Modeled after guitarist Pete Townshend’s custom-made Gibson Les Paul, this Hard Rock Café guitar signage is the first large neon guitar in the franchise’s history, manufactured by YESCO.
The property opened in 1990 on the corner of Paradise and Harmon. Upon closing in 2016, the guitar remained on the property until 2017 when it was “moved in six pieces over five days to its current, and permanent,” location. It was re-illuminated during a lighting ceremony on March 4, 2019, honoring the donors who helped make this restoration possible.
The Hard Rock Café guitar is the largest restored sign at The Neon Museum. Donors from around the world have contributed toward the $350,000 goal to cover the cost of the restoration and installation and to establish a fund for regular maintenance.
The Stardust was conceived by Tony Cornero, and construction began in 1954. Cornero died in 1955, and the project was taken over by his brother. The Stardust had numerous creditors, and construction was stopped in 1956, when the project ran out of money.
Rella Factor, the wife of John Factor, bought the Stardust in January 1958, and finished construction. The Stardust opened on July 2, 1958, as the world's largest hotel. The resort operated the off-site Stardust Country Club and the Stardust International Raceway during the 1960s, and in 1972, it became the first resort on the Las Vegas Strip to open an RV park for guests, a concept that proved to be popular.
After several ownership changes, Argent Corporation purchased the Stardust in 1974. Company executive Frank "Lefty" Rosenthal added a sportsbook in 1975 that would later become a popular attraction for the Stardust, and a model for future sportsbooks. In 1976, a state investigation found that a skimming operation was occurring at the Stardust and at Argent's other properties. Another investigation determined in 1983 that skimming was occurring at the Stardust again. The Nevada Gaming Commission concluded that Sachs and Tobman had failed to prevent the skimming, and the men agreed to sell the Stardust.
The Boyd family purchased it in 1985, and would retain ownership for the remainder of the resort's history. The Stardust had been one of the few Las Vegas Strip resorts without a high-rise hotel tower, until the Boyds added a 32-story tower in 1990. The original Stardust motel structures were demolished around 2000, to make way for an expansion of the resort, although the nine-story tower was kept.
Boyd Gaming announced in January 2006 that it would close and demolish the aging Stardust to build a new project, Echelon Place, on the site. The Stardust closed on November 1, 2006, and the two hotel towers were imploded on March 13, 2007. The resort had a popular roadside sign, which was given to the city's Neon Museum. Construction on the Echelon project was halted in 2008, because of financial problems caused by the Great Recession. Genting Group bought the Echelon project in 2013, and announced plans to finish it as Resorts World Las Vegas. It opened in 2021, after several delays.
The Stardust hosted numerous entertainers and shows throughout its history. At its opening, it debuted Lido de Paris, which featured topless showgirls. The show continued playing until 1991, when it was replaced by a modernized show known as Enter the Night. Wayne Newton was the resort's resident headliner from 2000 to 2005.
Famous Stardust Neon Sign, once the largest in the world.
This old sign, found in The Neon Museum, belonged to a family-owned electrical and plumbing company, Standard Wholesale Supply, which opened in 1939. Just painted, no neon (common in World War II-era advertising) it was one of few signs in Las Vegas featuring a clock... with a lady swinging on its pendulum.
Toy manufacturer Edwin S. Lowe originally opened the 450-room Tallyho Hotel on the property in 1962. The Tallyho was the only major hotel in Nevada to not include a casino; it closed at the end of the year and was sold to Kings Crown Inns of America, a hotel chain which reopened the property a month later as the King's Crown Tallyho. The company added a casino and showroom but plans to open the casino were halted when the Nevada Gaming Control Board declined to issue a gambling license because of concerns about the resort being inadequately financed.
Milton Prell purchased the hotel and began an extensive $3 million renovation of the property before reopening it as the Aladdin on April 1, 1966. A 19-story hotel tower was added in 1976. After various ownership changes, the Aladdin was closed in 1997 and demolished the following year to make room for a new Aladdin resort that opened in 2000.
The Aladdin Hotel was famous for Elvis Presley’s wedding to Priscilla in 1967.
This restored sign is from the former Liberace Museum, opened by Liberace himself in 1979, on East Tropicana and features his trademark piano and candelabra. The restoration process was featured in the Vegas PBS documentary “Restoration Neon.”
The property closed in 2010. The design is based on Liberace’s signature, originally a wall mounted sign from c. 1980, and restored by Jones Signs for the Shulman Family Foundation in the fall of 2014.
