What’s the good Word... Weather Bird?

Written by George Gilbert Lynch

Long before radio, and with just a few telephones in Bakersfield, the only way of getting a current weather forecast was to visit your old uncle with the rheumatism who always was accurate in predicting rain or a cold spell. Of course, you could have always made a trip to the post office or the Western Union Telegraph office and hope the employee had received the latest weather report.

On February 25, 1892, Bakersfield civic leaders remedied this situation by installing a “Weather Flag Weather Report System.” From that date forward, anyone interested in the forecasts of the U.S. Weather Bureau for Kern County, for 24 hours in advance, need only look at the tallest flag staff on the Southern Hotel, at the corner of Chester and 19th. The signal flags flying there announced the weather forecast.

If a simple white flag was flying, the weather for 24 hours following would be fair and clear with stationary temperature. If the flag was blue, it indicated rain or snow. If a white flag with a black triangular flag above it was flying from the staff, fair and warmer weather was predicted.

Then a long list of different positions of the blue, black, triangular, or white. These same flag signals were used internationally. Some folks memorized the dozen or more flag indications, but to most they were so confusing to read that local people simply acted as if they knew what each flag meant so as to not be thought of as stupid. The Weather Bureau also had a whistle code in combination with these flags that could later be instituted but was never applied.

The Bakersfield postmaster, Mr. Ober, received the reports at 10 a.m. daily and furnished them to the Southern Hotel’s manager who maintained the flag signals. This flag system was used for years until radio and newspaper’s reporting made it obsolete.

Many years later, on July 26, 1940, reminiscent of the flag system of weather reporting on the old Southern Hotel, a new, modern weather forecasting sign was presented before nearly 7,000 cheering spectators at the new Sill Building, on 18th and Chester, a block south of the Southern Hotel. My family and I were there among the crowd to watch the event.

At 7:45 p.m., the huge “Coca Cola Weather Bird Sign” was activated by its owner, Sam Lynn, the local Coca Cola distributor. The mammoth sign lit up in a blaze of colored light showing a sun, clouds, rain, and the animated weather bird waddled from his house as everyone cheered. The slogan below the weather bird read “Thirst Knows No Season.” The sign above would predict the weather for the next 24 hours just like the old 1892 flag system only in 20th Century electronic style.

The weather bird would hop out of his house to predict the weather for the next 24 hours and be appropriately attired to fit the forecast. Here’s what the animated sign displayed for the different weather conditions:

Cloudy—The sun was blacked out, clouds were lighted, and the bird hopped out of his house with an umbrella tucked under his arm.

Cool—The sun shone, and the bird wore an Eskimo suit.

Rain—The sun was hidden, clouds appeared, rain fell, and the bird wore a rain hat and opened his umbrella.

Fair—The sun came out and the bird appeared in light attire carrying a hoe, seeds, and a straw hat, ready to go gardening.

Warm—The sun’s rays shimmered and the bird wore a swimsuit and fanned himself.

William Garvey designed the massive sign and the Electrical Products Corporation assembled it. The 44- by 48-foot, 11-ton structure featured more than a mile of neon tubing and 2,000 feet of steel cable supporting it. Its cost was $35,000 ($500,000 in today’s dollars). Builders of the sign proclaimed it was “the most spectacular animated sign west of Chicago!”

Sam Lynn, the sign’s owner, prompted the weather bird to act out his predictions using reports from the local Weather Bureau. He orchestrated the bird’s antics by private telephone from his office, using the dial system on a special line. This was really hi-tech as transistors and computers were unknown in 1940. The electrical programs were accomplished by old-fashioned relay switches and timers...the same that were used in the old pinball machines of that era.

The weather bird sign was a downtown icon back then. For 22 years, our weather bird announced the daily weather report. On the morning of July 3, 1962, a large crane appeared at 18th and Chester and workmen began taking the huge sign down. Coca Cola’s local manager said they would not renew their lease on the sign.

“It was no longer effective...people have seen it for so long they take it for granted,” he said.

Most of our memorable icons have disappeared from downtown Bakersfield but I still fondly remember the simpler times of the past when on Saturday night our family would drive downtown to have Chinese food at Fat’s Café, attend a movie, and watch the weather bird act out his predictions.

Article appeared in our 26-3 Issue - August 2009