vintagelasvegas

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Fremont Street, c. July 1961, on either side of 3rd. New sign at the Horseshoe under construction.

#1961 #Fremont & 3rd

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Las Vegas 1910s-1920s - Facing east over South Main & Bonneville in a series of photo-postcards each taken from the ice house.

1. Early-20s. The large building on the far left is the Clark County Courthouse, built in ‘14. Postcard from the George Wharton James Papers, UNR.

2. Early-20s. Postcard from Elbert Edwards Photograph Collection (PH-00214), UNLV Special Collections.

3. Wharton Drug store postcard 1910s, c. ‘11-‘15. Two blocks in the distance are the company houses, aka Railroad Cottages, east of 2nd St (Casino Center) between Clark and Garces. Back of postcard.

4. 1910s, “before the shade trees were all planet and grown up.” The far-right in the row of railroad cottages in the distance is 629 S Casino Center Blvd.

#1910s #1920s #Railroad Cottages

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Golden Nugget April 1964

The Buck Owens Show. Scan from medium format slide. April 64 Collection

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State Line Chevron & Bar, c. 1960s Whiskey Pete's restaurant, State Line (Primm), Nevada, 1983

Postcard & photo from Felix Lenox, Nevada Armored Transport. 

When U.S. Route 91 was established in the 1920s along the Nevada-California border, "Whiskey Pete" McIntyre opened the State Line service station. McIntyre shot a man at the station, spent time in a sanatorium, and was buried on the property when he died. On his deathbed Pete made a request: "Bury me up on the hill, standing up facing the valley so I can see all those sons of bitches goin' by."

The land was later owned by gaming pioneer Ernest Primm, who opened Whiskey Pete's in '77. It was a casino with a 12-room motel, and a coffee shop. A hotel tower was added in the 80s. The business passed on the son Gary, whose Primm Valley Resorts opened Primadonna and Buffalo Bill’s casinos in the 90s and renamed the area Primm.

As the decade passed the exact location of Whiskey Pete's burial site was lost. Workers grading a railroad track linking the resorts in '94 accidentally uncovered his coffin and remains.

"The tractor caught the edge of the box and the skull popped out," said the project manager Bruce Sedlacek. "There was Whiskey Pete staring at us."

Sedlacek said the coffin was about 80 percent intact and buried "at an angle" to the highway. The remains were moved to another burial site on the property.

Whiskey Pete McIntyre faces Charge. Review-Journal, 3/26/31; Whiskey Pete Is Freed of Insanity Count. Review-Journal, 10/15/32; Whiskey Pete Can Stand in Grave in Peace. Review-Journal, 2/10/41; D. Palermo. Remains of Whiskey Pete Found. Review-Journal, 2/5/94; L. Benston. Primm's Lure: Freebies. Las Vegas Sun, 7/2/2009.

#1983 #State Line

[vintagelasvegas]

Backstage at the Dunes, 1964

Dancers of Vive Les Girls, Bernard Charey (seated), Jacqueline Douguet (right), the other unknown.

Photo by Harry Krieger, Esquire Mag.

#1964 #Dunes

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Las Vegas Strip, April 1977

(1,2) Hacienda. Redd Foxx, Spice on Ice. (3,4) Tropicana fountain. It was demolished months later. (5) Free Aspirin & Tender Sympathy sign at Union 76. (6,7) Tahiti Motel, and the Aladdin. (8) Approaching the Denny’s, Royal Palms Motel, and the Dunes. (9) Holiday Casino and Holiday Inn.

Slide scans from Felix Lenox, Nevada Armored Transport. 

#1977 #Hacienda #Tropicana #Free Aspirin Tender Sympathy #Aladdin #Dunes #Holiday Casino

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Detonation of the nuclear device air-dropped at Nevada Test Site on March 29, 1955. Code named: Wasp Prime.

National Nuclear Security Administration, Nevada Site Office.

#1955 #Nevada Test Site

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Sundown Motel, Boulder Hwy – 1956

Two versions of the motel sign in the photos. (1) 1956, Nevada State Museum Las Vegas, VR-621G. (2) Undated, Postcard.

