NeonSin

Neon history · 1980

Vegas Vickie

Fremont Street's 25-foot kicking neon cowgirl, put up in 1980, restored in 2020 and now inside Circa, the resort built on her old corner.

Photo: Paul K from Las Vegas, NV, USA, CC BY 2.0

In 1980 a neon cowgirl appeared above the entrance of the Glitter Gulch, a club on Fremont Street, partly to give Vegas Vic across the road some company. Designed by Charles Barnard, she is about 25 feet (7.6 m) tall and 20 feet (6 m) wide, in a fringed outfit, with one leg that kicks up and down. She first went by Sassy Sally, after a neighboring casino, before Vegas Vickie stuck. In 1994 the two signs were 'married' in a publicity ceremony.

Her timing tells a story. By 1980 the Strip's big resorts were pulling crowds south, and downtown was leaning on what it did best: dense, close-up, playful signs on a street you could walk. Vickie, swinging her leg above the sidewalk, became one of Fremont Street's best-known images. When the Fremont Street Experience canopy went up in the mid-1990s, she and Vic found themselves under a roof, with the street's light show moved overhead.

When Derek Stevens bought up the block to build Circa, the first new resort downtown in four decades, the cowgirl came down in 2017 and went into storage. Stevens wanted her back in public view rather than sent to the Neon Boneyard. Many retired downtown signs had ended up there; Vickie is one of the rare ones that went straight back to work on her own block, after three years in a crate.

The Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO) restored her. Crews matched her original colors from old photographs, stripped her to bare metal, hammered out dents, repainted her skin, bent new neon tubing and replaced the old hydraulic kick with a quieter motor.

Vickie was moved in one piece and lifted by crane into place before the walls went up, and Circa was built around her. The resort opened in October 2020, and she now presides over Vegas Vickie's, the lounge named after her. She sits close to the spot where she hung for 37 years, though now indoors, out of the sun and rain that wear out outdoor signs. Seen from the floor, she is far larger than she looked from the street.

Circa is a working casino, so check the resort's own site for current access to the lounge.

What to look for

  • The kicking leg, now driven by a motor rather than hydraulics.
  • The fringe on her outfit, picked out in neon.
  • The lounge beneath her, Vegas Vickie's, which is named after her.
  • Vegas Vic across Fremont Street, still on the old Pioneer Club.

Timeline

  1. 1980Installed above the Glitter Gulch on Fremont Street.
  2. 1994'Married' to Vegas Vic.
  3. 2017Taken down and stored as the Circa site is cleared.
  4. 2020Restored by YESCO and installed inside Circa, which opens in October.

Sources

Uncertain or disputed

  • Maker: some sources say YESCO built her originally; Wikipedia's Vegas Vic article places designer Charles Barnard at Ad Art. Left as null.
  • Removal year: KNPR and Wikipedia's Vegas Vic article say 2017; another Wikipedia article says 2018.
  • The restored Golden Goose sign, said by Wikipedia to have been placed elsewhere on Fremont Street, is left out.
  • Wikidata Q115941036 carries only a label and a Commons link; it appears to be the sign item but has no descriptive statements.
  • The 'Sassy Sally' nickname is attributed to a neighboring casino (YESCO) and to her original name (photo captions); both agree the name was used.