Photographed with permission at the Neon Museum, Las Vegas, Nevada.
It’s worth clicking through to see them full size on Flickr.
I should be able to tell you all kinds of cool stories about the Neon Boneyard, but the truth is, I wasn’t totally paying attention to the guide. As great as he was, it was too much to get my eyes to shut up so that my ears could listen.
The weathered surfaces, the peeling paint, the fading complimentary colors in the baking Nevada sunshine, the patterned rows of lightbulbs casting translucent shadows. More, still, the tall swoooping letters, 15 or 20 feet high, the stacked M-O-T-E-L letters, lying sideways, neon dinosaurs in the brown gray dust of the fenced lot. Things sharp and broken and rusted, the giant arm of a clown lying next to his equally giant shoe, his rebar skeleton showing through what was left of his sheet metal skin. A yellow stripe of neon bent in to a perfect circle on top of a red painted O, the letter E casting a perfect shadow underneath itself, a mosaic of bright yellow Hs, all interlocking.
There were too many places too look so I couldn’t pay attention to the stories about the Mafia, about the first black casino being shut down even though it was a crazy success, about a city with no clocks, about what used to be here in this area of chainlink and the old convention center. I should have listened more closely, but the color kept calling me away while in the back of my head I could hear it, like an echo…
She gets too hungry for dinner at eight
She likes the theater but never comes late
She never bothers with people she hates
That’s why the lady is a tramp.
Frank’s voice, the perfect far away sound for all this rust and entropy, a bright metal big band, a white jacket, a stripe of neon pink against the never quite black sky.
The Neon Museum is about five miles north of the Las Vegas strip. It’s 15 USD to visit, you have to have a reservation and it’s by guided tour only. It’s amazing. You should go.
Beautifully written. I realized as I read it that I had the same feeling when I toured the Mardi Gras World in New Orleans and wandered among all those towering fantasy figures.
I love this post. As a Vegas local, I can tell you that most everything here is new. Buildings, particularly on the strip, with any age or history are just waiting for the wrecking ball. I love visiting the Neon Museum as a reminder of how many times this town has reinvented itself. It may not preserve history the same way as other places, but it certainly has an interesting one.
You evoke wonderful visual poetry out of images that I would not otherwise look at twice. Thank you.
Lovely photos & post. Thanks for sharing it.
What a neat place. I go to Vegas all the time but I have never been there. I am adding it to the list!
Oh, fantastic! The bone yard is on my list for my next trip to Vegas. Thanks!
You know, I’ve never really cared about going to Vegas…but a trip to this place could convince me to go!
Great slide show. Thanks for sharing.
Cool slideshow with some great closeups! We just featured the Neon Boneyard in our article about one of a kind museums in Las Vegas. The Boneyard is currently closed for construction but we’ll be checking out the new facility when it reopens in the Summer of 2010.