Electrographic Architecture by Prof. Carolyn L. Kane;

Author:Prof. Carolyn L. Kane;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780520392595
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2023-07-28T00:00:00+00:00

FIGURE 5.4. In 1951, the Pioneer Club (opened in 1942) commissioned YESCO to build a neon replica of the original 1945 “Vic,” created by J. Walter Thompson Advertising. This postcard shows the new “Vegas Vic,” standing on Fremont Street atop the entry canopy of the Pioneer Club, smiling and waving in 50 feet of neon light. Author’s collection.

In 1956, Chicago-born YESCO designer Kermit Wayne introduced a wrapping sign concept for the Golden Nugget by positioning streams of animated neon lamps that collectively receded from the giant bullnose corner.78 Shortly thereafter, YESCO collaborated with architects McAllister and Wagner in redesigning Benny Binion’s classic Horseshoe outside the Horseshoe Casino (originally the Eldorado Club and Hotel Apache) on Fremont Street (kitty-corner to the Golden Nugget)79 to produce a 31-by-24-foot concave panel of interlocking yellow-gold neon “H” logos that served as a backdrop for the 13-foot illuminated horseshoe in the foreground, positioned above a 7-foot-high “H” and below that the word “GAMBLING.”80 Thirty years after its debut, it still held the title of the world’s largest neon sign.81

In July 1958, the Stardust Hotel and Casino gained the title of third-largest spectacular on the Strip. The hotel chose a Space Age theme, coinciding with the era’s fascination with space travel and the recent news of the Russian satellite Sputnik II. Wayne created a horizontally oriented sign of red and white letters in “Elektra Jag,” or “Atomic” font set against a sky-blue background that ran 217 feet long and reached 27 feet high with a large globe and stars decorating the backdrop.82 Mounted on twelve steel columns detached from the actual building (like many of the Leigh and Gude signs in New York; see chapters 3 and 4), the display required more than 30,000 feet of wiring to light its nearly 11,000 electric lamps and 7,000 feet of neon.83

In 1964, the Los Angeles Division of Federal Signs (LADFS) challenged YESCO’s world title when it produced a taller freestanding sign at the Dunes, located on the Strip. LADFS built the new Dunes sign on a steel structure filled with 267 cubic yards of concrete weighing 1.5 million pounds. Its feet were buried deep in the desert sands to withstand winds that could exceed 100 miles per hour, and one of the sign’s support legs came with its own service elevator. For a publicity event in 1964, a chorus girl posed on a mound of 7,200 electric lamps, echoing the enormity of bright lights used in the sign itself while delicately pointing to the top of the $500,000 spectacle, which displayed the resort name, “DUNES,” in 20-foot gold letters on a blue background with red arabesque framing.84 LADFS was proud of its achievement, as were those who wished to publicize it, but to others, its aggressive red neon was the cause for numerous complaints, especially from neighboring hotel guests who eventually saw their hotel rooms lined in thick drapes.85 The new Dunes spectacular also caught the attention of Denise Scott Brown, Robert Venturi, and Steven Izenour as one

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