Located on the south end of Las Vegas Boulevard, near Harry Reid International Airport (formerly McCarran International Airport), this signage from the Ali Baba Wedding Center & Motel advertises one of Las Vegas’ primary tourist attractions, Nevada’s lenient marriage laws.
Morry Kishner, well-known artist who builds apartment-hotels for a hobby, announced the opening of Mid-towner Hotel Apartments, 211 N. 7th Street, to be managed by his brother and sister-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Ben Kishner. This is the fourth unit completed in Las Vegas by Morry. Other units are the Blair House, Biltmore Hotel Apts, Stewart Ogden Apts. - Review Journal, 6/10/56
A fire raced through a downtown motel at daybreak Friday, killing two people, injuring 18 and forcing guests to flee in their nightclothes, officials said. A 17-year-old girl [Lena Barker] passing on her way to school was credited with saving several lives by pulling people out of the two-story Mid-towner Hotel until she was felled herself by smoke inhalation. - Los Angeles Times, 11/2/85
Located inside the Sahara Hotel and Casino, the House of Lords first opened in 1954. In its day, it was among the top gourmet rooms on the Strip. The original Old English décor featured red wallpaper, wood paneling, coats of arms and leather seating. Menus at one point were printed on a paper scroll. The early dress code required men to wear a jacket and a tie. The room was popular with members of the Rat Pack and other celebrities, who often came to unwind after their shows. Former partners Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis together with pal Frank Sinatra celebrated there following the duo’s famous television reunion at the Muscular Dystrophy Telethon in 1976.
“Andy” Anderson – Anderson Dairy Milkman Anderson Dairy, founded in Las Vegas in 1907, enlarged its dairy plant in the mid-1950s as the population grew in the Las Vegas valley.
The Green Shack was a longtime locals’ favorite, operating for nearly seven decades along East Fremont Street and Boulder Highway. In 1929 or 1930, founder Mattie “Jimmie” Jones started the Colorado, which saw her selling fried chicken and bootleg whiskey out of her home. Sometime between 1930 and 1932, the restaurant moved into a relocated, green railroad barrack, where Jones fed men working on the Boulder (now Hoover) Dam. Later, the Green Shack became a gathering spot for locals, as well as some famous visitors. Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin reportedly dined there, as did “Bugsy” Siegel, who was said to have been a regular customer during the construction of the Flamingo. The atmosphere was country casual, complete with wagon wheels and a hitching post. Fried chicken was the specialty of the house, made in the original cast iron skillets. Chicken livers and gizzards were also available, either separately or as a giblet combination plate. “Homemade” bread pudding was a popular dessert, but the recipe remains a closely guarded family secret. The Green Shack was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994, but sadly closed in 1999 and has been torn down.
I can't find much on this motel.
Pool player sculpture by J.P. Pendergrass circa 1983 for Doc and Eddy's pool hall, a chain originating in Montana. Nicknamed “Mullet Man” by Neon Museum staff.
Black Jack Motel was located at 2909 Fremont Street. The Black Jack Motel was demolished sometime during the summer of 2006. Like its former neighbor across the street, the Showboat/Castaways, the Black Jack and its classic Vegas sign is history.
Originally, opening on the intersection of South Maryland Parkway and East Tropicana, the Red Barn opened as an antique store in 1958. However, the business was not sustainable, and went through some changes in the 1960s, becoming a bar. During the day, it catered primarily to a working-class clientele, but in the evening, it catered to Las Vegas’ LGBTQ+ community.
Nights at the Red Barn during “pink hour,” included LGBTQ+ performers from the Strip mingling with the bar’s regular patrons, hayrides to and from the Paradise Valley ranch a few miles away, and the infamous drag show, “Fabulous Fakes.”
Despite its LGBTQ+ programming being limited to the evening, the Red Barn joined Maxine’s and Le Café in what local historian Dennis McBride refers to as “the holy trinity of Las Vegas gay bars” in his book, Out of the Neon Closet. However, in 1972, Australian entrepreneur and entertainer Albert “Bert” Hood purchased the Red Barn and made the bold decision to be Las Vegas’ first openly gay bar.
Hood revamped the nightly entertainment, with a new drag show called “RB Follies” where he, himself, would perform as musician. The show was a sensation, running for 17,781 performances. Hood also published the “RB Bag” newsletter out of the Red Barn, one of the earliest LGBTQ+ publications in Las Vegas history.
