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Summarized by Kent Larsen
How A Mormon Salesman Brought Neon To Las Vegas
(Neon: A light history)
American History pg28 Jun00 B2
By Joseph Gustaitis
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- An article in the magazine American History
credits the introduction of Neon lights to Las Vegas to a Mormon
salesman. The article covers the history of Neon in America, along
with a little of its scientific and commercial development in Europe.
Neon came to the United States in 1923, arriving first on a Packard
automobile dealership in Los Angeles, where the signs literally
stopped traffic, leading police to station officers outside the
dealership to keep traffic moving. It quickly took off, and in just
seven years, according to some estimates, half of the lighting used
in outdoor advertising was neon.
Oddly enough, the neon revolution passed up Las Vegas until 1935,
when enterprising Mormon salesman Thomas Young created the first neon
spectacular in the town, the Boulder Club marquee. Young went on to
found the Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO), still a major player
in outdoor advertising in the West.
But Young's sign was early in Las Vegas' development. While gambling
was legalized in Nevada in 1931, and the completion of the Hoover Dam
in 1936 gave the city a strong supply of electricity, it wasn't until
after World War II that the city developed its reputation, following
the establishment of the luxury casino the Flamingo by mobster Meyer
Lansky.
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