Spin cycle in progress
Spotted one?Report a sign. A blurry phone photo counts.Get the next load
New finds by email, from vladdit.
The signs, as AI reproductions. Tap one for its page, photos of the originals and the record.
Ranked by how much each one could move the search, against how hard it is to chase. Updated 24 October 2026.
- Find the people who have seen these signs. The best evidence so far came from strangers’ photos. If you have one, or remember one, report it here.
- Do the copyright deposit copies survive? The 1960 and 1961 registrations may have come with copies of the art, and the record copies could carry a name the catalog left out.
- Who filed Laundesigns as a business name? The copyright claimant is Laundesigns, not Joseph Schorr. A trade name in Queens usually needed a business certificate at the County Clerk, and the certificate names the people behind it. Not yet requested.
- Where did CSA Images get item C829223, the straitjacket figure? Asked on 4 October, followed up on 19 October; no reply yet.
- What is inside the Volk clip books of 1955 to 1960 that aren’t online (Gimmicks, Ad Starters, Zanies, Wackies)? They could prove or kill the clip art theory.
- What do the 1962 and 1963 ads show in full? Several Schorr ads in American Coin-Op, Launder-matic Age, Drycleaning World and American Laundry Digest have only been read as search snippets. The New York Public Library holds the volumes.
- What is on the walls of the Bensonhurst laundromat today? The building at 8015 20th Avenue became a self-service laundry in 1953, when the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals approved the change from a bakery, and it still runs as a laundromat today Documented. So the laundromat where the signs hung in the 1990s was there before they were made. Nobody has looked inside yet.
- Does the free color brochure survive? The 1961 and 1962 ads offered one picturing the whole line. Trade catalog libraries checked so far have nothing; the Coin Laundry Association and UC Santa Barbara are still open.
- Did Allan K. Jensen’s posters use the same hand? His ads ran in American Coin-Op from 1962 to 1979, and in Drycleaning World and a bowling trade magazine. He registered promotional folders for his laundromat posters from 1978 to 1981, one titled Color/posters, since 1961! Documented. The poster art itself is still unseen.
- Did Harry Sandler draw cartoons? The only public record of his art is a 2011 sale of an early 1970s watercolour of a young man playing guitar, described as Cezanne-like. No commercial or cartoon work found.
- What did the shop look like inside? The 1980s city tax photo of the storefront at 67-43 Myrtle Avenue has turned up (see Joseph Schorr). The 1968 board case files were requested on 4 October and followed up on 19 October; no reply yet.
- What did the Queens papers say? The Ridgewood Times for 1963 to 1975 and the Long Island Daily Press may mention the shop or Joseph Schorr.
- Why do most survivors have no frame when the 1962 ads promise stainless steel? Does Marlite have any record of Schorr as a customer?
- What washer brand is named on the HERE’S HOW poster? It could show how the signs were distributed.
- Where are TAKE IT EASY WITH THAT LOAD and EXTRACTING, ANYONE? No photo of either has turned up. A sweep of eBay and WorthPoint sold listings on 24 October found no Laundesign of any title.
Answered, 24 October: were the Laundesigns copyrights ever renewed? No renewal has been found. Works registered in 1960 and 1961 had to be renewed in their 28th year, 1988 or 1989. The Copyright Office’s online records do hold renewals from those years (Brown & Bigelow’s prints of March 1960 were renewed in December 1988, for one), but none for Laundesigns, Joseph Schorr, Schorr Sign Service or any of the sign titles Documented. That points to the registered signs having entered the public domain at the end of 1988 and 1989 Inferred. A reading of the records, not legal advice.
Ruled out, 19 October: the double-sided Philco-Bendix ‘clothes thief’ sign found by reverse image search is not a Laundesign. It’s filed under Other Vintage Laundry Signs.
Paused: who made the giant LAUNDROMAT storefront signs on so many old Brooklyn laundromats. A separate mystery, on hold until the Laundesigns artist is found.
An open file on the Laundesigns of Schorr Sign Service, Glendale, Queens. Sign images are faithful digital recreations made from photos of the originals; each sign page links to the record. The recreations were generated with Grok, chosen after comparing image quality across several AI models.
Be First to Comment