heath sales representative. “They used to be black and white, blue and white, red and white. Heath used incredible shapes and wild colors people had never seen in signs before.”
Then there was Nick Shammas and Felix the Cat. In 1958, Shammas moved his dealership and its cat logo from downtown to Figueroa and Je;erson Boulevard. Heath & Co. combined neon and plastic for what would become a kitschy Los Angeles landmark. “Nobody had ever put that big a sign on top of a roof,” Lloyd said. “It was so big and unique you couldn’t help but see it.” As Heath brought on more designers for his growing art department. One of them was Raul Rodriguez, a noted float designer for the Rose Parade and Disneyland. Rodriguez helped design a spectacular hyperactive neon display for the Flamingo Hilton in Las Vegas and a 12-story freestanding clown for the Circus Circus Casino in Reno. “He was one of my mentors,” Rodriguez said of Heath. “He always wanted to make the aesthetics a little better. He was very innovative.”
In Los Angeles during the 1960’s, W. Heath & Company expanded its client base into regional and national franchises, producing the enormous Kentucky Fried Chicken buckets on poles, and numerous signs for drive-in restaurants (Burger King), markets (Ralphs), and banks (First Interstate), along with designs for Winchell’s doughnut shops and Denny’s restaurants. In addition to Heath’s highly visible Felix the Cat car dealership sign in Los Angeles, there was the Hula Hut in Pico Rivera, the Premiere Lanes Bowl sign in Santa Fe Springs, and the Flamingo Hilton sign in Las Vegas. Heath was seen as a leader in innovative design, using bold color combinations, kinetic elements and compositions, and highly creative construction. It was said he inspired sign crafters across America to arrange small pieces of information with a visual verve.
In 1968, Wayne E. Heath sold his controlling interest in W. Heath & Co., Inc. to Fischbach and Moore Inc., an electrical contracting company known for prominent projects, including the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In its annual report, Fischbach and Moore reported: “With this acquisition, which was made for cash, we acquired experienced personnel and feel confident that their efforts will support and further our growth.” Before the end of the decade, Heath had acquired Liberty Sign Company (Dallas) and ArtKraft Sign Company (Oldsmar, Florida). Heath continued with the company until retiring in 1984.
In 1996, a private equity group, including Ken and Diane Hendricks, announced the acquisition of Heath Sign Company, and on May 6, 2003, the combination of two companies — Federal Sign and Heath Sign Company — was announced. Called Federal Heath Sign Company, the combination created one of the largest custom electric sign companies in the U.S. Major manufacturing locations were in Euless, Texas, and Oceanside, California, as well as 12 other office sites across the country. Kevin Stotmeister, former president of Federal Sign Company, was appointed President and CEO of Federal Heath Sign.
Wayne Heath’s impact on the signage industry cannot be overstated, changing the way signs were designed with different shapes, colors, and materials. His work ranged from iconic landmarks to notable brand names that still exist today.
Born on June 4, 1918, in Plattville, IL, Wayne passed away at the age of 87 on May 15, 2006, in Palm Desert, California.
Learn more about the Felix Sign history.
Learn more about the Felix Sign landmark.
Learn more about the iconic Las Vegas Flamingo Hilton Sign