The idea of a neon sign museum for Las Vegas was conceived many years ago by two cultural arts organizations, the "Allied Arts Council", and the "Southern Nevada Cultural Arts Foundation". Neither, however, were able to bring the project to reality due to lack of both funding and manpower.
Since the City of Las Vegas took over the project last year, the museum has developed to a point of virtual certainty.
The "Historic Preservation Commission" was created by the City of Las Vegas in the early 1990s to call attention to, preserve, and restore Las Vegas' historic sites and artifacts. In 1994, the city charged the Commission with the task of bringing a neon sign museum into being.
Chuck Baker currently serves as the Commission's Chairman, an unpaid and voluntary position, as are all Commission seats. All members have interests and backgrounds in art, history, museum curatorship, and share a common interest in preserving the history of this remarkable city.
The most likely location for the museum will be near the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, the Lied Discovery Children's Museum, the Las Vegas/Clark County Library, and Cashman Field Center, a multi-purpose meeting and convention hall. This cultural corridor lies just north of downtown Las Vegas.
The museum's purpose is to preserve a vital part of the history of Las Vegas, spark further interest in the community history, attract new tourism, and display historical works of sign art for public enjoyment. It will offer a history of Las Vegas art in signage. Most of the signs will be easily remembered by people who have been coming to Las Vegas for many decades. Now these tourists, visitors, and residents alike will be able to learn first-hand about the people and the craft which brought those signs into being.
PREMIER SIGNMAKERS IN LAS VEGAS HISTORY
It was the summer of 1945. W.W.II was beginning to wind down and Dick Porter, a young Canadian in Vancouver, B.C., was just about to be discharged from the Canadian Navy. Before enlisting Porter had been a sign designer, so he placed a classified ad in the August issue of SIGNS OF THE TIMES for work designing signs.
The ad brought him nine responses, he recalls, and he accepted one of them, an offer from a man named Bill Keurt of Nevada Outdoor Advertising. Keurt wanted him to come to Las Vegas to design and build the original Golden Nugget sign.
After completing the Golden Nugget project Porter went back to Canada but soon returned to work for Nevada Outdoor again. He had fallen in love with Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada desert, and has made Las Vegas his home ever since.
Porter recalls that one day in 1951, Tom Young, Sr., a well-known signmaker from Salt Lake City, Utah, knocked on Nevada Outdoor Advertising's office door and wound up buying the company. Dick Porter followed Tom Young, Sr. and went to work for Young Electric Sign Co., which was to grow into YESCO, one of the largest signmakers in the world.
Just about anyone who has ever visited Las Vegas can recall one of Porter's more rememberable work. The Union 76 gas station on the Strip just before Tropicana Avenue still displays his famous FREE ASPIRIN AND TENDER SYMPATHY sign. It has been seen by literally millions of visitors since it was erected in the early 1950's.
During his tenure at YESCO, Porter also designed and created the signs for the Moulin Rouge, the Liberace Museum, the Plush Horse, the Keg In The Bottle, 5th Street Liquors, and worked on other projects for just about every hotel and casino in Las Vegas.
Over forty years later, eighty-one year old Porter is delighted at the prospect of a sign museum to display Las Vegas' historical signage. He is emphatic when he says that signs are indeed works of art and deserve to be appreciated as much as a Monet or Dali. Porter's age does not prevent him from practicing his first love. He still designs signs and paints fine art in Las Vegas.
Porter, along with Jack Larsen Sr., Buzz Leming, Raoul Rodriquez, Betty Willis and Ben Mitchum rank among the premier signmakers in Las Vegas's unique history. Between them they have created most of the signage that defines Las Vegas' history.
Buzz Leming alone is responsible for over thirty-eight major hotel designs, and still is active with SSI, another major Las Vegas sign company. The Flamingo's world-famous convex/concave flower petal marquee was created and designed by Raoul Rodriguez.
Betty Willis, another long-time Las Vegas resident and sign designer for Ad Art, created the brilliant white Silver Slipper Gambling Hall sign. Willis' original "Welcome To Las Vegas" sign which still sits at the south end of the strip greeting tourists from California as it has for many decades.
Willis, who modestly claims to be no more than a "production artist who works on design changes" is noted by many in the sign industry to be among the major contributors to Las Vegas signage history. The first sign she worked on in Las Vegas was the original sweeping El Rancho Vegas sign at the corner of the Strip and Sahara Blvd. "Everybody wanted one like it when it was done." she recalls, chuckling.
Jack Larsen, Sr., another octogenarian sign designer and top notch cartoonist, started his career as an animator for Walt Disney, but left to work for YESCO in their Salt Lake City operation. He eventually moved to Las Vegas in 1951. "It was Disney's loss," said Dick Porter, "and our gain."
Jack, whose brother, Ray, owns and runs Larsen Sign, another major Las Vegas signmaker, is best remembered for his work at the former Dunes Hotel. Jack recalls creating the unique tall Arabian sheik that greeted visitors coming into Las Vegas on I-15. The 36 foot tall sheik with arms akimbo and cape flowing, was made of fiberglass layered over rabbit-hutch wire formed ad hoc over a steel frame. Sadly, the sheik died a fiery death when, many years later, a homeless man sought shelter under its cape and accidently started a conflagration trying to keep warm.
