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URING THE SUMMER OF 1993, a much publicized battle raged over David Letterman and his popu-Jar late-night talk show.

His contract was up with NBC. CBS and NBC battled over who would broadcast his show.

Subsequently, CBS now broad-casts Late Show with David Letter-man from New York City's Ed Sulli-van Theater. CBS partially lured Letterman (in addition to offering more money than most people ever see) by promising to refurbish the decrepit theater. That theater at 1697 Broadway in Manhattan now serves as the show's studios. This refurbish-ment also included reconstruction of its marquee.

Given the number of New York City-based sign companies, the bid-

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ding for this high-profile job may have rivaled the bidding for the show itself. A low-key sign company - Going Sign Co., Inc., Plainview, NY - came out on top. Ironically, the company has quietly gone about its business for more than 90 years. The third-generation sign company was founded by John]. Going, Sr., who had a small storefront in Brook-lyn with a handful of employees who specialized in lettering horse-drawn carriages. The second genera-tion comprised George, Ken, John and Donald Going. Now, the third generation includes Jeff, Jim and Kevin Going. Today, the company boasts between 35-40 employees and operates in more than 21 ,000 sq. ft. of shop space. The company's client list now includes American Express, Hertz Corp., Avis, National Car

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Rental and major financial institutions (no more horse-drawn carriages).

The Ed Sullivan Theater marquee job, states Going vice president Jeff Going, was the company's first job high-profile enough to gain recogni-tion outside the sign-industry. In his role as vice president, the 10-year veteran handles shop drawings, esti-mating, office managing and some sales.

Like the theater's interior, the mar-quee was in shambles. According to Going, all the existing wiring, bal-lasts and raceways had to be re-moved and replaced. The company installed all new fixtures . In fact , only the original sign cabinet was used.

"The end design," says Going, "was decided between myself and a couple of the artists at CBS and Let-

terman's people. They had an idea of what they wanted. It was similar to what they had at NBC, but because of copyright laws, they had to change the name. He [Letterman] had a lot of input, in fact , I think he even had final approval. "

CBS' vice president of New York and New Jersey facilities , Ken Cooper, explains the evolution of the theater and the marquee design.

"We got started right away with the design and redesign of the the-ater and the office-building space," recalls Cooper. "Somewhere along the way, we contacted Going Sign and worked on a design/build ap-proach with them. They came to us and explained what they could do, and we sent down the Late Show's scenic-design people and the show's director, and Going came up with The "S" in "SHOW" is being routed from a 4 x 8-ft., Yi.-in.thick sheet of acrylic.

something acceptable to both CBS and the Late Show people."

Cooper further states that, in con-trast to the wrangling NBC and CBS did over "intellectual property," the name change and redesign generated no conflict. The only challenge was creating something "new and eye-catching, and something that would differentiate the newness of the show coming to CBS."

In fact, much of the pre-design work took place while NBC still broadcast Late Night with David Letterman.

"I can remember many meetings where we went over there [NBC) with the people from Going and CBS and the Late Show," says Cooper. "The show had finished its commit-ment with NBC at the time, and the staff was in the process of clearing

out before they went on summer hiatus. They then moved into the office building adjacent to the Ed Sullivan Theater."

Cooper, who had previous ties with Going Signs, praises the com-pany's responsiveness. Despite Go-ing's Long Island location, Cooper says company representatives came into the city several times to meet with all parties and assure on-time completion of the marquee. That projected time meshed well with the mid-July start of the new Late Show.

"Going told us about its approach to things," says Cooper, "which the show found immediately acceptable. The Late Show people came up with a design of sorts that Going Signs did a shop drawing of and re-submitted. There were some minor changes made, then it was manufactured."

Two 1/8-in. aluminum panels, shown here approximately 1 ft. apart, are being joined to make one a x 2Dft. panel for one of the two ends of the marquee.

Rob Westervelt lays out the exposed tubing for the neon border.

"Once it was established that there wasn't any copyright infringement," states Going, "the design was final-ized and we began reconstruction of the marquee and fabrication of the sides [8 x 20 ft.) and front [8 x 43 ft.). The end result incorporated more than 900 ft. of neon and 80, 96-in. fluorescent lamps."

The color scheme, recalls Going, was CBS' idea. Going came up with the neon borders and decorative cor-ner work (including all the edge-lit trim caps on the "Late Show " and "with David Letterman". The yellow acrylic used (#2016), coincidentally, exactly matches the city's thousands of yellow taxicabs.

All the letters, neon work and sign faces, with the exception of the two-piece front face, were fabricated and assembled at the company's facilities .

The on-site work - the gutting and installation of the new fixtures for the illumination, plus the sign's in-stallation - required four men and four days. The turnaround for the entire job was four weeks.

The sign comprises two different components. The marquee faces are stencil-cut aluminum with trim-cap letters (the Late Show with David Let-terman). Sitting above that is a triple-tiered trough with internally lit, white faces and black returns that spell out "Ed Sull ivan Theater."

Each vertical face of the trough houses continuous, yellow neon tubes. On the face of the first trough, however, neon tubing ends at the "E" in "Ed;" continues again between the "d" and the "S" in "Sullivan;" stops again behind "Sull ivan" and starts again between the "n" and "T"

Burning in, or aging, the tubes in prepara tion for installation

All the letters used trim caps; here, James Ragone blocks the trim cap for the letter "W."

Alan Sherif blocks the .040 matte-black aluminum in the channel letters for the "CBS" and the "Ed Sullivan Theater" copy.

The triple trough lays on its back as Artie Stark mounts the back of the channel letters to the trough.

The complete tripled-tiered, internally illuminated, step trough constructed of white-faced letters and black returns spells out "Ed Sullivan Theater."

Al Brewi installs the channel-letter shell on one of the two CBS signs that appear at the ends of the marquee.

Pushing the trim-cap letters through the stencil cut-out face at the back of the sign

in "Theater." One day after the marquee's in-

stallation, film crews captured the marquee for the show's nightly opening. Nevertheless, Going re-mains nonplussed that millions of viewers nationwide see his com-pany's work every night at 11:30 pm EST. Although he does admit they did get some phone calls and "a lot of positive feedback.

"A lot of our customers have called us; they never realized that we were doing it," continues Going. "This is the first type of high-profile

job we've ever done." Cooper adds that many people

have acknowledged the marquee's positive impact to that part of Broad-way (a little north of Times Square).

"I don't think anyone really con-siders it, and it (the theater] really isn't, the heart of Times Square," says Cooper. "So, it really has made for a whole other destination for people who are visiting New York, perhaps for the first time . And, it provides great shelter for people who are lined up at 8 am for tickets."

Cooper and CBS also laud the sign

company's professional after care. "Anytime we've ever had anything that needed attention from a mainte-nance standpoint since then," says Cooper, "they have continued to handle the marquee, and a year later, they have continued to help us with adjustments." The company claims to just trudge along and com-plete jobs - both national and local - without looking for any acclaim, but after this job, it may have to change its act.