Lost Vagus

 

Circa Mega Bar mixologist making

Irish Car Bombs (I politely declined)

Neon Boneyard-Golden Nugget (our hotel)

Illuminating Fremont Street. The “1905” on the Golden Nugget sign pays tribute to the founding year of Las Vegas. Designer Kermit Wayne wrapped the Golden Nugget building in neon and incandescent light bulbs, a concept which became known as the “decorated shed.” Kermit Wayne (1914 -1993) was a designer for the Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) who created the 1958 Stardust sign and the 1961 Golden Nugget sign. Guy McAfee (1888 -1960) was a former Los Angeles police officer and gambler who came to Las Vegas in the 1930s. He nicknamed “The Strip” after the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles and opened the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street in 1946.

Joe and Paul got a singing telegram to celebrate their birthdays 

Neon Boneyard-Ugly Duckling Car Sales

The Ugly Duckling Car Sales sign is an example of a double-sided sign that includes detailed neon work and metal channelling. When the sign is lit, the channels, or metal dividers, keep the different colors from blending together, ensuring a crisp and clear view. This sign is one of the youngest in the collection, dating to the 1990s.

Neon Boneyard-The Green Shack

“Cocktails, Steak and Chicken,” let you know what was on the menu at the Green Shack restaurant making this simple sign effective and visible from a distance. The sign is one of the oldest in the collection dating to the mid to late 1930s. 

The Green Shack was one of the local businesses that catered to Boulder (Hoover) Dam workers in the 1930s. Around 21,000 men were employed by the construction project. Many of these workers lived in Boulder City which is located about 30 miles from Las Vegas.

Is it though?

One way of looking at it

Imagine a sonic thumping bass and a scene like this filled with wall to wall people, posing/drinking/shouting, and paying $20 for the privilege of just standing there.

I tried to photograph the pink Cadillacs and a wedding got in the way

Neon Boneyard

Neon Boneyard-Aladdin’s lamp

This lamp dates to 1976. It sat atop a large readerboard until 1998, when the hotel was imploded to make way for a new Aladdin resort. The new Aladdin was replaced by Planet Hollywood in 2007.

Dan Edwards worked as a sign designer for Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) branches in Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, and Reno. His Las Vegas credits include the 1976 Aladdin’s lamp and signs for Circus Circus and the Sahara hotel.
Elvis Aaron Presley (1935-1977) known as the 'King of Rock and Roll' became synonymous with Las Vegas due to his starring role in the movie 'Viva Las Vegas' and his many performances at the International Hotel. He famously married his wife Priscilla at the Aladdin in 1967.

Neon Boneyard-The Lido and 

Golden Nugget (in background)

Neon Boneyard-Silver Slipper

View from Legacy Club at the Circa

Joe enjoying dessert at Vic & Anthony’s

Neon Boneyard sign detail

Neon Boneyard- Steiner’s Happy Shirt

This sign is from Steiner Cleaners, a local business. Its design was inspired by the owner Herman Steiner’s daughter. She sketched a “happy” shirt and he had it made into this sign.
This area includes a sign created in 2019 for the museum’s exhibition with filmmaker Tim Burton titled Lost Vegas. In Burton's 1988 film "Beetlejuice," the main characters meet at a flashing Betelgeuse sign.  This sign was created exclusively for Lost Vegas and designed to look like a 30-year-old relic found amongst the other disused signs in the Neon Boneyard. 

LV Starbucks in Art District 

Neon Boneyard-a truly iconic sign

Paul Miller of Ad-Art designed the 1968 Stardust sign. 

The futuristic Stardust letters helped convey the resort’s outer-space theme. In 1968, Ad-Art company installed the Stardust’s new roadside sign which was the tallest in the world at 188-feet. Sections of that sign are on display behind the red letters.

The Stardust opened in 1958 as the largest and last resort built on the Las Vegas Strip during the boom of the 1950s. The resort’s space-age design was likely inspired from the news headlines, as the Soviet Union had launched the Sputnik satellite the year before, kick-starting the Space Race.

Neon Boneyard- hotel advertising color TV. 

I remember these signs!

Morton Salt Girl on a mural, Art District 

Jim Brown from the Boston office, making a toast

It’s never a party until Joe stands on his head to drink upside down

Neon Boneyard-The Riviera

The Strip’s first high-rise. 
The Riviera operated on the Strip from 1955 – 2015 and this red sign was among the first to be donated to the museum in working condition. The blue and white Riviera stars were part of a wall-mounted neon façade created by designer Marge Williams of Federal Sign.

Mural and Moto

This one’s for Ettore

Neon Boneyard-Louis Prima (1910-1978) was a jazz performer known for his trumpeting and singing. 

In the 1950s he and his wife singer Keely Smith

 (1928-2017) became a popular draw in the showroom at the Sahara Hotel.

Neon Boneyard-Binion’s Sassy Sally’s

Can you see the dollar signs?   
The Sassy Sally’s sign was created in the 1980s. Take a look inside the sign. Do you see the wire mesh netting? This conservation measure helps protect the sign from damage by preventing birds from nesting inside. 

Neon Boneyard-Doc & Eddy’s Pool Player

A beautifully detailed sculptural sign. 

Functioning as a sculptural sign, Doc & Eddy’s pool hall is represented by a giant man shooting pool. Its creator, J.P. Pendergrass, welded steel plates together to form this detailed figure. Take a look at the Pool Player’s left leg and you will see that the artist signed and dated his work, something sign designers rarely did. J.P. Pendergrass created the Pool Player in 1983.  

