“When he got to the corner he could . . . see the cluster of electric signs at Twelfth and Paseo. The electric signs formed a blazing ring of light; everything down there looked almost like it did in the daytime.

The signs were made of coiled neon tubing, which had just come into that part of Kansas City. Some of the newer night clubs had them. The rest had old-fashioned displays with small electric light bulbs spelling out the letters. On some of the signs an arrow of light chased itself around the border. Others flashed off and on. On some of the neon signs the colors flickered and changed from pale blue to the color of orange soda water. There was a big sign over the Sunset Club and another over the Boulevard Lounge, and farther along you saw signs advertising the Lone Star and the Cherry Blossom.”

—Ross Russell, from Bird Lives! The High Life & Hard Times of Charlie (Yardbird) Parker, 1973.