Clifford Emil Olson, a retired Baltimore sign painter and muralist whose canvas for nearly 50 years was the brick walls of city buildings, died of pneumonia Friday at his Hamilton home. He was 84.
Born and raised in Nebraska, Mr. Olson was a self-taught artist. He began hopping freight trains after leaving his hometown of Columbus in 1932, and for the next six years honed his skills traveling from town to town throughout the West, painting signs for small businesses.
He came to Baltimore during World War II as a Coast Guard boatswain's mate. While stationed at Curtis Bay, he met and married Eileen T. Natale in 1944.
Mr. Olson established C. Olson Sign Service in 1947 and from scaffolding high above city streets began painting jumbo wall-sized advertisements for auto dealerships, products, clothing, department stores, beverages and restaurants. He also produced signs for the Baltimore Zoo and the old Enchanted Forest theme park.
Motorists traveling north along the Jones Falls Expressway can catch a glimpse of what may be his most enduring work. The sign - painted in black, blue and white - shows a woman in a slinky Veronica Lake-type negligee and hair curlers, sleeping on an International Bedding Co. Cloud Mattress floating above a darkened cityscape.
Painted in the early 1950s on the wall of a Guilford Avenue factory - now a condominium - the sign reads: "Enjoy Relaxed Sleep."
Until a new parking garage got in the way, Mr. Olson's "Welcome to Little Italy" sign at Pratt and President streets greeted visitors to the city neighborhood and its restaurants.
Other examples of his handiwork include signs for A.D. Anderson - now Anderson Automotive Group Inc. - featuring founder A.D. Anderson in a black double-breasted suit and sporting a spiffy bow tie. The painting measured 10 feet by 15 feet.
"Dad always liked painting big," said his daughter Colleen Olson-Bauman of Hamilton.
"As A.D. Anderson's buildings were torn down and they moved, he painted that sign over and over again," said Mr. Olson's son, Clifford "Ole" Olson Jr., a furniture maker who lives in Fullerton. "I think his favorite sign was the one in Little Italy. So many people recognized it and complimented him on it through the years."
Until the building was demolished to make way for the Harbor Court Hotel, Mr. Olson climbed to the roof of the old Light Street plant for McCormick & Co. and painted the jumbo spice tins nestled atop a water tank.
