Courtesy The Neon Museum
Showcasing the iconic signs of Las Vegas’ past are just one way the Neon Museum is preserving the city’s history.
Monday, Oct. 24, 2022 | 2 a.m.
It’s a big week for the Neon Museum. Although it was founded in 1996, the nonprofit organization’s current campus on Las Vegas Boulevard north of Fremont Street opened to the public in 2012, and this week the museum celebrates the 10th anniversary of that opening with a special celebration on October 28.
The formal affair will be held at Jungle Palace, the private estate of legendary magicians Siegfried & Roy, and will include guided tours, an appearance by the duo’s stage partner and friend Lynette Chappell (aka “The Evil Queen” in their long running Strip production show), and the honoring of Barbara Molasky, founding president of the Neon Museum.
Executive Director Aaron Berger at the Neon Museum.
And the party is only part of the anniversary celebration, falling in the middle of its innovative inaugural event, Duck Duck Shed: Celebrating Las Vegas Architecture, Design and Culture. Running October 27-30, it’s a collection of smaller events including walking tours, aerial tours, sessions with architectural and design experts and tours of Jungle Palace, all of them falling under the museum’s overarching mission to celebrate and preserve Las Vegas’ unique history.
“Las Vegas has the reputation of not preserving its history. There’s a perception that we are not historically minded, but that’s not true,” said Executive Director Aaron Berger. “It’s a city that’s constantly innovating and reinventing itself, but there are still so many examples of great preservation taking place. It may not be as in other cities across the country, with giant historical markers, but that’s not the way Las Vegas does it.”
Las Vegas visitors and locals are familiar with touring the neon signs and artifacts at the Neon Museum’s Boneyard, but that’s only part of the experience, Berger said. There are historic signs all over the Vegas Valley, some that are part of the museum’s collection and some that aren’t, and celebrating the full landscape is why Duck Duck Shed was created.
The event series takes its name from the terms used in the seminal architecture text “Learning from Las Vegas,” first published 50 years ago. Its authors noted that buildings are “ducks” when they represent their function through their shape and design, or “decorated sheds” that require signage to differentiate one from another. To use examples from the Strip, Excalibur and Luxor would be ducks, while the 65-year-old Tropicana and the one-year old Resorts World would be decorated sheds.
The varied programming of Duck Duck Shed — and many events have been sold out for weeks — includes lectures from nationally acclaimed speakers such as author, historian and architect Alan Hess, Mirage and Bellagio architect Jon Sparer, and photographer Janna Ireland. To find more information or available programs, visit neonmuseum.org.
“The anniversary events really focus on expanding the museum’s mission through several different avenues, and one is that we are going back to the concept of finding ways to use the entire city as our museum,” Berger said. “We launched a partnership in which we’re doing history by helicopter, so you can take the iconic ride up and down the Strip with Papillon Tours and there’s an opportunity to understand what hallowed ground these newer properties actually reside on. You can say, ‘Where am I staying?’ and learn the history of the place.”
Moving into the future, the Neon Museum will continue to expand strategic partnerships to find placement for some of its signs and pieces beyond the museum campus. One of the best-known displays is the “Hacienda Horse & Rider” on Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard. Berger said the museum is coming up with new ways to tell the stories behind these displays as well.
But for now, it’s all about the anniversary, the rich programming of Duck Duck Shed, and the celebration at Jungle Palace, the latter of which being an exclusive experience for attendees.
“The mission of Duck Duck Shed is to celebrate Las Vegas architecture, design and culture, and we started to think about the site-specific places that embody those three things,” Berger said. “To be able to tell the story of Siegfried & Roy and do it at Jungle Palace and highlight the history and architecture of that building itself, it really is an iconic location and we’re fortunate that the estate was kind enough to partner with us.”
