Gambling on a Dream Presentation and Book Signing: Dec. 8th

November 25, 2018

If you live in Las Vegas or visiting there, I am happy to announce that I will be doing a presentation and book signing for my newly published book, Gambling on a Dream: The Classic Las Vegas Strip 1930-1955 on Saturday, December 8th at the Nevada State Museum (at the Springs Preserve).

I’ll be talking about the early days of the Las Vegas Strip when it was better known as a pot-holed. two-lane highway that connected the small town to southern California, how it began and how it grew.

It all begins at 2:00 pm and I hope to see you there!

Capturing Las Vegas while you can

January 25, 2015

When I was much younger while growing up in Las Vegas I never dreamed that the city I knew could change as much as it has. I always thought the front of Caesars would be turquoise and the Dunes sign would always being shooting neon into the sky. Even after we lost the train depot back in the late 1960s, it never dawned on me that one day we would lose the Mint, the original galaxy front of the Stardust and that many of original hotels that had been instrumental in the popularity and growth of the famed Strip would be erased from the landscape. It finally hit home when the Dunes was destroyed and the front of Caesars turned off the turquoise light and got rid of the Sarno block privacy screen in its march to become the Strip's version of the Winchester Mystery House.

I used to go to movies at the old Fox Plaza Theater in the Charleston Plaza Mall on East Charleston. I also was a regular customer at the Huntridge, the Red Rock (and watched it grow from its original size to 11 theaters or was it 15? At least it had that old town square area and two theaters devoted to art films), the Parkway and the Cinerama Dome. With the exception of the Huntridge which is now closed, all the others are gone. It never crossed my mind that I should have been carrying a camera with me and photographing the places and architecture that I now miss and fondly remember.

The motels on East Fremont and down Boulder Highway used to be one of the last bastions of post-World War II motel architecture still standing. With their delightful neon signs, they were affordable, had character and were family owned and operated back then. They began disappearing from Boulder Highway and the destruction has crept all the way up Fremont Street.

Glitter Gulch with its canyon of neon was a wonderful way to introduce Las Vegas to people. With its cavalcade of neon, movement and eye-popping colors, driving up Fremont Street was magical and guaranteed to impress even the most hardened Mid-Westerner or New Englander.

That damned canopy with its light show cannot even come close to capturing what made Fremont Street unique.

So much of Las Vegas has changed just in the last twenty years and a great deal of it has been destroyed or remodeled out of existence.

But, there are pockets of old Vegas still around. They might not be as evident as they once were and they might require a bit of research or driving around to find but they are still there.

So, now that smartphones come with good cameras, you have the opportunity to document the Las Vegas you love so that it isn't lost to history.

I only know of two people in the last twenty years who have made a concerted effort to do that, Allen Sandquist (aka RoadsidePictures on Flickr) and Joel Rosales of LostandFoundVegas.com. Both spent years photographing the disappearing history of Las Vegas.

It's not too late to join them. Pick up your camera or your smartphone and start photographing the places and things you love about Las Vegas. Because, chances are, twenty years from now, they will no longer be there or be recognizable and trust me, you'll be glad you did.

Take a picture and post it our Facebook page along with why you think the place or sign is meaningful and share your memories with us!

Las Vegas in Video

March 4, 2014

How many of these buildings and landmarks do you remember?

Cruising the Las Vegas Strip in the mid-1950s courtesy of Kevin Mueller

Las Vegas, 1962

Las Vegas in the 1960s

Las Vegas, 1964

Las Vegas Places That Aren't There Anymore

March 14, 2013

How many of these do you remember?

We saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Hot Rock and on one particular New Year's Eve, The Poseidon Adventure at the wonderful Fox Theater. Took the bus all the way from Charleston Heights. Afterwards, we went across the street to Macayo Vegas for Mexican food. I took guitar lessons at Ted Vesley's Music Store, also across the street.

How about you?

We had a Woolco at the corner of W. Charleston and Decatur. It was a giant store (today it is a Walmart). In the early 1970s, an underground blast at the Nevada Test Site rattled the Las Vegas Valley so badly it took out the front display windows.

Across the street (kitty corner) from the Woolco. Always loved that signage! (today it is a Walgreen's)

Across W. Charleston Blvd. from Nevada Savings, this Zick and Sharp building has always been a bank building but not always a Bank of America. I had my first checking account at this bank.