JUNK BOAT TRAVELS: Driving the Old Strip

Saturday, April 20, 2024

Driving the Old Strip

March 2024 - Las Vegas NV

More from our 2024 road trip, with two weeks in Las Vegas.

I had done a post of motels in 2015 when we were in Las Vegas.

In 2013 and 2015 we did the rounds of the wedding chapels that are in this area.

At that time I had written about the DTP DownTown Project Las Vegas created by Tony Hsieh, who passed away in 2020.

We spotted this mural in March 2024.

Downtowner now advertises itself as a newly renovated boutique motel.

The Hacienda Horse and Rider was the first sign to be put on display on Fremont Street. Originally installed in 1967 at the Hacienda Hotel, it was formerly located at 3950 Las Vegas Boulevard South. It can now be found at the intersection of Fremont Street Experience and Las Vegas Boulevard.

We first saw him in 2006!

Here's a better photo from 2015.

The Horseshoe Casino 1951.

Benny Binion bought the Eldorado Club and Hotel Apache in 1951, re-opening them as Binion's Horseshoe (also called the Horseshoe Casino). The casino's interior had a frontier flavor, like an old-style riverboat, with low ceilings and velvet wallpaper. It was the first casino in downtown Las Vegas (also called Glitter Gulch) to replace sawdust-covered floors with carpeting, and was the first to offer comps to all gamblers, not just those who bet big money. Binion also instituted high table limits. When Binion 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.

Binion's on Fremont, formerly The Horseshoe.

Missing for almost two decades from the city where it all started, the legendary Horseshoe brand officially returned to Las Vegas in April 2023.
Horseshoe Las Vegas (formerly Bally's) is honoring the moniker's past, celebrating new amenities and looking ahead to again hosting the World Series of Poker.
Jack Binion, son of gambler and Las Vegas casino legend Benny Binion, who opened the original Horseshoe downtown in 1951, was on hand for the grand opening. The Horseshoe brand has been absent since the original Binion's Horseshoe was bought by Harrah's (now Caesars Entertainment) and renamed Binion's Gambling Hall in 2005.

Neon Boneyard 2013 the museum features a restored lobby shell from the defunct La Concha Motel as its visitors' center.
The La Concha was opened by M.K. Doumani. When it opened, the La Concha was one of the larger properties on the Las Vegas Strip. Various celebrities had stayed at the motel, including Ronald Reagan, Ann-Margret, Flip Wilson, Muhammad Ali, and the Carpenters. The La Concha was featured in the 1995 film Casino.

I see the Hard Rock guitar has been added.

The Hard Rock Café debuted just off the Las Vegas Strip along Paradise Road in 1990. Modeled after a Gibson Les Paul played by Pete Townshend of The Who, it stood for 26 years before being taken down in 2017.
The restored sign consists of approximately 4,110 feet of neon tubing, which is over ¾ of a mile. The Hard Rock Café guitar restoration was made possible by generous donors from around the world, contributing $350,000 to restore the sign and provide for its ongoing care.

Neon guitar signs became the symbol world-wide for the Hard Rock brand. This Las Vegas guitar sign is important because it was the flagship -- the first Hard Rock Café guitar sign in the world. It graced the corner of Paradise Road and Harmon Avenue from 1990 – 2017 and was featured in Hollywood films like Honey I Blew Up the Kid and National Lampoon’s Vegas Vacation.

The restoration project involved an estimated 1,650 man hours which included rebuilding the sign in six sections: four body sections, one neck section and one head section. The letters spelling “Hard Rock Café” consist of 1,538 10-watt clear incandescent light bulbs. Approximately 4,110 feet -- more than three quarters of a mile -- of neon tubing glows on the sign with more than 700 individual neon units. Neon colors used in the sign are Ruby Red, Clear Red, 3500K White and Yellow Gold II. The sign majestically stands more than 80-feet tall with a 24-foot girth.

Click for our 2013 visit to Hard Rock Hotel and Casino.

2017 photo.

Dino's is open 24 hours a day, everyday!

Once voted Best Dive by Playboy, Dino’s is one of the oldest bars in downtown Las Vegas, NV. Dubbing itself “The Last Neighborhood Bar in Las Vegas,” Dino’s was originally called Ringside Liquors and owned by mobster Eddie Trascher. The bar was renamed Dino’s Lounge after it was purchased by a new owner, Rinaldo Dean (“Dino”) Bartolomucci, in 1962.

Being a 24-hour bar, some might be surprised to find out that Dino’s has closed on a few occasions in its 50+ year history – the first time for a private party, the second time for the shooting of a movie Lucky You, and the third time for Playboy (Germany).

The production crew for the 2007 movie Lucky You starring Drew Barrymore and Eric Bana spent approximately nine days filming in the parking lot of Dino’s. While no filming actually took place inside the bar, characters were filmed going in and out of the establishment and Dino’s neon green sign can even be seen in the film’s trailer.

Sounds like a movie we have to watch.

The Bow & Arrow Motel was located on Las Vegas Boulevard at Wyoming Avenue near Dino’s. The sign is believed to have been installed at the motel during the late 1950s or early 60s.

“Elvis Slept Here.” Normandie Motel, 708 Las Vegas Blvd S, 1998. Diane Hertz owned the motel and crafted its slogan. After the motel was demolished she donated the sign to the Neon Museum, and it now stands between the road on Las Vegas Blvd North & Stewart.

On the far left, built in 1958 as Chevron Motel replacing the original Chevron Auto Court Motel. It became High Hat Regency in 1987.

Built in 1952 and opens as Glenn Vegas Motel. Renamed Vegas Holiday Motel (1960s), Fun City (1980s). Closed in 2020. East wing demolished in 2020.

Chapel of the Bells opened in 1957 and relocated to this location in the 1960s.

The newest, full service, stand alone wedding facility (not attached to a strip mall or a hotel or casino) to be built on the Las Vegas Strip in 30 years.

Opened as Ak-Sar-Ben Motel in the early 1950s. Became Lone Palm Motel in the mid 1950s. Closed in the late 1980s. Today the location is taken by New York New York!

A permit was issued to E.A. and O.W. Clark to build the 8-unit Clark Auto Court in 1939. The motel, originally designated 1900 Fremont, was on the southeast corner of Fremont & Bruce. The name Clark Inn and 1800 address was established in the 40s. It closed in 1987.

Golden Inn was built by Albert and J.T. Franklin in 1960. The motel was demolished in 2004, and replaced with The Ogden.
The Golden Inn neon sign went to the Neon Museum, and later in 2022 was installed on the median of Las Vegas Blvd near Bridger.

The Hotel Apache was originally opened by the Silvagni family in 1932. The family came to Las Vegas as a cement contractor for the Hoover Dam project and realized the workers needed a place to get away from their work and the heat of the desert. It was the first in Las Vegas to air-condition its hotel lobby and have air curtains at the entrance to the hotel. The hotel was eventually acquired by Benny Binion and was the place to stay for many Hollywood movie stars like Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart and Lucille Ball. It was also the first in Las Vegas with an electrically operated elevator, fully carpeted casino and made poker a mainstream casino game.

Built in 1972, the abandoned Little Hotel Rooming House has been shuttered for over 25 years. It boomed when downtown Las Vegas and Fremont Street were the wild wests of Sin City- if walls could talk they would tell crazy stories.