Las Vegas: A random group of memories

January 17, 2009

Here are some photos that I came across when cleaning out my office. I'll be posting more over the weekend. Feel free to leave comments about these pieces of Las Vegas history, especially those that aren't there anymore.

The Horseshoe Club in 1999

The Horseshoe Club neon front in 1999

Fallout Shelter sign from the 1950s used to be on a side street in Downtown

RoadsidePictures says this sign was destroyed a few years ago. It used to be on Third Street.

Used to be on the side entrance to the Horseshoe Club before it became Binion's.

The Green Shack signs before they were torn down. The Cocktails sign is now in the Neon Museum boneyard.

Mid-Century Home in the Scotch Eighties

Another mid-century modern home in the Scotch Eighties

Motel neon sign that was part of the Algiers

The Riviera Hotel Original Entrance

December 15, 2008

When I was a kid, Life Magazine published a weekly magazine. They employed some great photographers as well as good writers.

Life Magazine went the way of the dinosaur and the buffalo but its wonderful photo archive has been preserved thanks to a partnership with Google.

Here is what the entrance to the Riviera looked like in 1955 (Gotta love that mid-century modern facade and don't you wish it still looked like that today):

I have recently done a major cleaning of my office and discovered a box (put away for safe keeping, no doubt) that is filled with slides, postcards, old magazines, etc.

After the first of the year, I will start scanning them and add them to the blog. I htink you will enoy them.

In the meantime, I will be adding more photos from the Life/Google Photo Archive until the end of the year, so check back for updates.

For more history on the Riviera Hotel check out this link:

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/a-brief-history-of-the-strip/?currentPage=21

The Frontier Sign Comes Down

December 15, 2008

Steve Wynn put up the money to have the iconic Frontier sign taken down so that the sign would not block the view of his latest hotel-casino tower, Encore. Wynn considered the sign an "eyesore".

The sign, a 186-feet tall, was taken down in sections. We are still trying to confirm if the sign will be donated to the Neon Museum. From what we understand, that decision has yet to be made.

The sign was one of the oldest still standing on the famed Las Vegas Strip and harkened back to the days when the giant neon signs could be seen down the highway for miles. A combination of flicker bulbs and neon, the sign was designed by Bill Clark of Ad-Art. The sign contained more than a mile of flourescent tubing, a mile and a half of neon and more than 23,000 light bulbs. The 30- foot tall F at the top of the sign rotated on a specially built mechanism. An enormous caisson was installed to keep the sign from toppling over in a Las Vegas windstorm.

For more information on the history of the Frontier Hotel:

http://classiclasvegas.squarespace.com/display/ShowJournal?moduleId=1093544&currentPage=4

Special thanks to RoadsidePictures for letting us use this image.

Walter Zick - Mid-Century Modern Las Vegas Architect

November 24, 2008

The Mint Hotel designed by Walter Zick and Harris Sharp

He was one of the most prolific architects in Las Vegas. Walter Zick, along with his partner Harris Sharp, designed some of the coolest mid-century modern buildings in Southern Nevada. His best known design is probably also the most-beloved, the fabulous Mint Hotel. It's design fulfilled the optimistic potential that was pervasive across America in the late 1950s and the early 1960s. In that canyon of neon called Glitter Gulch, the Mint sat shoulder to shoulder with fanciful facades that depicted the Barbary Coast (The Golden Nugget), the Wild West (The original California Club) and San Francisco (The Golden Gate).

Wayne McAllister's design of the Fremont Hotel may have been the first mid-century modern casino on Fremont Street but Zick and Sharpe saw that design and raised the stakes. Working with YESCO's top designers, Kermit Wayne and Hermon Boergne, the facade of the Mint was one of the first to explore the three dimensional aspects of neon. It's eye-poping pink and white neon took your breath away.

If the Mint was all that Zick and Sharp had designed in Las Vegas that would be enough. But thanks to Friends of Classic Las Vegas commercial chair Mary Martinez and our favorite downtown neighborhood blogger, Jack LeVine, I have been given a disc of images and information on the life and works of Walter Zick. His family is trying to get a school named for him and though their initial request was turned down, we are thrilled to be joining with VeryVintageVegas to help spotlight Zick's accomplishments and keep the idea of a school named in his honor alive.

Walter Zick designed more than just casinos and hotels. I grew up in Charleston Heights which sports many of the schools and commercial buildings that he designed. I am familiar with Hyde Park Junior High School which was the first air-conditioned school in the nation. My brother was born at Southern Nevada Hospital in the mid-1960s when it sported a Zick and Sharp mid-century facade. I attended junior high school at Garside, which they designed. I attended high school at Ed. W. Clark High School which was designed by Zick and Sharp. They designed both Western High School and Valley High School, both cross-town rivals of Clark. We attended football games every Friday night at the Sam Boyd Silver Bowl, again designed by Zick and Sharp.

After I graduated in 1975, I attended UNLV and had a Shakespeare class in the Humanities Building that Zick designed. The Maude Frazier Building, the first building on the campus when it opened in 1958 was designed by them.

We did our banking at the corner of Charleston and Decatur at the Bank of Las Vegas and the First National Bank of Nevada both designed by Zick and Sharp. The Foley Federal Building which was built next to the 5th Street Grammar School where I attended kindergarten was also designed by them. The Clark County Courthouse near the Foley Federal Building is their design.

I remember the Nevada Savings and Loan Headquarters, the Nevada State Bank near then-popular Spanish Oaks, Western Airlines terminal, the Westgate Shopping Center, the YMCA addition.

In addition to the Mint, he designed the Bird Cage Casino which sat just west of the Mint and was ultimately annexed by the hotel and he and Sharp designed the famous "eyebrow" addition. They helped complete Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, had a hand in the remodel of the El Rancho Vegas, designed the first integrated hotel and casino, the Moulin Rouge as well as the Union Plaza and many more.

He also designed residential homes for some of the biggest movers and shakers in Las Vegas including Benny Binion, the Cashman family, Marcus Daly (whose rec room included a below ground bomb shelter, a bowling alley and a movie theater), architect Bill Moore's house, Mayme Stocker's house on Bracken Avenue, Joseph Switzer's house and Ted Weins as well.

We'll hopefully have more on Walter Zick in the days and weeks ahead so keep an eye out here!