Skip to main content

The Sign

In this episode, The Sign . . .

Raise your hand if you’ve heard of or remember the futuristic design of the 1950s dubbed Googie architecture? Googie architecture was optimistic, experimental, and exciting. And you might already be familiar with it. Animators for The Jetsons used Googie buildings for inspiration.

Entering Las Vegas, Nevada, from California on Arrowhead Highway/Highway 91, now called “the Strip,” you can still find cherished remnants of roadside America from its motoring past.

While visiting Las Vegas in 2014, staying at Mandalay Bay, I was delighted to discover  the “The Sign.” It’s worth a look just to glimpse Las Vegas’ history.

That is provided you have the pluck to make your way from your room through the maze of the modern monolith hotel/casino and can get outside for an early morning walk; you, too, can discover this quaint roadside attraction.

Admittedly, I’m an early bird, out the door by 5:15 a.m., enjoying a light breeze and a pleasant 78 degrees. Keep in mind even in late May, temperatures in the desert can quickly exceed 100 degrees. My morning walk reminded me of the dramatic scale contrast between the old and the new. The 1950s roadside motels sit in the shadow of the massive Mandalay Bay.

Headed south as the rays of golden sunrise peek over the horizon, unknowingly, I approached the famous Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada sign, built in 1959 and now powered by a solar array. Amazingly, I had never seen this sign before (except in movies).

As I approached from the north side, the large bold red and blue scripted font read, Drive Carefully Come Back Soon. Huh, what’s this? I thought. So, I crossed the street to the median and walked around to read the placard next to the large solar panels.

Here are a few fun facts:

  • 25-feet tall
  • Designed in 1959 by Architect Betsy Willis
  • It is a horizontally stretched diamond-shape
  • The design was never copyrighted and remains in the public domain
  • The white neon circles were designed to represent silver dollars
  • In December 2008, a 10-acre parking lot was built for tourists
  • Added to State Register of Historic Places in December 2013
As it’s known to the locals, the sign is located in the center median at 5100 Las Vegas Boulevard South, just north of the historic stone pillars of the old McCarran Airport and across from the Bali Hai Golf Club. According to the GPS on my phone, this landmark sits in the town of Paradise and is located roughly four miles south of the city limits of Las Vegas.

Surprisingly, the design looked familiar. So, I did a quick Google search and tapped on the Googie link; I had seen this style before. Some examples of those familiar with Los Angeles are Norms Restaurants, Johnie’s Coffee Shop on Wilshire Boulevard, the oldest McDonalds in Downey, California, which opened in 1953, the classic drive-in theater signs, and the central Theme Building at the Los Angeles airport.

Today, you can see many diamonds in the desert in Las Vegas, but not one that represents such a blast from roadside America’s motoring past.

I'm Patrick Ball; keep those screens lit, and thanks for listening. See you in the next episode.
Labels:

Comments

Anonymous said…
My cousin and I were in Vegas in '75. Small town youths in sin city. We stayed at the Hilton. Bill Cosby was headlining there. We slept during the day and went out at night. We were in a blur of alcohol,gambling and strip shows. Quite fun. We saw Cosby's act, Sheckey Green and other famous people I can't remember. Steve Lawrence was in the audience at one show and I got within a foot of him as he was leaving..WooHoo! I had long hair back then and I must have looked like a drug dealer or buyer because people kept coming up to me during our Vegas stay to sell or buy drugs from me. Pretty funny. My only drug was alcohol at that point. Our week went by quickly and we flew back home..first class..cheap back then. Those were the days...
August 25, 2020 at 9:32 AM
Post a Comment

Most Popular of All Time

The Birth of a Cubs Legend

In this episode, The 162-Game Exhale — and the Birth of a Cubs Legend There’s a hush in the baseball world on Game 162 — a collective breath drawn in and slowly released. Scoreboards stop flipping. Dugouts empty. For six months, the game has been our steady heartbeat, pulsing from the cherry blossoms of Tokyo in March to the crisp, playoff-charged winds of late September. And now, as the regular season exhales, baseball fans everywhere pause to absorb the story we’ve just lived. For me, that story has been deeply personal. This season unfolded in the rhythms of my daily life. It was the summer soundtrack echoing beneath the constant turmoil of politics and sensational headlines. It was a handful of carefully chosen ballpark pilgrimages stitched together with countless nights in front of MLB.TV. And at the center of it all, for a lifelong Cubs fan like me, it revolved around one name — a young center fielder who turned hope into history: Pete Crow-Armstrong. The 2025 season didn’t begin...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Pessimism Aversion Trap

In this episode, The Pessimism Aversion Trap Picture this: a room full of bright minds nodding in agreement as a bold new strategy is unveiled. The slides are polished, the vision is grand, and the future, we're told, has never looked brighter. Everyone beams—because who wants to be the one to say, "Um… this might not work"? Heaven forbid someone spoil the mood with a dose of reality. Better to smile, add a buzzword or two, and march confidently toward disaster. That's how the Pessimism Aversion Trap works. Even now, I can still hear the sound—a high-pitched shriek and a digital hum, followed by the slow, rhythmic clatter of data pouring from a 5¼-inch floppy disk. It was the late 1980s, and my makeshift home office (our living room) was dominated by what felt like a marvel of modern engineering: a used Tandy 1000 PC with not one, but two floppy drives. To top it off, we purchased a 'blisteringly fast' 300-baud modem—which, for the uninitiated, could downloa...
1 comment
Read more

Pushing the Pause Button

In this episode, Pushing the Pause Button: Stepping Off the Treadmill Hello, friends — If you're reading this, I'm already off the grid. Today begins a much-needed vacation, and for the next few weeks, On the Fly is taking a break right along with me. For a long time, my inner voice has said, 'Keep every commitment, no matter what.' That's meant early mornings, long days, and a calendar packed with posts, podcasts, and projects I couldn't seem to say no to. I've been trying to be the tireless workhorse—but that kind of grind doesn't end well. Lately, I've noticed I'm not quite myself—shorter fuse, louder sighs, and a few too many grumbles (Lori deserves a medal). That's when you know it's time to hit pause before the spark burns out. So, I'm stepping back to rest, recharge, and remember what it feels like to not live by the next deadline: no tech, no to-do lists, just some space to breathe. Thank you, truly, for all your support and ...
2 comments
Read more

The Friday Morning Pause

In this episode,  The Friday Morning Pause: When My Brother’s Bookshelf Called Me to Stillness We live in a world allergic to stillness. Our mornings begin mid-sprint—thumbs scrolling before our eyes even open. The impulse to jump into the digital chaos is immediate. But sometimes, stillness finds you . It was early Friday morning. We’d arrived late the night before, stepping into the cool air before the day turned hot. Half-awake, I reached for my phone—emails, headlines, social feeds waiting like a morning buffet of distraction. We were in Cuba. No Wi-Fi. No 5G. No password. Just stillness, disguised as inconvenience. Instead, I caught sight of something unexpected: a small stack of books on my brother’s TV shelf. My brother and his wife are powered by perpetual motion. They are the definition of overscheduled and overstimulated. Yet there it was: Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday, quietly mocking my scrolling habit. The irony was perfect. I put my phone down—a small, delibe...
Post a Comment
Read more