Artist J. P. Pendergrass is a metal sculptor originally from Billings, Montana. In the 1980s he designed pool player sculptures for the Doc & Eddy’s chain 

of billiard halls.

At Legacy Club

Neon Boneyard-Part of Moulin Rouge enormous sign

Las Vegas’ first major integrated casino. 
The Moulin Rouge opened in 1955 as the first major racially integrated casino in Las Vegas. In 1960, local civil rights leaders met at the hotel with city officials where they reached the Moulin Rouge Agreement that led to the desegregation of Las Vegas hotels. Today the sign is one of the only surviving pieces from the property.
The elegant script was designed by Betty Willis, one of the few prominent women sign designers, who also created the famous ‘Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas’ sign. Betty Willis (1923-2015) was one of the only women employed in the sign industry during the 1950s. She is most well-known for designing the 'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign as well as signs for the Moulin Rouge and the Blue Angel Motel.
Dr. James McMillan (1917-1999) was a civil rights pioneer and Nevada’s first African-American dentist. As president of the local chapter of the NAACP in 1960, McMillan planned to hold a protest march on the Strip, an action that led to the Moulin Rouge Agreement ending racial segregation at most Las Vegas hotels.
Charles I. West (1908-1984) was the first African-American physician in Southern Nevada and a civil rights leader. In 1960, West, along with Dr. James McMillan and other Westside community leaders, was instrumental in formulating the Moulin Rouge Agreement that helped end hotel

segregation in Las Vegas.

Elvis everywhere 

Neon Boneyard-The Red Barn

A gathering place for the LGBTQ community. In the 1960s, the Red Barn bar catered to straight customers during the day, but served a largely gay clientele at night. By the early 1970s it had evolved into one of the few openly gay bars in Las Vegas. Albert ‘Bert’ Hood (1930 –2006) was a prominent member of the Las Vegas LGBTQ community and owner of the Red Barn bar. In 1972, Hood converted the Red Barn into a full-time gay bar, making it one of the most popular LGBTQ venues in the area.

Neon Boneyard-Fitzgerald’s detail

One of the Boneyard’s brightest. 
A rebranded, Irish-themed Fitzgeralds Casino opened in 1987. One of the last owners of the property was Don Barden, who was among the first African American casino owners in the country. The sign adorned the corner entrance to the property alongside the oversized Mr. O’Lucky the leprechaun and a pot of gold.

Elvis chapel

Art District 

Neon Boneyard-MOT is missing EL

Neon Boneyard-part of collection

The Neon Museum’s largest restoration project. The Hard Rock Café debuted just off the Las Vegas Strip along Paradise Road in 1990. Modeled after a Gibson Les Paul played by Pete Townshend of The Who, it stood for 26 years before being taken down in 2017. The restored sign consists of approximately 4,110 feet of neon tubing, which is over ¾ of a mile. The Hard Rock Café guitar restoration was made possible by generous donors from around the world contributing $350,000 to restore the sign and provide for its ongoing care.  The Hard Rock Café (1990-2016) in Las Vegas originally opened on Harmon and Paradise in 1990 and closed in 2016. The guitar sign was then donated and restored by YESCO (Young Electric Sign Company). The new Hard Rock Café on the Strip opened in 2009.

Best tacos in LV must be true—even this pristine roadster became a table

Neon Boneyard-House of Cards detail

Neon Boneyard-Wedding Info sign

Las Vegas becomes a wedding destination. By the 1940s, Las Vegas had become a destination for those seeking quick weddings and divorces due to the state’s looser marriage and divorce laws. This directional sign showcases a fishtail arrow that was part of the signage for the Ali Baba Wedding Center located near McCarran Airport. Wedding Information is a good example of a modest and direct design.  Ali Baba’s Motel and Wedding Center was located on Las Vegas Boulevard from the late 1970s until around 1990. Later renamed the Laughing Jackalope, the motel was closed and demolished sometime after 2000.

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Although I’m tickled to be included on company trips, especially if it’s somewhere warmer than Minnesota, I’ve yet to find my jam in Las Vegas. I love the kitschy stuff, and I should’ve planned better to get out for hikes to Red Rocks and Valley of Fire (they’re at least a half hour Uber ride; almost an hour to the trailhead), or to Meow Wolf (equally far). But it’s not easy. It’s a place for gambling, drinking, no clocks, no windows (except some lounges), no masks, and smoking smoking smoking. It’s loud. I mean REALLY LOUD. A lot of thumping bass on stereo, drunk people whose volume goes up as the drinks go down, every type of smell you can imagine and a few you probably cannot, naked people on the sidewalk, state fair-esque wardrobes on the clothed. The Strip is more polished, faux elegant, and maybe quieter than downtown, but gambling and pricey food are still the top notes.

And I’m the freak. Truly.

People all around me are getting into the groove of things, dancing on (yep, on) the bar at 2:00 am, having a great time! What’s wrong with me? Answer option: I’m not 18 any more. My 18-year-old self might’ve joined in more. At least I was a smoker back then.

But, as I said, I need to plan better. There is a lot I could do, but it is not what’s at hand downtown or even walkable from downtown. If the firm returns here for their annual trip, I will do my homework ahead of time, because the area skirting the gambling mecca is quite stunning.

Until then, I’ll rest up from this trip!