Famous Vegas Places: The Pioneer Standards
The Golden Nugget casino was the most avid in commemorating the frontier.
One writer termed its style 'Early Western Saloon'. The plushly carpeted club featured innumerable nude figures--- on the walls, in the bar, and atop slot machines.
Indian heads decorate the one-armed bandits, and signs posted throughout the building imitated productions of the 1890s.
As usual, the casino lounge went to the greatest lengths. In addition to old-time barroom woodwork and furniture, the saloon featured a ceiling that must have been inspired by San Francisco's nineteenth-century Barbary Coast.
Tony Lucy, owner of the Golden Nugget, naturally dressed to conform to the style of his casino. He sported a bright green 'stockman's suit', a cravat embroidered with the figure of a naked woman woven in gold thread, and cowboy boots with plates of solid gold on heels and toes.
Dealers, croupiers, waitresses, and other employees all wore western-style uniforms in the clubs along Fremont Street, and Country and Western music filled the lounges, eateries, and gaming rooms. By exploiting every possible opportunity to expound the last frontier, casinos created an overwhelming effect.
Downtown Las Vegas maintained its last frontier identity throughout the post-war era.
Those who observed the district between 1945 to 1960 acknowledged the pervasive atmosphere of the old West, which spread beyond casinos to characterize the general appearance, special events, local journalism, and persistent promotion of the urban area.
National journalists reiterated perceptions of the old West as they flocked to the sensational new resort in search of stories.
Local boosters never lost sight of the promotional pitch that identified downtown Las Vegas with frontier freedoms and western informality.
The town continued to promote Helldorado just as before, and in 1946 the Chamber of Commerce added a new gimmick--- it decided to name more fittingly the three-block stretch of Fremont Street where casinos had become so densely packed together.
When the Chamber of Commerce elected to call the neighborhood 'Glitter Gulch', it incorporated not only the last frontier theme, but also the influence of Hollywood.
Local boosters later had second thoughts about the new nickname, and ultimately reverted to the blander 'Casino Center' to delineate the downtown glut of gambling halls.
The label 'Glitter Gulch' stuck nonetheless. As gaudy and compact as the downtown district itself, it well described central Las Vegas after 1940.
New and expanding casinos, named and decorated with the frontier heritage in mind, continued to eliminate virtually all other forms of downtown life on Fremont Street during the late 1940s and the 1950s.
By 1955, only one drug store, complete with slot machines; one telegraph office, where losers wired home for money; and one bank, for cashing travelers' checks; remained on those busy blocks of Glitter Gulch.