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It would make a great quiz show question: Which Boston icon has been in attendance for more than 4,000 consecutive Red Sox home games? Need a hint? This American-bred celeb became a Venezuelan national in 1990…. Still stumped? Perhaps the cameo in Field of Dreams caught your eye? Or the star turn in a 1968 short film featuring music by the Beatles? Or the 1983 photo essay in Life?

The winning answer, of course, is Kenmore Square’s Citgo sign, which first pulsed to life on a Beacon Street rooftop in 1965.

Its prominent perch between Fenway Park’s Green Monster and the Charles River had been occupied for 25 years by the green-on-white Cities Service sign. Cities Service grew from a holding company for regional gas and electric utilities in 1910 into the largest oil producer for the Allied Forces by the end of World War I. In 1965 the company adopted Citgo as a trademark and later took it on as its corporate name. Citgo was purchased by the Venezuelan government in 1990.

The 60-by-60-foot sign, with its flashing red triangle on a flashing white background, was designed by Massachusetts native Arthur King. It soon became a favorite target of Red Sox power hitters, who renamed it the C-It-Go sign.

Countless people recognize the Citgo sign, but none know it more intimately than its daredevil caretaker for 53 years, Marty Foley of Foley Electric. Suspended in a wooden chair swing, he hoists himself from side to side using a perfected technique that grants him access to nearly 9,000 feet of LED tubes.

The sign’s future has been in doubt on several occasions, most recently in 2016, when the site was purchased by developer Related Beal. In 2017, Related Beal and Citgo announced an agreement to ensure that the sign “will continue to shine brightly for years to come.” —Joe Bills

Joe Bills

Former associate editor Joe Bills is the co-owner of Escape Hatch Books in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. After nearly a decade of fact-checking, responding to readers, and writing several articles for Yankee, he now brings his expertise to our sister publication The Old Farmer's Almanac.

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