EJS Lighting Corp., Fiesta series, 1959 (Rejuvenation archives)

EJS Lighting Corp., Color options, 1962 (Rejuvenation archives)

Other images

• Cover of 1959 EJS Lighting catalogue (Rejuvenation archives)
• Fiesta, multiple singles in diner, 1962 (Rejuvenation archives)

Love at First Sight

Ever heard of EJS Lighting Corporation? Neither had we.

Then we acquired a 1959 catalog from this Los Angeles manufacturer and realized that not only did they offer an astounding array of awesome mid-century modern lighting, but we had quite a few of their original fixtures hanging around in our product archives. The EJS line included hip hourglass chandeliers, classic pull-downs, elegant Swedish-glass shades, and the iconic "Glow-Bal" sphere pendants - but it was the Fiesta series (at right) that really caught our eye with its distinctive cylinder-in-a-cylinder design, mix-and-match color palette, and creative configuration options.

Rocket Science

Satellite mid-century fixtures are named after--you guessed it--satellites. Little did we know how prophetic our choice of "Corona " would be. Corona was the code name for the world's first spy satellite. Apparently, the Corona project failed 12 straight times. The 13th launch worked, but that flight lacked a camera, so it wasn't until the 14th mission in August of 1960 that Corona snapped its photos of Soviet missile sites.

Unlike launching satellites, reproducing light fixtures isn't rocket science--or so we thought. Our own Corona development project pretty much mirrored the original one, as the nifty perforated aluminum cylinder turned out to be a sourcing and manufacturing nightmare. After about a dozen of our own failures, we too finally launched our Corona.