Saturday, December 27, 2014

Las Vegas, June 1963

Now that we're finally done with Christmas, let's go to LAS VEGAS! Circa 1963. This is sort of a continuation of a post from July, which you can see HERE. It seems pointless to repeat the info that I have already given, so today will mostly be about the pictures.

Man oh man, what a sight! I've only been to Vegas once, and we never made it over to the Strip, where all of the old classic casinos once were. But I sure wish I could have seen the place when it looked like this!


I love this shot of some visitors bathed in the glow of neon and incandescent lights. 


This might be my favorite of this batch... I love the angle, and the view of the street. The California Club was a casino that operate from 1958 to 1973. Steve Wynn eventually bought it and make it part of the Golden Nugget casino. Notice the trio from the previous photo are in the crosswalk!


Speaking of the Golden Nugget...!


Aaaaaand here's a shot of the Fremont Hotel, all sparkly and twinkle-riffic. 


I hope you enjoyed today's visit to Las Vegas!

8 comments:

Nanook said...

Major-

ALL of these images are just simply too, too divine-! And your favorite image with the California Club is sporting a white, 1961 Plymouth Fury station wagon - with that wild grille and swoopy almost boomerang-like chrome (although most-likely polished stanless steel) "lines" outling 'something'. That "look" fits right in with all the glitz of the Strip.

Thanks, Major, for sharing more pics. from Sin City.

Chuck said...

Note that none of these were taken with a tripod or a flash, and there's only some slight motion blur on two walking figures in the third and fourth pictures. There's not a lot of picture grain, suggesting lower-speed film, a fast lens and an awful lot of ambient light. I'm suddenly reminded of Clark Griswold's Christmas display...

Major Pepperidge said...

Nanook, it's funny, I somehow acquired a whole bunch of night photos of Fremont Street (meaning 30 or 40). And I love them, but they all start to look alike after a while. Just like Disneyland pictures! Love the '61 Plymouth Fury station wagon.

Chuck, these are definitely good examples of night photography. I wish I had vintage night pix of Disneyland that were as good as these.

Melissa said...

OMG, I so want to jump through the screen and go see SEVEN BEAUTIFUL MODELS with those three.

Major Pepperidge said...

Melissa, I'm greedy and will settle for nothing less than EIGHT BEAUTIFUL MODELS. The guy in the checked shirt reminds me of Bing Crosby's son, the one who was in that Twilight Zone.

Anonymous said...

I'm fortunate to recall Fremont Street when it looked like this, before the pitiful "Fremont Street Experience".

It was nothing less than awesome. The buzzing sound and the palpable heat coming from the neon tubes was unbelievable. We usually visited in the winter (Presidents Day, I think) and the nights were cool, but you could hold your hand up above your head and feel the signs radiating heat down on you.

I was too young to be allowed in, so all of the interior was what could be seen from the sidewalk or the car window, but just spectacular memories here. Nothing else like it since, for me at least.

What remains is only a pale shadow. Thank you, Major.

JG

Major Pepperidge said...

JG, I envy your classic Fremont Street memories! I can almost hear the buzzing and feel the heat of the lights after reading your description. Vegas is still spectacular, but certainly not in the same way.

Sir Lung said...

The photo of the Golden Nugget following, "Speaking of the Golden Nugget" cannot possibly be 1963 – Lucky Club (seen in the previous photo) is not there. Golden Nugget absorbed the Lucky Casino space around '67 or '68, and then Nevada Club in '69. So it's got to be '67-69.

Too bad we can't see the attraction board at Golden Nugget – it's the easiest way to date the photos.