Sadly, the 1980s saw the Red Barn fall victim to several crimes, including a physical attack on Bert Hood that resulted in his loss of hearing in one ear. There were also expanding landscapes of LGBTQ+ venues populating the marketplace, making managing the business difficult. These challenges resulted in The Red Barn closing in 1988, and the abandoned building soon burned down.
In a small roundabout on the left after the hotels/motels is a section for signs from Las Vegas businesses. The “Happy Shirt” from Steiner Cleaners is conveying its message purely through design and iconography. Based on a drawing by original owner Herman Steiner’s daughter and fabricated by YESCO in 1962, “Happy Shirt” was a “fixture in the strip mall on the southwest corner of Tropicana and Maryland Parkway”. This is an animated sign, portraying “Happy Shirt” greeting visitors with a wave of its arms, with the illusion of motion achieved by technical means. By sequencing the two positions electronically, the sign appears to move.
The Museum has a of the Silver Bell Wedding Chapel sign. However, since it was later repurposed as the Mon Bel Ami Wedding Chapel, that is the name you see on it today.
The Algiers Hotel was an Arabian/Persian-themed hotel. The Algiers opened on November 25, 1953, as a 110-room sister property to the adjacent Thunderbird hotel and casino. In 1991, the property was earmarked for possible condemnation, allowing for the realignment of nearby streets in order to reduce traffic.
In 2001, owner Larry Kifer proposed swapping the Algiers property for a different parcel that the county planned to auction. Kifer stated that the potential road realignment project on the Algiers property had made it difficult to redevelop the land. Kifer dropped his proposal in late 2002, after the county decided not to realign the streets. In 2004, the property was sold to a developer who planned to demolish the Algiers and build the Krystle Sands condominium tower on the land. The Algiers closed on August 31, 2004, and was demolished, while the Krystle Sands project was cancelled in 2005. Two years later, Turnberry Associates began construction of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas resort on the former Algiers and Thunderbird properties.
Nowadays, travelers look for amenities such as free WiFi. Not long ago, other comforts lured visitors off the road. Motels and stores no longer advertise these “modern” conveniences. Either they have become so common that now they are taken for granted or they have been replaced by newer innovations. Remnants of our roadside past, however, survive at The Neon Museum. The signs continue to charm visitors with old fashioned advertisements for refrigeration, steamed heat, color television and film.
Desert Rose has been spruced up.
Desert Rose Motel, noted for frequent guests Gus and Gabby, a pair of chimpanzees who accompanied their owners frequently to Las Vegas.
Owned by Bhagu and Manjula Patel, the Yucca Motel was located near Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard, just north of the Stratosphere. The Patel family donated the signage to the Neon Museum in 2010. The Yucca signage was partially restored by Hartlauer Signs in 2017. New neon was created for the sign, while the cabinet only received a sanding to allow the application of a protective coat of paint, keeping the paint and the patina intact.
On the top of the Yucca “Motel” signage is the phrase “Sleez 83,” referring to a painter for YESCO who often signed his work where people would not see his name. The only reason it is visible today is because the “Motel” signage is laying horizontal.
Prolific sign designer Charles Barnard designed the Plaza signage in 1983, utilizing red neon tubing and chased lightbulbs, illuminated in a flashing pattern. Prior to the construction of The Plaza, a Spanish-style depot constructed in 1906 acted as the first train station in Las Vegas on the site.
Sassy Sally's was a saloon located where the Mermaids used to be on Fremont Street in Downtown Las Vegas. The saloon was owned by Herb Pastor throughout it's entire history, opening in 1981 and officially closed in 1999, with the Mermaids replacing the saloon. Sassy Sally's is named after Herb Pastor's kids' babysitter, who is also mistaken for being the name for Vegas Vickie, the neon cowgirl on top of Glitter Gulch, which sat next to the saloon.
City Center Motel, designed by artist Betty Willis, the visionary behind the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign.
One of two signs in the Neon Boneyard that the Museum received in full working order, Fitzgeralds operated on Fremont Street from 1987 to 2012.
Fitzgeralds opened as the Sundance Hotel in 1980. Among its former owners were associates of suspected organized crime figure, Morris “Moe” Dalitz, and one of the few Black casino owners in the country at the time, Don Barden. The hotel is now The D, named for its owner Derek Stevens and his hometown of Detroit, Michigan.
The date of the signage is unknown.
