The Neon Museum in Las Vegas on Tuesday unveiled its first signage from the Flamingo, the oldest resort on the Strip.
The newly restored indicators, 20 ft tall, mix the cropped prime of a Flamingo Street roadside pylon signal with two neon feather plumes (backside) created by parade float designer Paul Rodriguez, which had been faraway from elsewhere on the property. (Picture: KVVU-TV/Las Vegas)
“This offers us an opportunity to actually speak about the whole lot from the mob to the affect of leisure,” Aaron Berger, the Neon Museum’s govt director, informed KVVU-TV/Las Vegas. “Leisure actually will get its hooks into the Flamingo.”
The majority of the newly restored indicators comes from the highest of this Flamingo Hilton signal, proven in 1977. (Picture: Signal Builder Illustrated)
Not That Authentic
Sadly, these indicators aren’t from what anybody would take into account the on line casino resort’s traditional interval. They date again solely to 1976, 5 years after the resort had already grow to be the Flamingo Hilton. (It reverted to its unique identify in 2001.)
The pylon signal is simply a recreation of a 1967 pylon signal designed by Advert-Artwork’s Invoice Clarke, which wasn’t saved.
Although folks criticize right now’s Las Vegas for having no regard for its architectural historical past, the issue was a lot worse from the Nineteen Forties by means of the Nineteen Seventies.
Virtually nothing from the unique Las Vegas was salvaged for prosperity.
The resort known as the Flamingo right now options not one of the buildings it opened with in December 1946. The final unique constructing, which featured former proprietor Bugsy Siegel’s workplace, was demolished throughout a 1995 renovation.
This makes these newly restored indicators the Flamingo’s oldest surviving architectural relic.
The price of their restoration, believed to be within the six figures, was footed by three fundamental donors: Andrew Pascal, CEO of on-line playing firm Play Studios and nephew of Steve Wynn; Felicia French, CEO of textile firm Opuzen; and Emily Conner Cooper, the widow of Las Vegas comic Pat Cooper, who died in 2023 at age 93. Cooper’s first Las Vegas gig was on the Flamingo in 1963.
Unidentified shoppers of marriage ceremony photographer Deidra Wilson pose in entrance of items of the plumage from the highest of the 1976 Flamingo signal, which misplaced their pink and orange coloration way back. (Picture: deidrawilson.com)
Hiding in Plain Sight
The Neon Museum has secretly had the newly restored indicators on show in its “neon boneyard” — the backlot the place museumgoers wander by means of its signal assortment — since they had been donated by the Flamingo in 2003, although that is the primary time they had been restored and publicly recognized. The “Flamingo” lettering wasn’t saved.
Very similar to an actual flamingo sticking its head within the sand, the highest of the pylon signal had been hiding in plain sight — in items behind the “Marriage ceremony Info” signal used within the Nineteen Forties on the Ali Baba Marriage ceremony Middle by the airport.
1000’s of {couples} springing for the museum’s $950 per hour marriage ceremony rental charge have it within the background of their marriage ceremony images and don’t even comprehend it.
A 3rd Flamingo feather plume, additionally believed to be from the Nineteen Seventies, remains to be on show within the boneyard, unrestored.
Signing Off
The present Flamingo signal, often known as the “bull nostril,” was designed by Paul Rodriguez and constructed and put in by Heath & Firm in 1977. It now features because the on line casino resort’s fundamental signal. Its predecessor, the plume signal, might be seen within the background. It might stand till 1987. (Picture: Classic Las Vegas)
The pylon signal was eliminated in 1987 to make room for O’Shea’s On line casino, which might open on the positioning two years later. O’Shea’s was demolished in 2012 and a smaller model opened within the Linq Promenade the next yr.
Luckily, the Hilton Company positioned the highest of the pylon register storage on the Flamingo property after its elimination.
No alternative Flamingo signal was ever constructed, for the reason that present Flamingo signal, nicknamed the “bull nostril,” has marketed the resort’s well-known identify in a sufficiently giant method to the Las Vegas Strip because it was added throughout a 1977 renovation.
What’s the Large Deal?
The Flamingo is the oldest surviving resort identify on the Strip, having opened in December 1946. Its identify is imprinted endlessly on popular culture due to Hollywood’s fascination with the mobster who opened it. Nevertheless, Bugsy Siegel is given an excessive amount of credit score by popular culture for constructing the Flamingo.
The on line casino resort’s unique idea and identify got here from Billy Wilkerson, writer of the Hollywood Reporter, who confronted monetary issues throughout building which led him to tackle Siegel as a enterprise associate — a call he regretted when Siegel pressured him out of the challenge beneath menace of power.
