OMG I have Goosebumps Rustytrombone said it best! I have been on here over an hour and will need to come back often to get through the linked photo/video sights and post what I can dig up. Talk about having a Vegas Googie Orgasm My photos began around the time preceding the DI implosion. Saw Rikels in the showroom and as he came out through the crowd (I requested the heckeler section seating) paused by me and pinched my cheek. Made my trip! Here's a link to the Las Vegas Chamber's web site with some vintage goodies! http://chamber100.com/decade/1970s-casinos-corporations Thank you everyone for the posts and photos. Just love the street views, cars, attire, in the rooms, casinos, smoking on the plane, the show times like Rikels, just wonderful!
My parents from The Netherlands went to Las Vegas in 1984. They shot 8mm movies back then. You guys might like it, check out: [YOUTUBE]9jeLL2Oo8XE[/YOUTUBE]
Awesome video. Love the Stardust sign. Also Lake Mead at capacity before Lake Powell sucked the life out of it. You know that the rock in Lake Powell is so porous, it leaks/loses more water into the rock each year than what the entire valley of Las Vegas uses in a year. Lake Powell is the worst engineering disaster in the country, and the Glen Canyon Dam will eventually have to come down if Lake Mead is to survive. http://www.americanownews.com/story/22765353/study-bank-seepage-a-big-loss-for-lake-powell
I agree...7 years later! What memories you all have brought back. I can't believe it's taken me this long to look at this thread. Now I have to see if I have any photos from my early visits when the Dunes, Desert Inn, Aladdin, Stardust, Silver City, Maxim, Westward Ho, New Frontier, and Boardwalk were always on the list of casinos to visit.
Hi, I am spell-bound with these fantastic vintage photos of Vegas and can only dream of what Vegas was like back then! You-tube has some great videos of Vegas in the 60's-80's as well. Thank you!
What really amazes me, and what I remember but have to be reminded of, is just how flat Las Vegas was back in the 1970s and 1980s! Back then the mega-towers were things like the Sahara, the Hilton (I still call it that) and of course the Landmark. Another thing that amazes me is that that boatload of photos I started taking about 2003 or so are now becoming "vintage", things like the photo walks around the Stardust, last days of the Ho, final night at the Frontier, etc. I really wish I had shot more. I stayed many times at the Sahara, mostly on business, but never did a photo walk around the property. Please, everyone (and most everyone has a decent camera nowadays), take photos of Las Vegas, 'cuz in another decade what you shoot may be gone! This next trip next month I am going to make a special effort to break away and go shooting.
What's amazing is that this thread has been going so long that the "modern" photos that were included on the original few pages of it are all outdated. Really enjoy looking at all the Vintage Vegas stuff. I've only been going since 1995 but so much has changed. Great stuff!
Very cool pictures. Growing up in the 60's and 70's those names on the marquees remind me of those variety shows that were so big on tv (Bob Hope specials, Sonny and Cher, Donny and Marie...). I've only known Vegas since it's Mega-resort days (first trip in '97)... thanks for sharing your memories folks!
Great thread... I've really enjoyed seeing the pics from Vegas back in the day. Here are a couple of videos I really enjoyed, made by some young guys back in 1988. I would've been 23 then, and this would've been fun. [video=youtube;xK_6EwGJSug]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xK_6EwGJSug[/video]
I saw some nice 70s shots of the strip while watching the first episode of the Rockford Files last night (RIP James). The strip was so flat and barren. -Max
