BASIE PUTS MARQUEE MAN’S NAME IN LIGHTS
The Basie is giving an electronic shout-out to Roy McCurdy now that it’s completed the marquee. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi; click to enlarge)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
Roy McCurdy spent 19 years taking an extended pole outside the Count Basie Theatre to change the names on the theater marquee. And he’s proud to say he did it with few misspellings.
“‘Engelbert Humperdinck‘ try spelling that without it written down letter by letter for you,” McCurdy said. “That’s a difficult one.”
When theater fired up a new digital marquee this week, so ended McCurdy’s days in front of it. But for the moment, he’s on it.