Tag Archives: neon

Las Vegas Relics Get Rebirth

No, mobsters are not being dug up.  (Have they really left?)  Regardless, located behind chain-link fences, rests 150 relics of vintage Las Vegas.  The relics belong to the Neon Museum, which has been collecting old neon signs since 1996 and showcasing them throughout the city and at its Neon Boneyard. 

But with no place to adequately display its vast collection, the Neon Museum for five years has been forced to operate on an appointment-only basis. 

That has all started to change this week with construction starting on the Neon Boneyard Park. 

The park will be located on the corner of McWilliams Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard and will back up to what is now part of the Neon Boneyard. 

The $1.9 million improvement project will jumpstart a sluggish Las Vegas economy and be located along the section of Las Vegas Boulevard that was recently designated a National Scenic Byway and is at the heart of the Las Vegas cultural corridor.  

The project includes the development of the half-acre park and paving part of the Neon Boneyard for a parking lot. The Bureau of Land Management funding the project. 

When the park is completed, visitors will find landscaping, benches, picnic tables, a stage and informational kiosks. 

A sign made up of replicas of old neon letters will welcome visitors to the new park.  The company building the sign, Federal Heath, chose iconic letters from the old Horseshoe, Desert Inn, Caesars Palace and Golden Nugget signs to spell out the word “neon” in LED lighting. 

The Neon Boneyard will move across McWilliams Avenue, behind the restored La Concha Motel lobby, which will serve as the visitor center. 

The change will allow the Neon Museum to better serve visitors, expand public hours and operate under a general admission format, rather than visitors making appointments for tours. 

In light of the construction, the Boneyard is now closed to the public temporarily but will reopen in the spring for modified tours. The new facility should be up and running by the summer.

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Silver Slipper Gets New Las Vegas Home

The famous neon slipper once sat atop of the historic Silver Slipper Gambling Hall, a part of the Last Frontier Village, a replica of an old western town that was once located on Las Vegas Boulevard in Las Vegas.  

Silver Slipper neon signAlthough the Silver Slipper opened in 1950, the sign did not go up until the 1960s. The Last Frontier became the New Frontier, which was eventually absorbed into the Frontier. The slipper was designed by Jack Larsen, Sr., a designer at Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO). The sign is 12 feet high and 17 feet wide. The slipper’s main body contains 900 incandescent light bulbs, with about 80 more in the bow. 

The slipper is part of Las Vegas’ $1.1 million Neon Sign Improvement Project that includes three vintage neon signs placed in the heart of the Cultural Corridor.  It was refurbished and set into place on the median island of Las Vegas Boulevard, located just south of Washington Avenue in what is called the Cultural Corridor of Las Vegas by eight workers from Ultra Signs on Sunday, Sept. 20, 2009 at approximately 11 p.m. after first being refurbished by Rafael Construction. 

The slipper is the last of three Las Vegas vintage signs to be set in place on the corridor, following the Bow & Arrow Motel sign set into place north of Bonanza on Aug. 24 and, a week later, by the installation of Binion’s Horseshoe sign north of Washington Avenue.  New landscaped median islands are also being installed. 

City crews will now work to provide power and conduct a series of tests prior to the signs being officially put into service. 

The cultural corridor is made up of the highest concentration of cultural institutions in Las Vegas and includes Cashman Center, the Las Vegas Library, the Las Vegas Natural History Museum, Lied Discovery Children’s Museum, The Neon Museum, the Old Las Vegas Mormon Fort State Historic Park and the Reed Whipple Cultural Center.

Please watch the video of the installation:

http://video214.com/play/0IFyBBBcRJhslXBK3V5KOw/s/dark/

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Neon Planned Outage on Las Vegas Strip

It’s a very rare occurrence when Las Vegas Strip neon marquees intentionally go dark.  The odds are better for hittingearthhour a Megabucks jackpot.  But on a usually bustling Saturday night, March 28, at 8:30 p.m. local time, running for one hour, Las Vegas casinos, businesses, and residents are being asked and urged to turn off their lights and join 240 cities in 70 countries in support of a global call for action on climate change. 

The event marks one of the few times Strip lights have been darkened for specific occasions, such as the deaths of presidents and entertainers.   The last time was for the funeral of iconic entertainer and Las Vegas resident Robert Goulet on November 9, 2007. 

The World Wildlife Fund is asking all businesses, government agencies, and individuals to dim or turn off lights for their Earth Hour event.   Las Vegas has been designated as a flagship city.  Earth Hour will begin in Fiji, in the Southwest Pacific, and will move across our planet, culminating on the West Coast of the United States.

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