Here are some photos that I came across when cleaning out my office.  I'll be posting more over the weekend.  Feel free to leave comments about these pieces of Las Vegas history, especially those that aren't there anymore.

The Horseshoe Club in 1999

The Horseshoe Club neon front in 1999

Fallout Shelter sign from the 1950s used to be on a side street in Downtown

RoadsidePictures says this sign was destroyed a few years ago.  It used to be on Third Street.

Used to be on the side entrance to the Horseshoe Club before it became Binion's.

The Green Shack signs before they were torn down.  The Cocktails sign is now in the Neon Museum boneyard.

Mid-Century Home in the Scotch Eighties

Another mid-century modern home in the Scotch Eighties

Motel neon sign that was part of the Algiers

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau

Photo courtesy of As We Knew It

Word comes this morning from Norm! at the Las Vegas Review Journal that the Tropicana Hotel is closing its famed "Folies Bergere" show after an amazing (by Las Vegas standards) 49 year run.

The show will close on March 28

The cast was informed Wednesday night and the Tropicana released a statement today.

The Parisian revue opened on Dec. 24, 1959, under entertainment director, Lou Walters, father of broadcasting icon Barbara Walters.

"Folies Bergere enjoyed an amazing and unprecedented run on the Las Vegas Strip," said Ron Thacker, Tropicana Las Vegas President. "We are extremely proud to have been part of such an iconic Las Vegas production and offer a sincere thank you to the cast, crew and support staff for their many years of excellence."

The Tropicana management is currently in discussion with prominent producers and will reveal its definitive plans for the Tiffany Theater in the coming weeks, the release said.

This leaves Balley's "Jubilee" as the last of the iconic showgirl revues on the Strip.

 Photo courtesy of UNLV Special Collections

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau

Mayor Oscar Goodman, who is said to be looking into ways around the term limits he faces in two years so he can run again for mayor, gave his annual State of the City speech yesterday afternoon at the recently restored Fifth Street School.

According to the Las Vegas Review Journal:

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman struck an aggressive tone in his State of the City address Tuesday, saying that continued investment in downtown projects was necessary to sustain the economy in the short term and improve the city in the long term.

"We're not going to abandon our vision of being a great city," he said to a crowd of about 350 people in the newly renovated Fifth Street School on Las Vegas Boulevard. "The very foundation of what made us great seems to be crumbling around us.

"Rather than join in the chorus of doom and gloom, the government needs to be a beacon of stability."

Goodman pointed to several projects that need continued support, singling out Union Park first, then naming the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the nearly completed Lou Ruvo Brain Institute, and the promise of a World Jewelry Center and a flagship Charlie Palmer restaurant/hotel. A new city hall building should also be a priority, he said.

Not all of those are public projects, but the city of Las Vegas has put up funding for infrastructure work at Union Park.

The projects keep construction workers employed and could help diversify the local economy, Goodman said. Plus, the economic downturn has led to lower construction prices -- "a silver lining to this great retrenchment, or reckoning, from which we are suffering."

At last year's State of the City address, Las Vegas wasn't yet enmeshed in a budget crisis brought on by a souring economy and massive home foreclosures. After his speech, the mayor said he set out to find a firmer tone this year.

"Last year we didn't have any particular problems. We were talking about all our success with sustainability and livability," he said. "Tonight's speech -- I was hoping it would be a little inspiring, showing our commitment to going forward, to be encouraging as far as city projects are concerned."

He did not mention another high-profile project at all -- the Las Vegas Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, commonly known as the "Mob Museum," which will occupy the refurbished original federal courthouse building on Stewart Avenue.

The project has been mocked nationally since it was reported that Goodman put it on his wish list to receive funding from the pending federal stimulus package, along with the performing arts center and the new city hall building.

"That's been talked about so much the last week, I figured that we'd better get some face time on the other projects, which to me are legacy projects," he said.

In fact, Goodman wouldn't even say the word "mob" when answering questions about the museum: "I think everything that could be said about the M-O-B museum has already been said."

And from the Las Vegas Sun:

Mayor Oscar Goodman was upbeat and optimistic in his State of the City address Tuesday night, saying city-funded projects would create "a needed bridge through economic downturn until the private sector recovers."

Goodman listed a new city hall and the Smith Center for the Performing Arts as government efforts to create jobs and stimulate the local economy. He also encouraged the private sector to push forward with retail, hotel and gaming projects.

"We're going to rise again and we're going to recover faster than any other city and make Las Vegas an even better place to live and to dream," he said.

Projects completed in 2008 such as the Centennial Hills Community Center and renovation of the Fifth Street School, where the mayor gave his speech, show the city has the record to become an economic engine.

"With the downturn in construction we're able to get better prices today for public construction than we've seen in many years," Goodman said. "We're going to do our best to keep putting projects on the street that create construction jobs. We're going to do our best to help developers build projects that generate full-time jobs."

While the city continues to cut operating costs to offset a $150 million shortfall during the next five years, it would have to rely more on bonds than proposed federal funding to keep projects on track, Goodman said after his speech.

