Friday, August 20, 2004
Neon Sign Graveyard - Las Vegas
If you ever happen to be in Vegas, make an effort to visit the Neon Sign Graveyard. This is the place where all the cool old Vegas hotel and casino signs from the 50's-present go to die. There was one company that made all those signs, and instead of selling them to the hotels and casinos, they leased them. So when they redecorate or re-theme the hotels, the signs all go back to one place, and this is it. It's just a big fenced lot full of these old signs.
This place is not open all the time. You have to call and make an appointment, and they like to do tour groups of 10 people at $5 each. If you're nice, you can talk them into coming out for $50 for a smaller group. We had four guys and split the cost, it was worth it. If you call way ahead, you can probably get in on a tour that's already scheduled. The tour guides were great, and very knowledgable about the history of the signs, and Las Vegas.
One interesting thing we talked about... We stayed at the Treasure Island hotel, which we were disappointed to find out had been stripped of all the pirates and the hotel has been renamed "TI." The pirate show out in front of the hotel was replaced with the "Sirens of TI" show, which is basically a big midriff-baring dance routine with horrible music, kind of like a Britney Spears concert. We were talking about this with the tour guides. They said that the big "family-friendly" push in Vegas was basically a failure, as their casinos were quickly filling up with people pushing strollers just looking at everything and not gambling. The new buzzword now is "sexy." The neon sign graveyard has the giant skull that used to watch over the Treasure Island hotel.
For an interesting read about Pirates in Advertising, check this out:
http://jove.prohosting.com/sfspot/pirates.htm
or go to http://www.secretfunspot.com and click on the Pirates in Ads button.
This place is not open all the time. You have to call and make an appointment, and they like to do tour groups of 10 people at $5 each. If you're nice, you can talk them into coming out for $50 for a smaller group. We had four guys and split the cost, it was worth it. If you call way ahead, you can probably get in on a tour that's already scheduled. The tour guides were great, and very knowledgable about the history of the signs, and Las Vegas.
One interesting thing we talked about... We stayed at the Treasure Island hotel, which we were disappointed to find out had been stripped of all the pirates and the hotel has been renamed "TI." The pirate show out in front of the hotel was replaced with the "Sirens of TI" show, which is basically a big midriff-baring dance routine with horrible music, kind of like a Britney Spears concert. We were talking about this with the tour guides. They said that the big "family-friendly" push in Vegas was basically a failure, as their casinos were quickly filling up with people pushing strollers just looking at everything and not gambling. The new buzzword now is "sexy." The neon sign graveyard has the giant skull that used to watch over the Treasure Island hotel.
For an interesting read about Pirates in Advertising, check this out:
http://jove.prohosting.com/sfspot/pirates.htm
or go to http://www.secretfunspot.com and click on the Pirates in Ads button.
