Capturing Las Vegas while you can

When I was much younger while growing up in Las Vegas I never dreamed that the city I knew could change as much as it has. I always thought the front of Caesars would be turquoise and the Dunes sign would always being shooting neon into the sky. Even after we lost the train depot back in the late 1960s, it never dawned on me that one day we would lose the Mint, the original galaxy front of the Stardust and that many of original hotels that had been instrumental in the popularity and growth of the famed Strip would be erased from the landscape. It finally hit home when the Dunes was destroyed and the front of Caesars turned off the turquoise light and got rid of the Sarno block privacy screen in its march to become the Strip's version of the Winchester Mystery House.

I used to go to movies at the old Fox Plaza Theater in the Charleston Plaza Mall on East Charleston. I also was a regular customer at the Huntridge, the Red Rock (and watched it grow from its original size to 11 theaters or was it 15?  At least it had that old town square area and two theaters devoted to art films), the Parkway and the Cinerama Dome. With the exception of the Huntridge which is now closed, all the others are gone. It never crossed my mind that I should have been carrying a camera with me and photographing the places and architecture that I now miss and fondly remember. 

The motels on East Fremont and down Boulder Highway used to be one of the last bastions of post-World War II motel architecture still standing. With their delightful neon signs, they were affordable, had character and were family owned and operated back then. They began disappearing from Boulder Highway and the destruction has crept all the way up Fremont Street.

Glitter Gulch with its canyon of neon was a wonderful way to introduce Las Vegas to people. With its cavalcade of neon, movement and eye-popping colors, driving up Fremont Street was magical and guaranteed to impress even the most hardened Mid-Westerner or New Englander.

That damned canopy with its light show cannot even come close to capturing what made Fremont Street unique.

So much of Las Vegas has changed just in the last twenty years and a great deal of it has been destroyed or remodeled out of existence.

But, there are pockets of old Vegas still around. They might not be as evident as they once were and they might require a bit of research or driving around to find but they are still there.

So, now that smartphones come with good cameras, you have the opportunity to document the Las Vegas you love so that it isn't lost to history.

I only know of two people in the last twenty years who have made a concerted effort to do that, Allen Sandquist (aka RoadsidePictures on Flickr) and Joel Rosales of LostandFoundVegas.com. Both spent years photographing the disappearing history of Las Vegas. 

It's not too late to join them. Pick up your camera or your smartphone and start photographing the places and things you love about Las Vegas. Because, chances are, twenty years from now, they will no longer be there or be recognizable and trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Take a picture and post it our Facebook page along with why you think the place or sign is meaningful and share your memories with us!

Lost Vegas: We remember Foxy's

Legend has it that half the business deals in Las Vegas were done on Foxy's Deli napkins and a handshake during the late 1950s.

While that may be hard to understand today when looking at Las Vegas, back in the day it made perfect sense to almost everyone.

Foxy's Deli is one of those places that was vital to our history but, like the others in our "Lost Vegas" series, it no longer is part of our everyday Las Vegas lives.

Foxy's courtesy of Abe Fox and As We Knew It

Abe Fox opened Foxy's Deli in 1955 on the corner of San Francisco (Today, Sahara Blvd) and Las Vegas Blvd South. He had a 30 year lease from the property owners, the American Legion. Across from the deli was the San Francisco Square, a small shopping center. Kitty corner from Foxy's was the El Rancho Hotel and across San Francisco stood the Sahara Hotel. According to family lore, Fox had been given a tip that the San Francisco Square Shopping Center was going to open and realized that more traffic would be generated by the center. Not knowing much deli food, Fox went to Los Angeles' Fairfax district, studied Cantor's deli and came back to Las Vegas with an idea of what he wanted to serve.

When he opened Foxy's Deli, it quickly became a celebrity hangout. It was the only deli in town and it was open 24 hours a day. Fox said in an interview we did with him in 2003, "I threw away the key.". Once a year, during the slow period between Christmas and New Year's Eve, they would close to paint the restaurant.

The white neon fox that advertised the deli was designed by Dick Porter from an idea that Fox had for a logo.

The deli quickly became a success. With its affordable prices and good food, celebrities from back east now had some place good to order corn beef sandwiches and Jewish entertainers now had some place where they could order kosher style food.

Fox hit upon advertising along the highway that led into Las Vegas and people still remember seeing billboards along the old L.A. Highway (today the 15 freeway) reminding them that they were getting closer and closer to having a meal at Foxy's. He bought advertising on taxi cabs and on the radio.

Luckily for Abe, his food was as good as he claimed in the advertising. It was a meeting place not only for celebrities like Shecky Greene but men like Moe Dalitz as well as the movers and shakers of Las Vegas politics and real estate.

Liberace, who played the Riviera, often came in with his mother who loved the stuffed cabbage, Ann-Margaret and her husband, Roger Smith were big fans of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Louis Prima and Sam Butera often came over for breakfast after bringing the house down nightly in the Sahara's Casbah lounge,

When Nate King Cole began performing at the Sands he was unable to eat in the hotel, so Jack Entratter arranged for a trailer to be set up in the parking lot where Cole could relax between the dinner show and the late show. Abe Fox would deliver food to Cole's trailer.

When the color line was finally broken for good, the Mills Brothers became good customers.

But, Shecky Greene may have been one of Fox's favorite customers. "He was a maniac" Abe remembered, but they became very good friends. Others who frequented the deli include Betty Grable (her husband Harry James was often booked at the El Rancho Vegas across the street). Grable would go to the beauty salon next door and then come into Foxy's afterwards, preferring a booth in the back, where rumor has it, she used to bet the ponies.

Blackie Hunt and Sonny King were regulars. Singer/Songwriter Paul Williams has said he wrote the songs for the film, "Bugsy Malone"  sitting in a booth at Foxy's, drinking coffee for a week.

As the Strip began to change, (Fox pegged the change to Howard Hughes coming to town and the old guard selling out to the corportations), Fox saw the writing on the wall. Gone were the days when Las Vegas was just a small town where everybody knew one another. Performers were aging and his customer base was as well.

He sold Foxy's in 1975 and went into land speculation and real estate. He had quietly been buying land since the late 1950s.

Foxy's Firehouse opened where Foxy's Deli had once been. A small casino with gaming it lasted a few years.

Foxy's Firehouse courtesy of The Chip Guide

After that, it became the Holy Cow Brewery, the first microbrewery in Las Vegas. It was owned by Tom Wiesner's Big Dog Hospitality Group. The Holy Cow stayed in business until 2002, when it closed in the aftermath of tourism slowdown attributed to the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

The Holy Cow Brewery

After that, Ivana Trump painted the building black and pink and advertised that she was going to build a condo tower that would be better than Donald Trump's not too far up the road. But, the economic meltdown in 2007-2008 put the brakes on that.

Today, the corner sits vacant. Some of us like to think Abe Fox put a curse on it.

Here's to Foxy's Deli and all the wonderful history!

Please share your memories of Foxy's Deli with us!