Coppertone sign
The original plastic, metal and neon Coppertone girl sign was designed and made in 1958 by Tropicalites, a sign company owned by Morris "Moe" Bengis. Tropicalites was located on North West 54th Street in Miami, three blocks from Biscayne Boulevard, near where the sign is planned to be reinstalled.
Before producing the original Coppertone Girl sign, Moe Bengis met with Benjamin Green, who invented the Coppertone product in his kitchen in 1944 and Abe Plough, the founder of Schering-Plough which bought Coppertone in 1957. Tropicalites' sketch artist Larry Moore drew most of the original sign layouts from a design of the little girl and dog created in 1953 by the advertising agency Tally Embry.
The original Coppertone logo was the profile of an Indian chief, and the slogan was "Don't Be A Paleface." Native Americans took offense, so the Taly Embry agency was hired to come up with a new ad campaign and logo.
Supposedly, the inspiration for the Coppertone girl was Deborah Martin, who was the granddaughter of early Coppertone owner Charles E. Clowe. Clowe's wife Sophia noticed that Martin's training pants had slipped and exposed her bottom while poolside. She then remarked to her husband that such an image on a billboard would be more appealing to her than sexy girls.
After Schering-Plough had bought Coppertone, the original designs were lost in a fire. In 1959 Joyce Ballantyne Brand recreated the now iconic Coppertone Girl artwork with very minor changes.
Marvin Goodman, Morris Bengis' son-in-law came to work in 1958 for Tropicalites and was involved in the 1959 installation of the sign at its original location on the north wall of Parkleigh House at 530 Biscayne Boulevard. The 3-story-high sign overlooked the New Year's Eve Orange Bowl Parade route.
Tropicalites produced many signs in their Miami workshop including Rayco (the original Tropicalites label may still be on the sign), the Vagabond Motel in MiMO, Burger King (Tropicalites made the first 700 signs for them) and all original Royal Castles. Morris' son Jerome Bengis knew Bill Singer, the founder of Royal Castle). Other prominent signs near the Parkleigh House were also made by Tropicalites: Delta Air Lines, Hertz Rent-A-Car and the Sinclair dinosaur.
Moe Bengis merged Tropicalites with Claude Southern Corp., creating one of the largest sign companies in the United States in the early 1960s. Unhappy with the new company, Moe left with his original sketch artist Larry Moore, Marvin Goodman and his two main accounts; Burger King and Coppertone. After graduating from college in 1968, Moe's son Jerome came into the company, now called Bengis Associates. Jerry handled both accounts as Morris was ill. The Coppertone account became huge grew, with roughly 500 signs all over the east coast, with the most prominent being the original on the Parkleigh House which will now adorn the streets of MiMO.
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