During the 1950s Vegas was a much different place than it is today. At the end of World War II in 1945, the population here was only 8,400. By 1954 the population exploded to nearly 45,000 and all of a sudden more than eight million visitors made their way to Vegas, spending more than $200 million; that’s roughly $1.9 billion in today’s money.
By sharp contrast, there are currently 2.25 million people living in what is referred to as the Las Vegas Valley and last year there were more than 42 million visitors who pumped $59.6 billion into our economy. Not bad for a little getaway out in the middle of nowhere.
So how did that first boom happen?
Nearly 70 years ago, Sin City told a much different story than it does today. And unlike these days, or even during our heyday when Elvis, Wayne Newton and the Rat Pack were kings here, hotels and casinos needed a gimmick more than just gambling alone to attract tourists – and so we enter the age of atomic tourism.
While some places were signing headliners to attract tourists – Frank Sinatra did his first show at The Desert Inn in 1951 – some of the resorts relied on the government’s aggressive testing schedule to attract new customers.
In late January of 1951, the Nevada Test Site, located just 65 miles north of Las Vegas, began above-ground nuclear tests. Oddly enough it was the same year that the famous “Duck and Cover” PSA (public service announcement) came out. After one of the blasts was shown on television a year later, the atomic fever spread across the U.S., and the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce came out with a calendar showing the vantage points around the city to view the atomic explosions.
That was just the gimmick needed by the casinos to one-up their competition.
While atomic cocktails, atomic hair-dos, and even Miss Atomic Blast beauty contests became popular around town, some of the casinos began hosting star-studded viewing parties. Although it’s said that virtually any location along Fremont Street in those days was ideal for watching the bombs go off, it was reasonably easy to catch a glimpse of the tests from what we know as today’s Strip. Two hotels famous for advertising nuclear tourism were The Desert Inn and Binion’s Horseshoe. Rooms that faced north went for a premium because of their unobstructed views of mushroom clouds and bright flashes from the Nevada Test Site.
But casinos weren’t the only places cashing in. Joe Sobchik, the owner of a little bar and eatery that opened in 1945 as Virginia’s Café, located at 917 Fremont Street, realized that his customers were more interested in enjoying one of his “top-secret” atomic cocktails and watching nuclear blast tests from the roof of his establishment than they were in the food. So, he rebranded his business as Atomic Liquors and as the oldest freestanding bar in town. The iconic location with vintage space-age décor and all, still stands today; a remnant of the city’s past atomic tourism.
But has atomic tourism gone away?
While above-ground bomb tests were banned in 1963, right after the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, those who are interested can still experience the blast from the past with a visit to the National Atomic Testing Museum, which is located just south of the city. The museum has an incredibly detailed look at Nevada’s role in the development and testing of nuclear weapons and the culture around it.
So, while those star-studded, glitzy, atomic testing viewing parties of yesterday have been replaced by science and history lessons, in an extraordinary way atomic tourism still occurs. After all, what happened in Vegas, really did stay here.