After my grandma died, we went up to the house where she lived with my uncle and sorted through her belongings, taking this and that. She had already given me things that I considered "of value" to me before her death, as she did to others, so there wasn't a lot of surprises. My uncle however, took me down to the basement where he stored his half of what he received after my great uncle died. I have a lot (presumably the other half) that ended up with my mom since my great uncle never had kids of his own. My uncle was looking to thin down his possessions and gave me free rein to take anything I wanted and I did end up with a lot of my great grandfather's possessions which I have blogged about in the past. One of the things that I took belonging to my uncle, I think, is a cardboard box full of slides. Yes I have the Steve Syndrome too. For those who aren't familiar, Steve blogs over at Shadows and Light and has numerous posts of old slides that he rescues from being tossed in the trash.
The first box I grabbed was labeled Sequoia and Las Vegas on one side and addressed to the husband of my great grandfather's sister. I'm still not sure why that is or what it means. The slides all have written notations on the cardboard frames and appear to be in my uncle's writing and from his point of view, i.e. when my great grandfather is in a picture, it is labeled "daddy". Perhaps my great uncle sent them to his aunt to show her their trip and later got them back.
Anyway, I thought I would post a few of the old hotel pictures on the Las Vegas strip, most with a picture taken during the day and one at night of their signage. According to the mailing stamp on the box, they were mailed in July 1966. The italics underneath the picture is the transcribed writing from the slide. From what I can tell, perhaps only the Sahara building is still standing. All the others were demolished and better/other buildings built on the site.
.jpg) |
| Riviera |
.jpg) |
| Riviera, Las Vegas Strip |
.jpg) |
| Sahara |
.jpg) |
| Sahara, Las Vegas Strip |
.jpg) |
| Sahara |
.jpg) |
| Thunderbird, Las Vegas Strip |
.jpg) |
| Thunderbird |
.jpg) |
| Stardust |
.jpg) |
| Stardust, Las Vegas Strip |
.jpg) |
| The Mint and Las Vegas Club |
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
Fascinating images. I guess that Las Vegas is a city that has never stood still - forever changing. I would have liked to visit The Sahara between 4.30 and 6am as it is liberating to go topless.
ReplyDeleteIf I were in the Sahara between those house, my chin would be on the floor. I would also be drooling as I snored in my sleep!
DeleteThese are great, Ed. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteI have never actually "been" to modern Las Vegas, except transshipping through the airport multiple times. My one memory is staying in a camper in with my family on our cross-country trip. We left at night and arose before dawn; my memory of the skyline is likely close to what is here.
I have driven by the place twice but have never stopped. Places with lots of tourist traps and people have never been my thing.
DeleteWow, you are doing some time travel here. The best slide is from the Sahara where, obviously, one had to arrive early for the topless show!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about it from the arriving early aspect. That certainly would appeal to me than trying to stay away until then from the day before.
DeleteLas Vegas has really changed - especially after the Mafia ex-attorney Oscar Goodman became mayor of the city. He termed out and his wife is now the mayor. Under his vision, fantastic hotels such as the Bellagio were built. He said he wanted to be mayor because he always wanted to be in the movies - and approval of movies had the requirement that he have a walk in part. Funny charming man.
ReplyDeleteMy husband and I went to Vegas in 1981 - for our honeymoon. We stayed at the California Hotel (still there) and I remember looking out and seeing desert land like in one of your pictures above. It sure is different now.
I've heard about the Mafia and Vegas, mostly through movies, but didn't realize how pervasive they were until I was looking into the history of some of the buildings shown above. I think I really need to find a book about the Mafia in Vegas to study up on.
DeleteMy first trip to LV was c. 1976 or 77 and I've been back numerous times over the years. I saw Johnny Carson there and it might well have been at the Sahara. I don't really remember. We saw a lot of the old casinos disappear over the years we visited and I'm not sure the current Sahara features any of the original architecture.
ReplyDeleteIf I ever go there for a visit, it would be to see some of the shows and sample the food which I've also heard is spectacular. But I've never been one for gambling beyond the nickel games I used to play with my great grandmother and grandma.
DeleteI'm not much of a gambler, either. LV has really made an effort to be family friendly and we always found lots of fun things to do with the kids.
DeleteThey scanned really well. It takes time and effort to do that.
ReplyDeleteI could get them a lot better for sure if I ran them through Lightroom and enhanced things a bit. These are raw scans of the slides, untouched by computer other than hitting the scan and publish buttons. They did hold up remarkably well. On a related thread, in some of the boxes were purchased souvenir slides which came out only in shades of red so they weren't nearly the same quality.
DeleteThose are definitely from the old era of Las Vegas. I'm not a fan of the city at all--not my style, but these shots from the past are priceless.
ReplyDeleteIt reinforces to me how I've been wrong my entire life as I have always preferred to take photos unadulterated by signs of man or man himself. But as I sort through these slides, 90% of them I don't bother scanning because they don't have signs of man or man himself. The ones that capture my attention are those that are of urban scenes with people in them. I need to concentrate on taking more pictures of those around me .
DeleteWow. These capture a bygone age, don't they? I've never been to Las Vegas, and it is really not a place that I've ever been interested in seeing.
ReplyDeleteIt is pretty low on my list too. I won't say I'll never go but perhaps I might someday if I'm in the proximity and have time to kill.
DeleteThere's so much to be said for physical photographs. I say that as I think of all the digital pics that I've inadvertently lost due to computer issues. I've never been to Las Vegas, but it never fails to fascinate nonetheless.
ReplyDeleteI'm doing my best to prevent the loss of photos by first, backing everything up to the cloud automatically as soon as it is saved to my hard drive. My second strategy is to make books out of the most dear and precious of those photos to give to my girls and hope they pass on to another generation.
DeleteEd. When you transfer LR to a new computer, you must remember to transfer the catalog files too. There are several of them.
ReplyDeleteThank you for that tip. I'll try to remember it for when I need it next, probably sooner than I think.
DeleteThe old Vegas that I visited first in 1965....fun to see the old slides, went back in about 1985 and nothing was the same. I was not old enough to go inside the casino in 1965, but stood outside with my brothers while my parents went in:)
ReplyDeleteSmall world that you were there only a year earlier.
DeleteThese are GREAT old images -- certainly of interest to anyone who is interested in Las Vegas area history. Betty Grable in "Hello, Dolly!" I wonder if your uncle saw the show? The slides preserved the colorful neon really well. And that desolate, dusty lot with the Golded Nugget sign and the Sahara hotel in the background probably looks a lot different now.
ReplyDeleteMy great uncle remained a theater/play enthusiast his entire life and even acted in many of them in Indianapolis where he lived. I wouldn't bet against him having gone and seen at least one performance while he was there.
Delete