When the Lucky Strike Club gambling casino opened inwards 1954, at 117 Fremont St. inward downtown Las Vegas, two 12-foot prospectors stood guard from the upside of its rooftop sign. Seventy years later, those statues are allay around. They have survived trine gambling casino closures, a car accident, decades of desert insolate and wind, and a fire.
But they won’t hold up much longer.
Golden Boys
The prospectors were intentional past noted full creative person Katherine Stubergh. Referred to as “America’s Madame Tussaud,” her do work tin follow seen in the classic films Gone with the Wind (1939) and House of Wax (1953).
The sculptures were manufactured out of fibreglass by the YESCO signal fellowship inwards their Salt Lake City factory and installed on the Lucky Strike sign up with their own electrical feeds. When the contract was switched on at night, the prospectors jiggled their pans, which brimmed with lit “gold,” from face to side.
In 1963, the dimension became just the Lucky Casino and the prospectors were placed inward storage. Five years later, the neighboring Golden Nugget bought and razed the holding as component part of a block-long expansion.
But the statues were safe. Since 1964, they had been serving as photo ops in face of the Fort Lucinda Casino. That was component of a shade townspeople theme common created as an enlargement of the Gold Strike Hotel and Casino (today’s Herbert Hoover Dam Lodge). The townsfolk featured buildings relocated from the New Frontier casino’s Old Occident village.
The motif commons never caught on, and the Fort Lucinda Casino reverted to the Gold Strike name inwards 1968. But that was a serious solar day for the prospectors, who were placed back-to-back beneath the marquise of its unexampled roadside sign.
It was to follow their well-chosen rest home for the next 30 years.
When an accidental go off gutted the Gold Strike in 1998, its owners decided to relocate the miners to their other Gold Strike casino, placed 30 miles southward of the Las Vegas Strip in Jean, Nev.
Gold Dust
And that’s where the statues sit today. They’ve been the victims of vandalism and extreme sun-bleaching, and ace of their feet appears to feature been run o'er by a vehicle. But they’re noneffervescent there.
Only now, they safety a sad, derelict holiday resort awaiting the wrecking ball.
The Gold Strike was acquired inwards 1995 past the troupe that became MGM Resorts. In 2015, it was sold once more to the Herbst family, which rebranded it Terrible’s, the same unknown call used past the family’s local convenience stores and gas stations.
Herbst shut the former Gold Strike during the pandemic and ne'er reopened it — though its video sign on noneffervescent sadly flashes advertisements for long-expired specials.
Among the prospectors’ only if recent visitors has been the Wonderhussy Adventures YouTube channel, which specializes inward rummaging through and through abandoned desert sites that feature seen practically best days. (Watch the picture here.)
In 2022, the former Gold Strike was sold to Tolles Development, a Reno-based real estate troupe that, according to its website, plans to establish a 2.84 billion square-foot industrial centre on the land site and is currently publicizing for tenants.
As for what its plans are for the statues, Tolles did non payoff Casino.org’s emails or voicemails.
But their prospects don’t looking at good.
“Lost Vegas” is an occasional Casino.org series featuring remembrances of Las Vegas’ lesser-known history. Click here to show other entries in the series. Think you experience a upright Vegas story missed to history? Email corey@casino.org.
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