The Signs of Larry Watson

We all know Larry Watson as a Custom Car and Hot Rod painter, and he might possibly be the best Custom painter we ever had. The amount of car's, bikes, boats and trucks he painted is staggering.
I have been showing some of the photos of his personal collection on my site, and in Kustoms Illustrated magazine in the last half year or so. And I will continue doing so... easy since the amount of photos in his collection is as huge as the amount of cars Larry painted.
But most of the photos I post and the articles I do are about Larry and the Cars he painted. And I thought it would be nice to show some of the Signs that Larry used on the many shops he had. Signs he used to draw attention for possible new customers. Of coarse the painted cars Larry had done, and won prices everywhere where the best advertising he could get. But Larry also realized he needed to live up to the expectations and show the same quality of his paintwork in his shops as well.
So Larry has always had some really wonderful shop signs. And possibly the best ever and most photographed is the shop wall painting on his 9012 Rosecrans blvd. shop in Bellflower. James Potter used this backdrop on many occasions.

Thanks to Larry's sense of importance for the things he has been doing since the mid 1950's, and the fact he saved so much memorabilia and photos we can now show these wonderful signs...
This article shows only a portion of the signs and shops that Larry owned...

This James Potter photos shows Larry's first shop. The only real simple shop sign.
Letters done in painted wood. The shop was located  at 1016 E Artesia.

This drawing from 1957 shows the design and was used for approval from the city.
Unfortunately I have not been able to find a photo of the sign drawn on the left. 

There are not many photos of this 17200 Bellflower Blvd. shop in Bellflower.
The first time we see the shades of gray lines as base, and the bow tie shaped
Watson logo. Ray More's 1952 Ford is looking fantastic. (For Larry this
Ford was alway the Ray More Ford, even though Pete Angress had
bought it from Ray a year or so before this photo was taken.)

Here is the most famous sign of them all. 9012 Rosecrans blvd.
shop in Bellflower. Larry was extremely productive in this shop
and created some of his best work there.

It cost Larry $240.-- to have a sign painter paint the wall.

One of the many multi Watson Car photo shoots that took place at this shop.
The large parking space in front and the bright colored shop wall were
perfect conditions for taking photos Some of them where taken from
the roof top of a next door building.

Here is a photo of the Bill DeCarr (Ortega) body shop on 10116 Artesia Blvd
in Bellflower. Bill had bought the shop from Ed Schelhaas in 1959 and he
rented out some space (including the paint booth) to his best friend Larry.
Together they created some magic in this shop. The Ford Pick up in front
of the shop is Johnny Zupan's 1956 Ford F-100. The shades of gray lines
in the background came back in this shop as well...
despite this being Bill's shop.

Another nice wall sign was created at Larry's 14903 Lakewood Blvd.
shop in Paramount. This time the sign list most of Larry's specialties.
Larry's Cadillac in front of the sign looks fantastic.

somewhere between 1962 and 1965 Larry repainted his Lakewood
Blvd. shop and got ride of the gray lines, and the dancing letters
almost look cartoonish.

In the later part of the 1960's Larry moved to the 8730 Firestone Blvd shop

 in Downey. The sign on the pole is one of Larry's Best signs.

Its so perfectly styled, and fits the design trends of the time perfectly.

The sign could be seen from far away driving up and down Firestone Blvd.

The horizontal gray lines are back on the building, but the bow tie shaped

logo is gone.

Close up of the pole sign.

The earlier version had only one pole, it was nice, but not as superb
as the later version.

1971 Larry's shop at 10506 Burbank Blvd in North Hollywood.
The shop wall sign is now all painted on the wall again. No pole signs,
and the feel is the asme as in the 1960's, only styled according the time.

Last photo is a standard road side sign shared with others.
Paul Stratton owned Paul's Upholstery. This sign was at the 14903
Lakewood Blvd. (thanks to Rich for the info)