A golden-colored “Stay Gold” neon sign recently was erected next to the historic Circle Cinema along the Lewis Avenue alignment of Route 66 in Tulsa.
The sign is part of the city’s Route 66 Neon Sign Grant Program which awards money to businesses on or near Tulsa’s Route 66 corridors to rehabilitate old neon signs or create new ones. More than 50 grants have been awarded through the program.
The Tulsa Route 66 Commission touted the sign last week:
“Stay Gold” refers to a key line of dialogue in the novel “The Outsiders” (Amazon link), written by Tulsa’s S.E. Hinton. The Circle Cinema was used as a backdrop in Francis Ford Coppola’s acclaimed film version of the book, which was shot all over Tulsa and other locales in northeast Oklahoma.
The Tulsa Route 66 Commission during the same week also promoted the installation of the Chicken and the Wolf animated neon sign on the 11th Street alignment of Route 66. It also was a beneficiary of the neon program:
According to the Tulsa World newspaper, the second location for Chicken and the Wolf at 3136 E. 11th St. (aka Route 66) opened for business this week. It is a Nashville-style hot chicken restaurant that began as a food truck in Tulsa years ago.
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