Iconic Sam the Record Man sign to shine over Yonge-Dundas Square this fall

By The Canadian Press

Work has begun to restore a giant neon sign that once drew people to Toronto’s landmark Sam the Record Man music store in the city’s downtown.

The sign, composed of two enormous spinning discs on a red background, used to be a familiar sight near the city’s busy Yonge-Dundas Square.

Toronto’s Ryerson University acquired the sign when it bought the store’s property in 2008, a year after the business closed, and initially said it planned to showcase it on a new building being built on the site.

The university said it decided later to install the sign two blocks away, overlooking Yonge-Dundas Square.

Ryerson says restoration work on the sign has begun and it is expected to go up at the new site in the fall.

A lighting ceremony is being planned by the school when the sign, nearly 50 years old, shines again later this year.

The music store’s owner, Sam Sniderman, began his business with his brother by opening a small store in Toronto in 1937. Together they built a chain of Sam the Record Man stores that spanned the country.

He opened his flagship store on Yonge St. in 1959. The iconic store with its huge flashing red neon record signs closed in 2007, seven years after he retired.

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