NeonSin

Neon history · 1959

'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign

Betty Willis's 1959 sign at the south end of the Strip: silver dollars, a red star, chasing bulbs and a message on the back for people leaving.

Photo: LasVegasGuy, CC BY-SA 4.0

The sign was a salesman's idea before it was a designer's. Ted Rogich, who sold signs, argued that Las Vegas had a sign for everything except itself. Betty Willis, a designer at Western Neon, drew it, and Clark County paid about $4,000 for the finished sign, which went up in 1959 on the highway into town from Los Angeles.

The design is a stretched diamond about 25 feet (7.6 m) tall, set on two offset posts. The seven letters of 'WELCOME' sit inside white circles meant to read as silver dollars, a nod to Nevada as the Silver State. 'Fabulous' gets its own looping script, and a red eight-pointed star crowns the top. Neon accents and a frame of yellow incandescent bulbs that flash and chase do the rest. Willis never copyrighted the design, which is why it appears on so many souvenirs.

'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign, another view
'Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas' sign, another view. Photo: Hermann Luyken, CC0

Willis, born in Overton, Nevada, was one of the few women working as a commercial sign designer at the time. She also designed signs for the Moulin Rouge, the city's first racially integrated casino, and the Blue Angel motel, and she regarded the welcome sign as a gift to the city. Keeping it lit has its own history: the county's tourism authority says a nearby motel owner first ran a power line to it, and since 2014 solar panels beside the sign have helped supply its electricity.

The sign is often treated as the southern end of the Strip, but it sits outside the City of Las Vegas, in unincorporated Paradise. It is owned by the Young Electric Sign Company, which bought Western Neon in the early 1960s and leases the sign to the county.

For years visitors crossed live traffic to take a picture. The county added a median parking lot in 2008 and expanded it later, and crosswalks and signals followed in 2015. The sign was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009 and on the Nevada State Register in 2013. Willis died in 2015, aged 91.

Expect a line at busy times, mostly for the classic straight-on photo. The lot is small; the Deuce bus, which runs the length of the Strip, stops close by.

What to look for

  • The seven silver-dollar circles behind the letters of 'WELCOME'.
  • The red eight-pointed star at the top.
  • The back of the sign, facing north: 'Drive Carefully' and 'Come Back Soon', meant for people leaving town.
  • The chasing yellow bulbs around the edge, best seen at dusk.

Timeline

  1. 1959Designed by Betty Willis, built by Western Neon and installed for Clark County.
  2. early 1960sYESCO buys Western Neon and with it the sign, which it leases to the county. uncertain
  3. 2008A median parking lot for visitors is completed.
  4. 2009Listed on the National Register of Historic Places (May 1).
  5. 2013Added to the Nevada State Register of Historic Places.
  6. 2015Betty Willis dies; more parking, crosswalks and signals are added.

Sources

Uncertain or disputed

  • YESCO's purchase of Western Neon 'in the early 1960s' is from Wikipedia; YESCO's ownership and lease to the county are reported more widely.
  • The motel owner's power line and the 2014 solar panels come from the LVCVA page only.
  • Parking-lot dates (2008, 2015) are from Wikipedia only; the LVCVA confirms parking was added decades after the sign went up.
  • The 1952 date for Rogich's first approach to Willis (Clio) is omitted.