Bluebell Chorus girl backstage at the Stardust, 1959. Photo: Ralph Crane for Life
Stardust. Las Vegas, June 1964. 35 mm Kodachrome by Rsyung
Behind the spectacular neon sign, Stardust’s rooms were traditional low-rise motel buildings. In 1964 the hotel opened a 9-floor hotel tower, barely seen here to the right.
Stardust. Las Vegas, 1967.
Exact date unknown, before July.
Stardust, 1979. The first photo is on Las Vegas Blvd. The second photo is taken on Desert Inn Rd – a section of the road that no longer exists – behind Monaco Motel (left) and Gold Key Motel (center). Photos by Man@Helm.
Back stage at the Stardust, 1955 | Photo by Ralph Crane for Life
Snapshots from Las Vegas, 1960. Stardust, Dunes, Frontier Hotel. via Ohio Postcards.
The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream (2017) by Stefan Al, is the latest addition to the Vintage Las Vegas library, and one of the most comprehensive studies of the Strip’s architectural and cultural evolution.
Viva Las Vegas: After-Hours Architecture (1993) by Alan Hess, the go-to authority on Las Vegas architectural history, from roadside motels to the resorts of the 90s.
The Magic Sign (1993) by Charles Barnard. History and virtual encyclopedia of Las Vegas signs, manufacturers, and designers. Out of print.
Learning from Las Vegas (1972) by Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Steven Izenour, was a landmark study examining symbolism in architecture. Las Vegas Studio (2009), collects many of the 1966-1968 Las Vegas photos taken during the team’s research, and is the primary inspiration for VLV.
The Bright Lights of Las Vegas, postcards 1943 and 1951
G. I. Pitchford, photographer and producer for Curt Teich postcard company, worked on “Bright Lights” for more than a year, photographing “new and important signs on each trip over to Las Vegas,” according to Jeffrey Meikle’s Postcard America.
The collage might have been inspired by Walker Evans’ Times Square / Broadway Composition. Another postcard company made a copy around 1950. A similar multi-exposure photo was created in the 70s by Denise Scott Brown and Robert Venturi.
Postcards via Retroland.
Somewhere near Fitzgeralds, 1990
Many of the pictures on Vintage Las Vegas are taken by unknown tourists, amateur photographers. Others are from pros, shooting commercial work for news or travel. Photographer William Greiner drove around Las Vegas in 1990 with a camera aimed at shadows, colors, and passing moments. This building might have been somewhere on South 1st – hard to tell. The photos was posted with others in 2010 on his website Fotoarttoo.
Las Vegas Blvd near Tropicana, April 1971. The photographer may have been on foot – other photos taken just a few steps south of here.