Skipping Girl Sign
Coordinates: 37°48′41″S 145°00′39″E / 37.8113°S 145.0108°E
The Skipping Girl Sign or Skipping Girl Vinegar Sign, colloquially known as Little Audrey was the first animated sequence neon sign in Australia. It advertised the products of Swedish immigrant and prominent bacteriologist, Oscar Emile Nycander's (1859-1927) vinegar brewery incorporating Australia's first yeast manufactory at 627 Victoria Street, Abbotsford. The sign is now located at 651 Victoria Street in the inner Melbourne suburb of Abbotsford.
Construction consists of a painted metal structure outlined in neon tubing depicting a little girl skipping rope. At night the sign's outlines are illuminated, the skipping rope being displayed in four sequential positions to give the appearance of motion.
The sign was designed for the Nycander factory premises by artist Jim Minogue (who would go on to build the Nylex Clock in 1961), and built in 1936 by Electric Signs, later called Whitewall Neon, then Claude Neon. The company rented the sign to Nycander & Co who in turn placed the sign on top of their Nycander factory at 627 Victoria Street in 1936. The sign advertising their "Skipping Girl" brand of vinegar was immediately popular, becoming a well loved landmark. The origin of the connection between vinegar and a skipping girl is a skipping rhyme, usually "salt, vinegar, mustard, pepper, if I dare, I can do better..." to which the rope would be spun faster. In 1938, the company promoted its product with a girls' skipping competition.
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