Hi, new member here. People may not know, but the photograph that appears at the conclusion of the movie The Shining is the source of some discussion. Some of it is conspiracy nonsense, but more practically, nobody has identified the location of the actual photo which Jack Nicholson’s head and shoulders were pasted into. Now, here’s the thing - there is an exit sign at the rear, quite visible. It’s illuminated, white on dark (red?). Question is, does this date from the 1920s, as the people’s clothes suggest? Or is it 1930s or 1940s? Is it in a hotel ballroom or is it somewhere more peculiar, eg on an ocean liner? The original photo is said to have been obtained by Stanley Kubrick from the BBC Hulton photo library and so it might be a hotel (and so an exit sign) in the UK, not the USA. Some claim it dates from 1923.
Any thoughts gladly welcome.
I don’t have an exact answer, but the thickness of it certainly indicates it’s older likely with a large incandescent bulb inside. I’m not sure what signs in the UK would have looked like many years ago, but I can say that the typical EXIT lettering as seen here is most common in the US today. Many other countries have adopted the ISO signage today (https://www.iso.org/obp/ui#iso:grs:7010:E001) but given that it was adopted in 2003 it’s hard for me to find any idea of what they looked like prior to that.
Thanks. I see a lot that are red on white from 1920-50, but not so many white on red (I assume, it might be black. At any rate, it’s illuminated.) Do you think it’s 1920s?