Las Vegas

Kristin and I travelled to Las Vegas in 2013 – we had always said Las Vegas was somewhere we would like to visit if there was ever a reason to travel there.  We thought this would be a wedding, or maybe a bachelor/bachelorette party.  But the occasion that brought us to Las Vegas was Johnny Marr, who was kicking off his first solo tour.  And on the first night of his tour he was opening for New Order.  That was definitely worth flying thousands of miles across the country.

While there we did the usual tourist activities – walked the strip (worse than Times Square on St. Patty’s), toured some of the hotels (which were very impressive), hit the casinos (penny slots, really – not big gamblers – but free drinks!!), and then hit up the original strip on Fremont Street.  After the strip we headed up to the Neon Museum, which is about a 15 minute walk.

The Neon Museum was founded in 1996 to help capture the history of Las Vegas – sadly, when older casinos closed the neon art that lit up the strip were usually destroyed as there was no place to store and repair the massive signs – the most cited case of this was the Sands Hotel, which closed in 1995.  Despite efforts to save it, the iconic neon sign was destroyed.

Another sad fate for other signs was to rot way in YESCO’s boneyard – YESCO is one of the largest manufacturer of neon signs and are responsible for some of the most iconic neon signs in Las Vegas.  Some signs, when taken out of commission, would make their way to YESCO’s boneyard, a large open aired lot where the Neon Museum sits.

The collection is quite impressive with some humble creations, like the orange head in the second image, and some more famous like the Caesar’s Palace sign and the Silver Slipper of Howard Hughes fame.  Supposedly he purchased The Silver Slipper Casino as he feared a photographer could photograph him in his suite at the Frontier next door.  He requested that the sign be turned off several times but the owners of the Silver Slipper refused – so he bought the hotel.