Las Vegas of YesterYear

January 23, 2009

Here are some more memories of the Las Vegas of our collective memory. Please feel free to share your thoughts and memories with us!

There used to be a magazine called "Your Host in Las Vegas". These ads are from the June 1950 edition. The magazines were in all the hotel rooms and you could make notes on the bottom of the page of when you visted the places.

It's been there off Boulder Highway for over seventy years. Back in 1950 you could eat there for $1.50. Today, you can probably have all you can eat for under $10. Notice the diary at the bottom so you could take the magazine home with you and have a souvenir of your trip!

Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn was one of the poshest places to stay on the Las Vegas Strip back in the day. Check out our history of the famed DI here:

http://tinyurl.com/ce75d5

The Modern West in Old West splendor. The famed Hotel Last Frontier and the Ramona Room. The Harmonicats, a mouth organ trio, were a staple on the Las Vegas Strip of the 1950s. They rose to fame on their cover of "Peg O' My Heart" in 1947.

Learn more about the Harmonicats here:

http://www.harmonicats.com/mlwkjrnl.htm

Learn more about the history of the Hotel Last Frontier here:

http://tinyurl.com/b4rtd4

The Golden Nugget was a paen to the famed days of San Francisco and the Barbary Coast. With it's beautiful bullnose front and its Victorian-era flasher bulb sign that seemed to hang in the air with no support, the Golden Nugget reminded one and all of Las Vegas's frontier past.

Learn more about the Golden Nugget here:

http://tinyurl.com/bz5cph

Learn more about the Golden Nugget signage here:

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/classic-las-vegas-neon-designe/

My thanks to my friend Genevieve in Atlanta for passing this great magazine along to me!

Las Vegas: A random group of memories

January 17, 2009

Here are some photos that I came across when cleaning out my office. I'll be posting more over the weekend. Feel free to leave comments about these pieces of Las Vegas history, especially those that aren't there anymore.

The Horseshoe Club in 1999

The Horseshoe Club neon front in 1999

Fallout Shelter sign from the 1950s used to be on a side street in Downtown

RoadsidePictures says this sign was destroyed a few years ago. It used to be on Third Street.

Used to be on the side entrance to the Horseshoe Club before it became Binion's.

The Green Shack signs before they were torn down. The Cocktails sign is now in the Neon Museum boneyard.

Mid-Century Home in the Scotch Eighties

Another mid-century modern home in the Scotch Eighties

Motel neon sign that was part of the Algiers

Las Vegas Tropicana is closing the Folies Bergere

January 15, 2009

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau

Photo courtesy of As We Knew It

Word comes this morning from Norm! at the Las Vegas Review Journal that the Tropicana Hotel is closing its famed "Folies Bergere" show after an amazing (by Las Vegas standards) 49 year run.

The show will close on March 28

The cast was informed Wednesday night and the Tropicana released a statement today.

The Parisian revue opened on Dec. 24, 1959, under entertainment director, Lou Walters, father of broadcasting icon Barbara Walters.

"Folies Bergere enjoyed an amazing and unprecedented run on the Las Vegas Strip," said Ron Thacker, Tropicana Las Vegas President. "We are extremely proud to have been part of such an iconic Las Vegas production and offer a sincere thank you to the cast, crew and support staff for their many years of excellence."

The Tropicana management is currently in discussion with prominent producers and will reveal its definitive plans for the Tiffany Theater in the coming weeks, the release said.

This leaves Balley's "Jubilee" as the last of the iconic showgirl revues on the Strip.

Photo courtesy of UNLV Special Collections

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau

Frazier Hall has been destroyed

January 5, 2009

It was the first building on the campus of Nevada Southern University. It was designed by famed Las Vegas architects Zick and Sharp. It was named for a woman who made education her cause, Maude Frazier. She is beloved by the many people who knew her, were influenced by her education first cause and who had better lives for coming under her tutelage.

For the last year and a half, preservationists have been trying to save Maude Frazier Hall from the wrecking ball. The majority of colleges around the country usually save the first building that was built on their campus. Many see it as a timeline and a yard stick for how far a college has come from its humble beginnings. Whether small or large, well-known or not, colleges usually take pride in preserving and utilizing their first campus building.

Well, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (formerly Nevada Southern University) is not in that league. They are in a league of their own. Word has just come from FCLV member Dennis McBride that UNLV is in the process of tearing down Frazier Hall. Dennis says that the majority of students and employees on campus had no idea the demolition was taking place today.

FCLV member Mary Martinez, Anthropology instructor Heidi Swank, the Atomic Age Alliance, Thalia Dondero, Jack LeVine, Donna Andress and the alumni of Las Vegas High are all to be commended for their efforts in trying to save this important building.

I 'd be willing to bet there is no joy in Las Vegas preservation circles this afternoon.