Toth knows the heights well. He took three spills, breaking his left wrist in one fall. Another time his rope broke and he fell to the ground, spattered with paint.
During the 1970s, Toth and the other billboard painters moved inside to work on signs. Toth didn't mind much, although he did like peeling off his shirt to work outdoors on a warm summer day.
One advantage of working indoors was avoiding the loss of billboards in progress that were ruined during impromptu rainstorms.
Today, outdoor advertising remains as strong as ever in America. Over the past three decades, revenue increased every year except one, reaching $5.2 billion in 2000, according to Sheila Hayes, marketing communications director of the Outdoor Advertising Association of America. The number of billboards in America—about 400,000—has remained the same.
In the early 1990s the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed digital computer technology that led many of the Pete Toths of the world to retire or do something else.
"It used to be, you'd go up in the art room and there'd be paint brushes, triangles, and T-squares," Toth said. "Now, you go up and there's computer terminals."
Computers gave advertisers standardized ads and a quicker turnaround time for the ads. Some billboards that would have taken a painter several days to create could be made by computer in 90 minutes.
Standardized reproduction allowed national advertisers to have the same ad displayed in different cities at the same time. It also gave advertisers a better option in markets where painters weren't as skillful as Toth (it isn't always easy to make a 10-foot hamburger look appetizing).
Outdoor Canvas
Toth usually worked with at least three other billboard painters at Adams Outdoor Advertising. Today, his only company is the sound of a radio. He once painted on wood; now he paints on vinyl.
The Michelangelo of billboards has used his oil paints to create everything from bridal wear to bulldogs, lawyers to lobsters, furs to fighters.
Toth can take a 7-by-14-inch picture and envision a 14-by-48-foot billboard. He estimates that he has created more than 3,000 billboard advertisements during his career.
Once he painted a Statue of Liberty with the torch in the left hand instead of the right one. He had to repaint it after a driver phoned to point out the error.
Toth is a sub-contractor for Adams Outdoor Advertising, paid by the square foot. The shop's general manager, John Hayes, and operations manager Bob Gelsinger have found work for Toth for more than a quarter century.
One recent project was an ad for a wireless communications company featuring a "plugged-in" cartoon mouse that was unable to catch a mouse that was free of telephone wires.
"I feel a tremendous amount of loyalty to Pete," Hayes said. But some days there just isn't much work for Toth. "It really is a shame, because it is a lost art," said Gelsinger.
In some cases, Hayes pointed out, billboard painters can use their highlighting skills to create a more appealing and effective image than one generated by a computer.
"Years ago, when they were all hand-painted, I used to enjoy looking at billboards," Toth said. "It was like an art gallery, because I knew they were hand-painted by somebody. I used to look for technique.
"I used to look at them like oil paintings, because that's what they were," he added. "I used to pull over sometimes and look at them. It's not that interesting to me anymore, because I know it is computer-generated."
(c) 2001 Allentown Morning Call