"Federal funds don't hurt but what we have to do is get the private sector's bonding sources back in action. Once we are able to fund our projects with bonds, we've been very successful in the past in doing that," he said.

The city will be receiving about $20.6 million in federal funds to purchase foreclosed properties and use them for affordable housing.

The city also will encourage the private sector to finish projects such as Tivoli Village at Queensridge, which developers announced will be delayed until spring 2010 -- one year later than planned -- because of the uncertain economy.

"We're going to encourage the private sector to participate in getting their projects off the ground. We're going to be of assistance to them," Goodman said. "They give our citizens jobs they create energy in a community."

In his speech, Goodman praised efforts to revitalize older east-side and downtown neighborhoods, attributing the turnaround in part to Councilwoman Lois Tarkanian's "Keep Everyone's Eyes on the Neighborhood" program.

"That has reduced crime. It has created a sense of community as a very, very special social project," he said.

Other accomplishments in 2008 that Goodman checked off included the opening of phase two of the Teton Trails Park in the northwest part of the city and the creation of the traffic court commissioner position, which collected $717,000 in fines last year.

Well the news from Las Vegas just keeps getting darker.  Gaming revenue was down 15% and tourism was down by 10% in November.  The bad news is that December numbers will probably be bleaker.  It was the 11th straight month of continuing declining numbers.

People who are actually visiting Las Vegas are not spending the large amounts of money they once did.  The Consumer Electronic Show is reporting a decline of 30,000 people at the show last week.

All this bleak news got me wondering if Las Vegas is headed the way of Detroit.  Despite its protests to the contrary, Las Vegas has for too long depended upon the gaming industry.  It seems the only way the City and the County know how to market themselves is to encourage people to come to Las Vegas and gamble.

Like Detroit and the automobile industry, Las Vegas and the gaming industry are linked together when the economy turns sour.  Gaming revenues and tourism numbers are at lows not seen since 2004.

They keep hoping that upcoming conventions will staunch the flow but with CES reporting 30,000 fewer people, chances are the upcoming conventions will all be reporting fewer people.

Taxes on gaming revenues are down over 20% due from last year.  CityCenter is pulling back on the number of condo towers they are going to have.  Boyd Gaming is keeping a skeleton crew going on the Echelon but it is basically not moving forward at any great speed.  The Manhattanization of Las Vegas has come up against the bursting of the housing market bubble.

The sad part is that it doesn't have to be this way.  The Las Vegas Valley has a myraid of ways it could be promoted.  There's Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.  The Dam is  one of the engineering marvels of the 20th century and should be on more Americans must-see list.

There are history museums devoted to Natural History and early Las Vegas history.  There is a museum dedicated to Atomic Testing.  You can even sign up and take a tour of the Nevada Test Site.  There are art museums, a children's museum, historical neighborhoods, walking tours and driving tours.  You could spend a day at the Las Vegas Springs Preserve walking along nature trails and learning more about the importance of water to the desert.

There are day trips to the Valley of Fire, Red Rock Canyon, Mt. Charleston, Bonnie Springs Ranch.  You can tour the old Techatticup Mine in Nelson.

The point is if Las Vegas wants to continue to tie its fortunes to gaming then it has to wake up and realize that the good times are not endless.  They are like Detroit in that they are a company town with the majority of their tax revenues, jobs and financial well-being all tied to one industry and when that industry takes a dive it takes the economic health of the town with it.

It's time that the City of Las Vegas, the County and the Convention Authority realized that Las Vegas has much more to offer visitors than just gaming.  Whether its the area around Fremont Street or the Strip, Las Vegas has culture, the arts and cultural tourism that has for too long been ignored due to the thinking that gaming is the end all and be all of what Las Vegas is all about.

After 11 months of bad news and with more coming in the months ahead (because the economy is not going to turn around overnight) now would be good time to rethink the idea of tourism in Las Vegas before it's too late.

The auto industry is getting a federal bail-out and Detroit will get a reprieve.  A federal bailout for the gaming industry is a pipe dream that isn't going to happen any time soon.  If Las Vegas doesn't want to be left in the ashes of history, it's time to start thinking of other ways to promote the town so that all the eggs aren't in one basket.

Cultural tourism should be at the top of the list of ways to promote the town that don't include gaming.

Dennis and me at Jack LeVine's Christmas party at Frankie's Tiki Room

I just wanted to send Birthday wishes to my brother in spirit, Dennis McBride.  Dennis was one of the main inspirations behind my getting interested in preserving 20th Century Las Vegas history.  His oral histories with the men who worked on the building of Boulder/Hoover Dam and the women who helped build Boulder City into more than just a Federal reservation were key to inspiring me.  His pioneering work at the Boulder Dam Museum as well as his work in chronicling the history of the Gay and Lesbian movement in the Las Vegas Valley serve as inspirations to us all.

He is currently the Curator of History at the Nevada State Museum and he is a member of the Friends of Classic Las Vegas.

History buffs and preservationists around the valley owe a debt of thanks to Dennis and that is why we are wishing him a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Dennis, may all your birthday wishes come true!