Jack Larsen's first job in Las Vegas was the outside sign for Sam Boyd's California Hotel. Jack designed the sign and his brother, Ray, sold it to Sam Boyd, Sr. Since then they have done virtually all the signage for Boyd's hotels.
Other masterpieces credited to Jack Larsen are the Gold Strike Inn on the road to Boulder Dam, the Palace Station's unique locomotive design, the Silver Slipper's rotating dance slipper, and the facades at Whiskey Pete's and the Nevada Landing Casino. Jack is retired but still keeps his hand warm creating portraits of famous celebrities and sketching cartoons, which hang in galleries throughout the Southwest.
All these designers and artists, to a one, are delighted with the concept of a sign museum in Las Vegas. And well they should be. After years and decades, they are finally coming into public recognition as true artists with the development of a sign museum in which to exhibit their work.
THE LOOK, TOUCH AND FEEL OF SIGNAGE
Plans are for the museum to be provide a multi-faceted look at the history of Las Vegas through its signage. It will be a major educational and entertainment attraction for all ages, residents and visitors alike. People who have come to Las Vegas for decades will fondly remember many of the signs the museum plans on displaying, such as the revolving slipper that sat atop Silver Slipper Gambling Hall and the old Golden Nugget sign. Non-gaming signs, such as the Lone Palm Motel and the Anderson Dairy milkman signs, both of which date back to the 1950s, will also be displayed in full array.
While having neon signage as a focus, the museum will encompass all types of historical signage relating to Las Vegas history. In the long term, the developers plan to work trades and loans with other museums of historical signs and displays. They would like to be able to draw signs from a diverse group of sources (i.e., signmakers, owners, historical societies, collectors, other museums, etc.) and keep the museum fresh and evolving.
While designs for the museum are currently tentative, the general thought is that the exterior of the building will be used to mount and display some of the larger signs, such as the Hacienda's huge gaucho horseman. Signs will be displayed both indoors and out, free-standing, wall-mounted, and hanging. Some will be modeled after the original facade the signs decorated. There is also talk of publishing a guide to existing historic signs which are still in use in Las Vegas.
The museum also plans to have interactive displays and demonstrations in such areas as signmaking and neon tube bending for the enjoyment and education of the public, and for preservation of the art. Plans include a photo gallery of historical signs and original sign artwork when it can be borrowed, bought or begged.
Lynette Boggs McDonald of Las Vegas' City Manager's office currently administers the project and is actively seeking the necessary funding through grants and private donations. These duties will eventually be turned over to a non-profit foundation specifically established to administer and curate the museum.
The concept of government in partnership with businesses has been a major thrust in Southern Nevada for a long time, and Las Vegas' success with this concept is readily apparent by the recent successful inauguration of the Fremont Street Experience.
Support for the museum is widespread, both within and without the community. Proposed architectural designs for the museum are being created by Rolando Arango, whose architectural design firm, CalSAE donated five hundred hours toward the museum project. CalSAE has been involved in the design of such projects as Pioneer Center in Seattle, Washington, University of Washington's Historical Canoe House, and many of the old Spanish missions throughout California.
Last October, the Sands Hotel catered Art Expo '95 at its Convention Center. The Expo, an annual charitable event, donated a large booth to the Commission, which put up a sign display that included the old Anderson Dairy milkman sign. Baker said they were all very happy since the booth generated a lot of publicity and interest. Over 90% of the booths at the Expo displayed fine art and the Commission's sign booth drew more than it's share of interest from the convention visitors. "Neon fit right in", Baker said. "The fine arts community seems to have embraced the art of neon. The response was great."
WHERE, OH WHERE, HAVE ALL THE SIGNS GONE?
YESCO (Young Electric Sign Company), the largest signbuilder in Southern Nevada, is a major contributors to this project. By and through its excellent designers and builders, YESCO has created many of Las Vegas' historic signs. Steve Weeks, a YESCO executive, confirms that the company has donated twenty-seven historic signs to the museum. These signs currently reside in their boneyard. Other historical signs are owned by Robert Tiberti of Tiberti Construction, who has also pledged his cooperation and support to the project. Still more old signs are owned by the Allied Arts Council and are stored at an outdoor site by the city's wastewater treatment plant. All are available for the museum.
Still other signs are in the hands of private collectors, who will be asked to donate or lend their signs to the museum. Many of these old signs sit outdoors. Fortunately, metal rusts slowly in the hot desert sun. Efforts have been launched to locate and rehabilitate many of these signs before it is too late.
Some of the signs will only need little work to refurbish. A coat of paint, some new wiring and whatnot perhaps. Others will need major renovation. Some are simply beyond reclamation. A few, such as the marquee sign from the old Sal Sagev Hotel (Las Vegas spelled backwards), seem to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
Virginia Hernandez, liaison between the Commission and the City Manager's office, asks Signs of the Times' readers who may know the whereabouts of any historical Las Vegas signage, to please contact her. Virginia's phone number is (702) 229-6501 and her mailing address is: City of Las Vegas, City Manager's Office, 400 East Stewart Avenue, Las Vegas, NV 89101.