Interesting  information on The Worlds First Zipper
When introduced in the late 1920s, the reader board was officially known as the Motograph New Bulletin service. However, early on it was nicknamed the 'zipper.' In conversations with various Times Square sign fabricators, no one can recall why it was named the zipper; my money is on the fact that its headlines 'zipped' around the building in the blink of an eye. Others names for this sign format include the ‘ticker’, which refers to it as a financial display. In formal circles it is known as a message reader board. But a rose by any other name....

The first public popular message reader board harkens back to the last Century's roaring 20's when it was installed at the base of The New York Times Building, now known as One Times Square. The New York Times announced its debut in its November, 1928 edition, "HUGE TIMES SIGN WILL FLASH NEWS." It was summarized as "Letters will move around Times Building telling of events in all parts of the world." The world's first public text messagering system was reveled with a reader board that was five feet high and at 880 feet long, completely surrounded the base of the NY Times building. The zipper's first message immediately caught the interest of the nation as it announced the results of the Herbert Hoover - Al Smith presidential election of that year.

The New York Times announced in its November, 1928 edition, "HUGE TIMES SIGN WILL FLASH NEWS." It was summarized as "Letters will move around Times Building telling of events in all parts of the world." People at a glance can now watch the world unfold in breaking news headlines, 'one zip at a time.' photo by SuZen)

Wildly accepted, large groups of people would gather all around the Times Building Tower zipper for breaking news. Tama Starr, president of Artkraft Strauss recounts in her book of Times Square, Signs and Wonders, (Co-authored with Edward Hayman, Pub. Doubleday, 1999) during the 1930s when President Roosevelt gave his fireside chats nationwide to American citizens, "cab drivers would pull over to the curb, doors agape with their radios on full blast allowing the nearby crowds to listen to the President's inspiring words while simultaneously reading the electronic Times headlines of his speech zipping past. It was an effect in sensory surround" and what Starr presents as "the first true multimedia event in Times Square."

The streaming news headline reader board eventually evolved into other content displays such as time and temperature signs which have become popular additions to banks, gas stations, and retail stores. Message reader boards have also expanded into two line, three line and even up to five lines or more per board. Soon reader board signs became a niche market of its own as many companies sprung up to fabricate and hang these signs including Daktronics (Brookings, SD), Mandex Led Motion Displays, Multimedia Inc. (Rancho Cordova), Act One Communications (Irwinsale, CA), Adaptive Micro Systems (Milwaukee, WI), Trans-Lux (Logan, UT), and Opto Displays (Walnut, CA). 

Having gained ground as a desirable sign format, the message reader board offers many features including its variable size, flexibility in design, ease of use and a real time response in changing messages. The original intentions of that famed Motograph in 1928 remain as important and poignant 75 years later as it did when the first news headlines zipped around the New York Times building. "The effectiveness of the zipper is its simplicity and immediacy," says George Stonbely, president and CEO of Clear Channel Spectacolor, a company that has designed the majority of Times Square spectaculars (complete front of Marriot Marquis, Motorola, Hershey's, Wrigleys, and JVC world globe to name a few). "It's now a common technology and you can take a message, output it through a computer and within seconds have it on the front of a building for all the world to see."

Zipper info Time square from