The motel was built on Boulder Hwy circa '54 at what is now 3265 Fremont St. In later years Sundown became the annex of Capri Motel. The Sundown wing was torn down in '98 except for the rear portion which is current the office of an automobile dealer.

#1956 #Sundown Motel

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Jayne Mansfield on Fremont St, 1959

In front of White Cross Drugs, Fremont & 2nd, and in the same intersection with Fremont Hotel in the background. Photos by Bruno Bernard, aka Bernard of Hollywood, from the same set as Jayne Mansfield shopping at Market Town.

#1959 #Fremont & 2nd #Bernard of Hollywood

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Flamingo, April 1968. Las Vegas debut of Tom Jones.

Slide scan by Nevada Armored Transport.

#1968 #Flamingo

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Fremont St, Summer 1961. The main facade of Horseshoe's sign has been installed; the U-shaped horseshoe figures not yet been installed atop the display.

Same time other direction.

Low res scan from TC's Southern Ridge

#1961 #The Mint #Horseshoe

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View from the Dunes, c. December 1984.

Photo by Gunnar Kullenberg.

Caesars, Imperial Palace, Holiday Casino, Sands, Castaways. Circus Circus Casino Tower West in the upper right.

#1984

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Tropicana, c. 1960

Facing northwest. West Tropicana Ave does not yet exist. Photo by Las Vegas News Bureau.

#1960 #Tropicana #Las Vegas News Bureau

[vintagelasvegas]

Tropicana, February 1976. Don Cherry, Gale Baker, Folies Bergère '76. Top left: Paradise Hotel (115 E Tropicana). Photo by Las Vegas News Bureau.

Tropicana sold Folies Bergere in '75 to an entity called Production Leasing operated by Joe Agosto, and the show was leased back to the Tropicana. Nominally Agosto was just the owner of the Folies but Gaming Control Board investigators believed Agosto was managing the casino and overseeing a skimming operation for the Kansas City mob. The sale and lease-back of the Folies was an apparent move to shield Agosto and the company from the Board’s oversight.

Agosto was later arrested and subsequently plead guilty to a casino skimming conspiracy in a deal to become a witness in the Justice Department’s investigation into the crime syndicate’s influence over several Las Vegas casinos. Tropicana was sold to Ramada Inns Inc. in '79. Agosto died of a heart attack 8/29/83 while in federal custody.

“I owned Aztar stock in the 90s. It was the parent company of the Tropicana at that time, a spin off of Ramada motor hotels. Reading the annual report was amusing. The deals and sub deals on everything. Quite complicated for just a hotel. But the one thing I remember distinctly is the part where all the furniture belonged to and was leased from a Kansas City company. I was always reputed that this hotel was controlled by the Kansas city outfit. No smoking gun just a notation in a financial disclosure.” - Gus Archer to Vintage Las Vegas, 2024.

J. German. Joe Agosto death cripples Mafia probe. Las Vegas Sun, 8/30/83; AP. Joseph Agosto, 61, a Witness In Underworld Gambling Case. New York Times, 9/1/83; D. Gomes. Hit Me. Lyons Press, 2013.

#1976 #Tropicana #Paradise Hotel #Las Vegas News Bureau

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Closing marquees. Dunes in 1993 started the tradition of farewell messages on the sign, just before the started the tradition of implosion spectacles.

Dunes, '93 by Ray Tutaj Jr. / Sands, '96 by Allen Sandquist / Aladdin, '98 by Lennox McLendon, AP / Stardust, 2006 by Laura Rauch, AP / Frontier, 2007 by Allen Sandquist / Sahara, 2011 by Ethan Miller, Getty Images / Riviera, 2016 by Steve Marcus, Las Vegas Sun / Tropicana, 2024

#Dunes #1993

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Fremont Street, c. May 1959

Banners overhead for Helldorado celebrations. The top photo is at the park in front of Union Pacific depot facing east; the other at Fremont & 4th facing west. Milk's was a new restaurant that took over for and adapted the sign of Corey's Fine Foods.

Slide scans by Vintage Roadside

#1959 #Fremont & Main #Fremont & 4th

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Tropicana, 1960

The neon "Tropicana" sign was added over the fountain in 1960.

#1960 #Tropicana