This signage was created in commemoration of the Golden Nugget Las Vegas Hotel & Casino’s 50th anniversary, celebrated in 1996. Restoring this signage would allow The Neon Museum to share additional information from the property’s elaborate history, utilizing two aesthetically distinct pieces of signage from the property (the other, of course, being the beloved “1905” sign from the Golden Nugget).
This "1905" sign, Golden Nugget circa 1971, paid homage to the year Las Vegas was founded.
Binion’s Horseshoe H-Wall
H Wall from Binion Horseshoe
The Binion’s Horseshoe sign originally lay horizontally stacked over two other identical signs to create an inverted “bull nose” entrance. According to YESCO figures from 1961, the overall signage at Binion’s featured more than eight miles of neon tubes and 30,000 bulbs, though Binion’s claimed slightly smaller figures in their later advertisements. The H-Wall is from 1961; the plaque by the sign incorrectly states that it was created in 1962.
The Moulin Rouge was originally open from May to October 1955. Despite being open for such a brief period, the property made history as the first racially integrated casino in Las Vegas history. At the time, Las Vegas was pejoratively known as the “Mississippi of the West,” with black performers generally not allowed to stay in hotels on the Strip, despite being able to gamble and eat there. Black people were allowed, however, to work at Strip properties. Often, this work was limited to “back of the house” jobs, predominantly “as cooks, maids, janitors and porters”. This same protocol was applied to Strip headliners like Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald, who entered venues from service entrances or kitchen doors, performed, and were escorted out the same way.
Betty Willis, who also designed the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign in 1959, designed the Moulin Rouge signage. Willis spent time studying French-style lettering, drawing the sign by hand. The signage was re-illuminated during a lighting ceremony on September 16, 2020.
he Sahara opened in 1952 with 240 rooms housed in four modest two-story buildings situated around an Olympic sized swimming pool. The hotel and casino featured an African desert-Moroccan styled theme with camel statues and oasis scenes painted onto interior murals, it was nicknamed the “Jewel of the Desert.”
The Sahara is particularly remembered for its lounge shows, with many famous stars performing in their famed “Congo Room.” Early headliners included Louis Prima and Keely Smith. The Beatles stayed at the Sahara when they played Las Vegas’ convention center in 1964 and had slot machines brought to their room instead of visiting casinos to protect themselves from excitable fans of the “Fab Four.”
Sahara closed in 2011 and the SLS opened in its place in 2014. The name was changed back to Sahara in 2019. The large Sahara sign on display in the Boneyard is from the 1990s and would have been installed over the porte cochère (automobile entrance) along Paradise Ave. Other letters from the Sahara can be found throughout the collection.
Considered one of Las Vegas’ most spectacular productions, the Lido de Paris show opened at the Stardust Hotel & Casino in 1958. It was a French style revue that included the first topless performers on the Las Vegas Strip, as well as variety offerings like jugglers, magicians, and singers.
In celebration of their 50th anniversary in 2014, Jerry’s Nugget sponsored the restoration of their signage. the sign cabinet features hand-painted details, skeletal neon outlining, and chased lightbulbs illuminated in a sparking pattern.
The silent grandeur of the Fox Theatre, a franchise started in the 1920s by William Fox, the owner of Fox Film Corporation,
Treasure Island opened to great fanfare in 1993, a year that also saw the opening of the MGM Grand as well as the destruction of the iconic Dunes Hotel and Casino. With the family-friendly era now in full swing, Treasure Island symbolized a resurrected Las Vegas that had been losing visitors since the late 1970s. Guests were drawn to the resort by pirate battles staged in Buccaneer Bay and an enormous double-sided pylon sign reminiscent of a pirate ship with a skull and crossbones attached. In 2003, the property was rebranded as TI in order to distance itself from the pirate theme as resorts along the Strip largely stopped marketing to families. The new contemporary resort featured nightclubs and a party bar as well as Sirens of TI, a more adult-themed pirate show. The skull and crossbones also came down to make way for a TI marquee with a large LCD video screen. The Sirens of TI show closed in 2013, and Buccaneer Bay became a shopping and entertainment center earlier this year. One of the skulls currently lives at the Neon Museum –
take a look at the museum’s Google satellite image for an extra special view of him.
Las Vegas is widely known for its gambling, nightlife, and entertainment, but the city of lights can also be considered the “land of opportunity” for many. That’s exactly what Las Vegas meant to Ann Meyers when she arrived here in the 1970s. A place where Meyers, a single mother of two came to fulfill her wildest dreams and became a pioneer for successful women. With her two young daughters in tow and little money to her name, she quickly became an icon in a city run by mobsters and wealthy men.
