Vegas reclaims its past with museum
December 19, 2010, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE stack of giant neon letters just beyond the gates of the Neon Boneyard in Las Vegas are unlit. Flecks of turquoise, ruby and jade paint chips dot the gravel field. There are rusted metal beams, twisted tubes and cracked light bulbs plucked from the rubble of imploded casinos.
Miles from the blinking marquees of the Las Vegas Strip, this is where neon signs go to die.
In a city that hums of impulse and over-stimulation, where investors flock to what's hot and new and visitors empty their wallets at the promise of instant entertainment, the Boneyard displays relics from classic Las Vegas buildings offers a rare opportunity for retrospection.
Now, after years as a hidden memorial open only to a few, the 15-year-old collection has announced plans to open a fully operating museum in 2011 and an adjacent public park later this month.
As Las Vegas casinos increasingly adopt LED and LCD screens, the expanded Neon Boneyard will allow visitors to regularly tour a unique tribute to a city known for periodically bulldozing its past.
The remote yard features signs from historic wedding chapels, used car lots and prohibition speakeasies. An oversized billiards player clad in bell-bottoms stands near a massive skull that recently haunted tourists at the Treasure Island casino and hotel. A few steps away, the looping moniker from the Moulin Rouge is all that remains of Las Vegas' first integrated casino. A mishmash of neon stars and futuristic letters acknowledge the now imploded Stardust hotel.
For Elvis Presley fans, a gold lamp is a rare artifact from the extinct Aladdin casino, where Presley and Priscilla Ann Wagner married in 1967.
"It's uniquely American," said Susan Shaw, a 50-year-old New York artist. "There is something about this shady, shameless self-promotion. It's like, 'Here we are, we are open for business.'"
Miles from the blinking marquees of the Las Vegas Strip, this is where neon signs go to die.
In a city that hums of impulse and over-stimulation, where investors flock to what's hot and new and visitors empty their wallets at the promise of instant entertainment, the Boneyard displays relics from classic Las Vegas buildings offers a rare opportunity for retrospection.
Now, after years as a hidden memorial open only to a few, the 15-year-old collection has announced plans to open a fully operating museum in 2011 and an adjacent public park later this month.
As Las Vegas casinos increasingly adopt LED and LCD screens, the expanded Neon Boneyard will allow visitors to regularly tour a unique tribute to a city known for periodically bulldozing its past.
The remote yard features signs from historic wedding chapels, used car lots and prohibition speakeasies. An oversized billiards player clad in bell-bottoms stands near a massive skull that recently haunted tourists at the Treasure Island casino and hotel. A few steps away, the looping moniker from the Moulin Rouge is all that remains of Las Vegas' first integrated casino. A mishmash of neon stars and futuristic letters acknowledge the now imploded Stardust hotel.
For Elvis Presley fans, a gold lamp is a rare artifact from the extinct Aladdin casino, where Presley and Priscilla Ann Wagner married in 1967.
"It's uniquely American," said Susan Shaw, a 50-year-old New York artist. "There is something about this shady, shameless self-promotion. It's like, 'Here we are, we are open for business.'"
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