Working with this theater, love their marquee, maybe these are all custom and aren't a font??

Question

I'm trying to rebrand this theater, and tie in typography to their history. This marquee has been up since the 1940's and I would love to find something close.

This is tough because it's all caps, and I am most interested in the 3 separate san serif fonts (don't need the script so much, i think that's just custom bent neon).

The "RENTON" appears to be very art deco/modern. Look at that super unique "E" crossbar shape?!

The "CIVIC" is kinda like futura but rounder? it's condensed, because even though it's round, it's narrow.

The font of the marquee letters are also interesting. Some low crossbars, like on the R's and A's but not on the E's or H's. It's not the same as the "CIVIC" though because the C's are very different. Hopefully it's not something common like helvetica and I just can't recognize it because it's all caps.

Anyway, thanks in advance! Anything similar would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Your initial instinct—that this is all custom type—was accurate.

 

In the 1940s, virtually any type you saw that was larger than a newspaper headline had its start as hand lettering, not typesetting.

 

RENTON is rendered in an Art Deco style. You could start with something like the Google web font Montserrate ExtraBold 800 and alter it to match (widen the vertical strokes on most letters and the diagonal stroke on the Ns, truncate the counter on the O, customize the E).

 

Lemondrop has a similar vibe, and would require somewhat less customization. Show Biz JNL is also quite close (note the E).
 

I'd have to spend some time in Photoshop to get a more straight-on view of CIVIC in order to get you a suggestion for matching it. EDIT: Peace Sans would work for the overall shape; outline it (to the inside of the edge), and you are very close. Avenir Next Heavy would also be a good approximation.

 

For the marquee text (specifially the older photo), try Main Feature JNL.