Not only did she flee from ethnic and religious persecution in Croatia, she landed herself in a city where seeing women in power was merely a fantasy. Although she dreamed of getting married and going to college, there was something about the glittering Vegas lights that energized her and pushed her to break the barrier of the current social climate.
There were very few women in the gaming industry at the time and in 1976, she became the very first woman in history to purchase a casino in Las Vegas. Formerly known as The Casbah Casino, she added her own personal touch by changing the name to the Ann Meyers Queen of Hearts Hotel in 1990. She completely recharged the property by transforming the vibe to be a budget friendly “four-star service” that eventually resulted in a large increase in business revenue.
It wasn’t just her tenacity and bold spirit that helped her make a name for herself among some of the most notorious movers and shakers in the country, it was also her ability to quickly adapt to any situation that she was faced within an untamed industry. One day you’d find her mingling with the famed, well-to-do elites of the city, and the next she’d be repairing the roof of her own hotel in 6-inch heels and a gorgeous pantsuit.
She took on the big city of Las Vegas but graciously turned it into what she needed it to be, a place where the underdog has a fighting chance. She is quoted as saying “The most important message for the everyday person this is the land of opportunity and in Las Vegas even more than any place in the country.”
Since opening in 2001, the ownership of the Palms Casino Resort has changed hands numerous times. Originally owned by the Maloof family, the property was acquired by Red Rock Resorts, Inc. in 2016, and most recently was acquired by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians in 2021. The Palms signage originally comes from an early 2000s billboard advertisement, located about two blocks east of the property.
The Neon Museum enjoyed record attendance in 2019 during its six-month run of neon art created by artist, director, author and producer Tim Burton. Several of his creations can be seen here:
The Lost Vegas Sign Tower -- an homage to the Dunes Hotel pylon sign.
Also Tim Burton.
The spiral-eyed girl in the "Area 51 Motel" (at left) and the alien showgirl (at right) -- represent Southern Nevada's association with extraterrestrials in popular culture. (Area 51 is a 3-hour drive away and remains a tourist hotspot).
The Neon Seahorses -- representing Tim Burton's childhood memories of the pool at the Dunes Hotel which had a fountain with three seahorse sculptures.
This sign was on the ground last time.
The Tropicana Las Vegas was a casino hotel that operated from 1957 to 2024.
The resort was conceived by Ben Jaffe, part owner of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach. The $15 million Tropicana opened on April 4, 1957, as the most expensive Las Vegas resort developed up to that point.
The Tropicana was host to various live entertainment, including the topless showgirl revue known as Folies Bergere. It ended in 2009, after nearly 50 years, and remains the longest-running show in Las Vegas history.
Film history - from Wikipedia
- A scene from Folies Bergere is featured in the 1964 Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas.
- In the 7th James Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, 007 stays at the hotel Tropicana, claiming it looks "quite comfortable".
- The Las Vegas sequence of The Godfather was filmed in the Tropicana.
- The hotel is also referred briefly in The Godfather Part II and a few deleted scenes take place inside the hotel. To avoid copyright issues, the name of the hotel was changed to "Tropigala" during filming, although the original name remained in the final draft of the script.
- It was featured on the TV Show Charlie's Angels in the episode "Angels In Vegas" in 1978 with Dean Martin guest starring.
- It was featured on the TV Show Angel in the episode "The House Always Wins" as the casino where the character Lorne had his show.
- A show was taped here for Malcolm in the Middle in 2003.
- A two part episode of Designing Women, Season 7, is set here. Anthony meets and marries a showgirl from the Folies Begere.
- The game shows Dealer's Choice & Las Vegas Gambit were taped here.
- The first half of the first season of the revival of the game show Let's Make a Deal was being taped here. Hosted by Wayne Brady, it began airing on CBS October 5, 2009.[9] The show moved to Los Angeles during a reconstruction period.
The Riviera opened in 1955 as the first highrise casino. Due to the rapid new development, Life Magazine published an article in 1955 that questioned whether Las Vegas’s boom would continue or a bust was imminent.
The red Riviera sign was donated to the museum in working condition shortly after the resort closed in 2015, featuring skeleton neon and cold cathode fluorescent bulbs (CCFLs). The date of the signage is unknown. The Riviera was imploded in June 2016.
Our photos from 2015.
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