While the dust settles a
bit on Colectiva, we finally found the time to visit a Vegas icon that we had
on our “to do” list for quite some time. Near Cashman Field on Las Vegas
Boulevard sits the old check in lobby from the La Concha Hotel, which now houses
the visitor center for The Neon Museum of Las Vegas.
If you do decide to
check this gem out, the best thing to do is get tickets online at their
website. They only do docent guided tours every half hour, but they are limited
in group size and tend to get full. You can just show up and get a ticket for
the next available tour, but that might be an hour or two off before an opening
is available.
Christine is a volunteer
guide, and gave us some great Vegas history lessons as we toured the grounds. For
decades, this has been known locally as the “bone yard”. As signs were taken
down anywhere in the valley, they were stored here – partly because of the
environmental issues and partly because of a foundation whose long-term plan
included the idea of restoring some of these beauties to their original
elegance. Thanks to those visionaries, we can still wander through the glitzy
past of tinsel town.
Having visited Vegas a
fair bit over the decades, most of what we saw was immediately recognizable to
me. The pink neon from the Flamingo Hilton – the monstrous red H from Binion’s
Horseshoe – the marquee from the Golden Nugget which all the experts admit
created the most luminescence of any neon display ever in the city. A stroll
through this graveyard brings back warm, long forgotten memories, and reinforces
that what happens here does really stay here.
We also learned some
tidbits that were new to us. We got some history on the Company’s that created
this art, the leader being the Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO), a Salt Lake
City based firm that dominated this era in Vegas. We saw the Elvis-esque pool
shooter sign from the original Doc and Eddy’s Pool Hall on Arville. We learned
that the El Portal, now a souvenir shop, was the original downtown movie theater,
known for creating weather. In a time before air conditioning was invented, the
El Portal would bring in huge blocks of ice and large swamp fans, blowing the
air over the ice with the fans, and cooling off their patrons.
While I was only able to
make it there once before it closed, the Green Door was a fixture along Fremont
Street. In 1930 while the dam was under construction, since there was no gaming
in the town of Boulder City, the construction workers would use what little
time off they had to blow their paychecks in Vegas. Fremont Street at that time
was the only way from Vegas to Boulder City, and an enterprising mom opened up
the back door of her home to the traveling horde. Since it was the time of
prohibition, she offered only two menu items – fried chicken and moonshine –
the workers in a hurry to get to the tables would stop at her green door, get
their booze and a quick, delicious meal at a good price, with very little time
lost from their main mission – the gambling.
The Tropicana, the
Frontier, the Stardust, the Las Vegas Club, the Aladdin, the Liberace Museum,
the Moulin Rouge, and any number of properties that I didn't even recognize all
have some of their history here. They even offer a night tour here where those
signs that they have managed to find the money to restore are electrified. If
we find ourselves in the desert for a bit, I suspect we will take in a night
tour someday as well.
Talk to
you next time we are on the road again, which we hope is soon!
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