Photo by: Christopher DeVargas
There’s simply no better way to feel connected to the community you’re visiting than learning its history. But while many cities have famous centuries-old landmarks or storied pasts, Las Vegas is a tad different. The city has a fascinating tale, beginning as a humble railroad town that eventually turned into the Entertainment Capital of the World (and not without atomic bombs and mobsters along the way), but visitors won’t often see historically significant buildings or landmarks throughout the valley. Why? Well, we like to blow things up.
“We’re the implosion capital of the world, right? We don’t just blow up our history. We have a party around it. We have all-night (events) that are just celebrating blowing up a piece of history,” says Aaron Berger, executive director of The Neon Museum. “This city is a town that reinvents itself so constantly that being able to save aspects of the building is the way we do historic preservation here.”
Berger and his passionate team at the museum spend their days tirelessly preserving the stories of Las Vegas by collecting and refurbishing an art form that’s become synonymous with Sin City: neon signs. First appearing in the Glitter Gulch sometime between 1928 and 1930, the glowing form of advertisement quickly became widespread, and by the mid-1930s the then-small desert oasis was covered in the glass and gas artworks. Thanks to the abundant electricity from our beloved Hoover Dam, Las Vegas was simply able to have more illuminated signage than most of America.
Photo by: Christopher DeVargas
With many businesses able to advertise using brightly lit words and flashy figures, the ’40s and ’50s saw increasingly more grandiose artworks. But as time passed and the city changed, many of these pieces of history were cast to the wayside, often out of commission and expensive to repair. That is, until decades later in 1996, when The Neon Museum began to collect and exhibit neon signs as a vital part of Vegas history. It would light its first sign in 2012 and continue to grow a collection that now surpasses more than 800 pieces, with about 250 signs on display.
“We’re incredibly proud and unique in that the historic preservation society of Las Vegas is really The Neon Museum. The sign, however, is the portal to telling the stories of the property,” Berger says. “Any of the signs that you’ve seen in the collection, we can tell you a story about women, we can tell you a story about the entertainment component, the cuisine of the time, all of these different aspects that are opportunities to really dig deeper into the experience.”
Berger isn’t kidding when he talks about storytelling. Take a 45-minute guided tour through the Boneyard, where an incredibly well-informed guide will tell you about how the Moulin Rouge contributed to the Civil Rights Movement by becoming the first racially integrated hotel and casino, or how the Plaza made waves by allowing women to become dealers before any other casino.
What makes a tour particularly personal is that each guide has their own set of signs they resonate with, so there are signs every tour will hear about, but depending on what docent picks up your group, your tour will be enriched by something they truly connect with. Perhaps a guide will pause to point out one of the cutest in the collection, Happy Shirt, which sat outside Liberace’s dry cleaner of choice. Or they may tell you about the Western era of Las Vegas, when marketing took precedence over cultural sensitivity and businesses around the city embraced the imagery of the indigenous people of the Great Plains, which does not reflect the Southern Paiute indigenous people who are actually native to this area, before they guide you to a sign from the Red Barn, one of Las Vegas’ first LGBTQ bars.
“We have four core values that really guide the museum, and the first one is belonging. So whether you work at the museum or you’ve been to the museum, we want you to feel a sense of self in the experience,” says Berger. “So it’s why we tell the story of the LGBTQ community, stories of black community, stories of Latin (people) and stories of indigenous folk that we can share and allow people to have that connection to it. To not acknowledge it is to not acknowledge history.”
All this learning happens while having the singular experience of viewing each sign from just feet away, which becomes more fascinating with each glance.
“When these signs were originally installed, you would not see them this close. So the fact that you get an opportunity to have a sight line into this piece and have close viewing is kind of amazing,” says director of collections and exhibits Jeff Tackett. “To have close viewing of a relit animated sign is an experience you’ve never ever had before.”
Visitors may also book entry without a tour for a go-at-your-own pace experience that can be enhanced by an optional audio tour, or they can stop in for a showtime of “Brilliant! Jackpot,” an audiovisual experience that uses light-mapping to illuminate unrestored signs with great precision.
Also, see some of the museum’s collection while out on the town, as it has a multitude of signs placed in the median on the north end of Las Vegas Boulevard, including the Caballero and Palomino at the corner of Fremont Street and LVB, which Berger cites to be the first sign design to pay homage to a person of color in a way that’s authentic, not appropriative.
Photo by: Christopher DeVargas
The Best Spots for Pictures
Look for the massive, hot-pink Moulin Rouge sign, which symbolizes Las Vegas’ first desegregated casino, for a striking shot. Tip: Shoot from an angle to create depth using foreshortening and fit the entire sign in one frame.
Stop at the collection of red- and yellow Golden Nugget, Sassy Sally’s and Binion’s signs, illuminated only by the ambient glow of the neighboring pieces, and some floor lighting for a vintage Vegas vibe and to escape the battle of back lighting.
Snap a photo with a true Las Vegas icon when you spot Vegas Vic in the country-western corner of the Boneyard. Turn slightly toward the sign to use its neon glow to illuminate yourself.
Take the perfect vertical pic in front of the mid-century modern Yucca Motel sign, featuring an artfully crafted sculpture of the desert plant. Not only is this piece beautiful, but the Plaza sign across from it provides a flattering soft glow.
Use a Boomerang to capture the twinkling lights of the Stardust sign, a casino that used to sit where Resorts World Las Vegas is now. Take a wide shot to contrast old and new by capturing one of the museum’s newest additions, the Hard Rock guitar, in the background.
How Exactly Do the Signs Work?
You might know that neon is a gas and that lights use electricity, but do you know how these combine to make fabulous artwork? If not, don’t worry, we’ll make this easy:
Each sign features a series of hand-bent glass tubes, which have been filled with neon (or other noble gases, but we’ll get to that later) and sealed with an electrode placed at either end. Usually using an alternating current, enough electricity to remove an electron from the neon atoms travels through the electrodes and into the tube, essentially causing all the particles to start moving. As the atoms start to shimmy around, they bump each other, exchanging electrons and releasing energy as a photon, which is light! Each noble gas releases its own wavelength of photon, meaning each produces its own color of light. Neon shines a red-orange hue, while argon glows blue, helium glows pink and krypton glows green. Gases can be mixed to create other colors, or the glass tubes themselves can be colored to affect the glow they give off. (Super-fascinating fun fact: Once the glass tubes are sealed, the gas inside cannot escape, which means many of the signs in the Boneyard are still filled with gas from the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s and so on.)
Photo by: Christopher DeVargas
Fun Facts:
• The Moulin Rouge sign features two pink hues. The hot-pink tubes are original, while the coral-colored ones had to be replaced
• In certain parts of the downtown area, businesses are required to have 75 percent of the total surface of their signage be neon.
• The museum also features modern artworks created by Tim Burton. Lost Vegas exhibited from October 2019 to April 2020, and a few pieces remain in the Boneyard.
• Book a tour late in the evening for a serene exploration of the Boneyard as the museum empties out for the evening.
• Look up The Neon Museum on Google Earth to see the Treasure Island Skull staring back at you.
770 Las Vegas Blvd. N. 702.387.6366. neonmuseum.org
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