The Midcentury Las Vegas Stage exhibit opens on Dec. 4th!

Please be sure to add this to your to-do list. You don't want to miss this terrific exhibit that looks at why Las Vegas became the Entertainment Capital of the World!

I was asked to write the text for this terrific exhibit that opens on Thursday.

Hope you will check it out!!!  

December 4, 2014 – February 14, 2015:

Mid Century Las Vegas Stage


Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush Street, Las Vegas, 702-229-6383
For more information, please call 702-229-1012
Free and open to the public
The new exhibit at the Charleston Heights Art Center Gallery titled The Midcentury Las Vegas Stage: Acts that Built the Entertainment Capital of the World explores both legendary and obscure stage acts from the perspective of the archives at the Las Vegas News Bureau and the Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas. Rarely seen photographs combined with video footage and stage costume tell the distinctive story of Las Vegas' original hotel lounges and showrooms.

The midcentury Las Vegas entertainment scene was extraordinary, remarkable and singularly unique to the city. The unlikely pairing of Barbra Streisand with Liberace on a 1963 Riviera bill or the arcane combination, on the Sahara stage, of film legend Mae West with 1954's Mr. America are enduring examples of why Las Vegas is known as the Entertainment Capital of the World.


About Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas
The Nevada State Museum, Las Vegas, actively engages people in understanding and celebrating Nevada’s natural and cultural heritage. The museum is one of seven managed by the Nevada Division of Museums and History, an agency of the Nevada Department of Tourism and Cultural Affairs. It is open Thursday through Monday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on the
grounds of the Springs Preserve, a 180-acre cultural institution with museums, exhibits, gardens, interpretive trails, event space and more, built on the site of artesian springs that once nourished desert life. Visit the museum at 309 S. Valley View Boulevard or on Facebook. Adult admission is $9.95 and includes entrance to the Las Vegas Springs Preserve.

About Las Vegas News Bureau
For more than 65 years, the Las Vegas News Bureau has captured the sights and sounds of the world’s leading destination like no one else, and has played a unique role in promoting Las Vegas by documenting unforgettable images on film. The News Bureau was created in 1947 as part of the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce’s marketing efforts to promote Las Vegas as a tourism destination. Today, the Las Vegas News Bureau plays an important role in supporting
the marketing efforts of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority.

If you could, who would YOU want to dine with?

Okay, time to put those thinking caps on!

If you could wrangle a dinner invitation with any famous Classic Las Vegas (1945-1980) personality, who has passed on, who would you choose?

Some ideas:

Wilbur Clark, Maude Frazier, Howard Hughes, Claudine Williams, Tutor Scherer,Guy McAfee, Florence Murphy, Big Jim Cashman, George Crockett, Charlie West, Max Kelch,  Ruby Duncan, Jack Entratter, Al Freeman, Stan Irwin, Don English, James McMillan, Ralph Denton, Oran Gragson, Sam Boyd, Jackie Gaughan, Keely Smith, Sam Butera, Benny Binion, Doby Doc, Mary Kaye, Fannie Voss, Fluff LeCoque, Nancy Baker Williams. William Moore, Tommy Hull

or maybe someone else.......

Hit the comments and let us know, who YOU would want to spend an evening with!

 

Why Wrong History is still Bad History

Back in August, 2007 we did a story on the Downtown Las Vegas embedded historical sidewalk medallions/markers. Some of the medallions/markers, installed in the sidewalks of Fremont Street,  touted wrong historical facts.  We called it Bad History and pointed out Las Vegas history was not a John Ford film where legend supersedes fact, especially in the creation of the embedded medallions.markers that were installed by the City of Las Vegas.

With the number of historians and historical resources available all around the Valley, the writer on the City sponsored project didn't have to resort to Google to get their historical facts. After much press not only by us but others and grandstanding by the Mayor and other officials, the bad history medallions.markers were corrected and replaced.

So, imagine our surprise, seven years later to discover that Wrong History is still being published, this time not in sidewalk medallions/markers but in the book written especially for the 150th anniversary of the State of Nevada.

The book is published by Nevada Magazine which is supported by the state and has been well-regarded in the past. They publish historical articles, there is a section called Know Your Nevadaand one on Notable Nevadans  

So you get the feeling they are sticklers for accuracy, especially when they are publishing a book on a milestone anniversary of the state they cover.

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