NEW YORK—The ball drops on New Year’s Eve, and the Times Square revelers cheer with delight, while 340 feet above the crowd, a man lets out a sigh of relief.
Anthony Calvano, president of Landmark Signs, is a man that is unnoticed by the crowd on New Year’s Eve. It is his work that gets noticed. He is the man in charge of lowering the 12,000-pound Times Square New Year’s Eve ball that rings in the New Year for millions around the world who watch in person and on TV.
For 25 years, Calvano has not only been managing the drop of the New Year’s Eve ball, he and his employees have also been looking after and repairing 75 percent of Times Square’s flashy signage.
Calvano landed a job in the billboards industry with his uncle just after getting out of the Vietnam War in 1968. He was paid $3 per hour.
“I thought that was pretty good. I got paid 13 cents an hour in the army,” he joked.
