The signs, as AI reproductions. Tap one for its page, photos of the originals and the record.
For writers, editors, archivists and anyone who wants to use something from this file. Take what helps, credit it, and link back to schorrsigns.com.
The story in 150 words
In 1960 and 1961 a small sign shop on Myrtle Avenue in Glendale, Queens registered sixteen cartoon wall signs with the US Copyright Office under the name Laundesigns. Schorr Sign Service sold them by mail to coin laundry owners through trade magazine ads from 1961 to 1963: tall white panels of silk-screened enamel on Marlite, each with a big-nosed cartoon figure over a house rule. DON’T DYE HERE. WE’RE NOT RESPONSIBLE. BE AN ANGEL. The copyright cards name Joseph Schorr, a show card writer whose father was a Queens sign painter, as author of the print. Nobody has yet said who drew the cartoons. Some of the signs still hang. Vlad Shenderovich started looking for them in September 2026, after a Red Bull ad brought back the laundromat in Bensonhurst where his mother did the family laundry. This site is the open file on what he has found.
Key facts
- Maker: Schorr Sign Service, 67-15 Myrtle Avenue, Glendale, Queens; moved to 67-43 in June 1963. Documented
- Sixteen designs registered March and April 1960 and November 1961; claimant Laundesigns. Documented
- Silk-screened enamel on Marlite, framed in stainless steel; about 18 by 48 inches. Documented
- Sold through coin laundry trade ads 1961 to 1963, later through distributors. Documented
- Artist of the cartoon figures: unknown. See The Artist Question.
- Known surviving signs and where they were seen: Sightings Map.
Images
The AI reproductions were made with Grok from photographs of the originals and are labeled as AI reproductions wherever they appear. They are not the original artwork. You may use them with the credit line AI reproduction, schorrsigns.com.
- All eleven signs, two rows (AI reproductions)
- All eleven signs, one row (AI reproductions)
- Laundesigns logo, transparent (AI reproduction)
- Single signs: open any sign from the Sign Catalog and click the image for the full size file.
Photographs of original signs belong to the people who took them. Each one is credited where it appears on this site; please ask the photographer before reusing it, and credit them by name.
Text and research
Quote freely with a link. The research, transcriptions and timeline on this site may be reused with credit to Vlad Shenderovich, schorrsigns.com. Every claim is tagged Documented or Inferred; please keep the distinction when you repeat it.
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