Las Vegas, NV #2

GET-YUR-MOTOR-RUNNIN'  ROAD TRIP

(Astoria - Santa Fe - Death Valley - Astoria)

Las Vegas, Nevada
November 6, 2013  (Day 23 of 44)

Trip Miles: 2,825

Click on Photos For Larger Image
All images (except La Concha Motel) © 2014 Leon Jackson. All Rights Reserved

Boots & More (Or Less)

Las Vegas Boulevard is a great place to people and minion watch. [flickr] 

Vegas Mural
This mural by Andre "Dray" Wilmore on the L.A. Street Market building faces the Neon Museum.  [flickr]

Neon Museum:

Neon signs were introduced in Las Vegas in 1929 at the Oasis Café on Fremont Street, and enjoyed their heyday between the 1930s to 1980s. But as LED and LCD screens began taking over the Las Vegas Strip, many of the old neon signs were removed. About twenty years ago, the Allied Arts Council and Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO), the manufacturer responsible for creating a number of the city's neon pieces, began collecting and preserving old neon signs. The Neon Museum was officially established in 1996 when the city allocated space for the Neon Boneyard. YESCO then donated its retired signs to the museum.

About forty percent of the Neon Museum's collection originated from YESCO, and items from newly imploded or remodeled properties are added continually. The Neon Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, studying and exhibiting iconic Las Vegas signs. The Neon Museum visitors’ center is housed inside the former La Concha Motel lobby.  (Neon Museum Rating = A)

The distinctive shell-shaped La Concha Motel (1961-2003) building was designed by architect Paul Williams. Williams also designed the first LAX theme building. The motel is considered one of the best-preserved examples of 1950's Googie architecture. Googie architecture is futurist architecture influenced by car culture, jets, the space age, and the atomic age. Originating in Southern California during the late 1940s and continuing into the mid-1960s, Googie-themed architecture was popular among motels, coffee houses and gas stations. The La Concha lobby was saved from demolition in 2005 and moved in 2006 to its current location to serve as the museum’s visitors’ center. 

Restored Neon
The Neon Museum saved part of the La Concha Motel sign.  [flickr]

Quacking Neon
This 2-sided neon duck is from the now-closed Ugly Duckling Car Sales lot on the Boulder Highway in Las Vegas. Now it is part of the collection in the Boneyard at the Neon Museum.  [flickr]

Boneyard at L'Heure Bleue
Old sign from Binyon's Horseshoe Casino was saved, and is displayed in the Neon Museum Boneyard.  [flickr] 

Binyon's Horseshoe Casino:

Benny Binion bought the Eldorado Club and Apache Hotel on Fremont Street in 1951, re-opening them as Binion's Horseshoe. It was the first casino to have carpeting, as well as comps that were offered to all gamblers. Benny believed that small-time gamblers should get the same comps as those who bet big money. Binion also instituted high table limits. When he first opened the Horseshoe, he set the craps table limit at $500—ten times higher than any other casino in Las Vegas at the time. Ultimately, Binion's raised the table limit to $10,000 and even eliminated table limits completely at times, which was an immediate hit. Unlike other casinos, the emphasis at Binion's was on gambling, not on big performing acts. The casino was also very egalitarian; there were no private pits for high rollers. Binion's entire family was involved in the casino. His wife Teddy Jane managed the casino cage until her death in 1994. His sons, Jack and Ted, supervised the games. His daughter, Becky, managed the kitchen. 

Benny served time in Leavenworth Penitentiary from 1953 to 1957 for tax evasion. He sold his share of the casino to fellow gambler Joe W. Brown in order to pay approximately $5 million in legal costs. It was generally understood, however, that Brown was only a caretaker, and Benny regained controlling interest in 1957. Binyon did not regain full control, however, until 1964. In 1970, Jack Binion began hosting the World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe. Eventually, it became the largest poker tournaments in the world. 

Ted Binion was under constant scrutiny from the Nevada Gaming Commission from 1986 onward for drug problems and associating with known mob figure "Fat Herbie" Blitzstein. In 1998, Ted was stripped of his gaming license for his continued association with Blitzstein, and forced to sell his interest to his sister, Becky.

Silver Slipper

With 980 lights, this 12-by-17-foot three-dimensional rotating shoe was the icon of the Silver Slipper Gambling Hall (1950-1988). In 1968, the Silver Slipper was purchased by Howard Hughes for $5.4 million in his famous spending spree of buying Vegas properties. Legend has it that Hughes purchased the Silver Slipper because the lights from the rotating slipper bothered him. This was a time when Mr. Hughes feared for his safety, and because the toe of the slipper always stopped and faced the window of his Desert Inn penthouse before rotating again, he feared a camera could be planted in the toe either by the government or someone else. After several attempts at requesting that the slipper be turned off, Hughes purchased the casino, turned off the lights and had the rotating mechanism dismantled. In 2009, the Silver Slipper sign was restored and is now part of a display of vintage signs in the median along Las Vegas Boulevard North.  [flickr]

Old-School Vegas

The El Cortez Hotel & Casino, located on Fremont Street in old downtown Las Vegas, is the longest continuously running hotel and casino in Vegas. El Cortez opened in 1941, and was purchased in 1945 by mobsters Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Gus Greenbaum, and Moe Sedway.  [flickr]

Tomorrow:

Mary and I are heading to Death Valley by way of Pahrump, Nevada.

Las Vegas Rating = B+