Controversy absent on famous Vegas sign

Wednesday, July 27, 2005 | 9:48 a.m.

Long before there was a slogan "What happens here, stays here" there was a sign that said -- and still says -- "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas."

While there has been legal wrangling over the trademark of the "What happens here" slogan, the sign, erected in 1959, had no such controversy.

"I wanted the sign to be public domain to prevent the very thing that is happening right now (with the slogan)," said 82-year-old neon artist and native Las Vegan Betty Willis, whose famous diamond-shape sign has for 46 years greeted visitors at the south end of the Strip.

"I wanted it to be used over and over again. I was afraid if people had to pay, they probably wouldn't have used the sign" for advertising purposes.

The sign is world famous and adorns trinkets big and small. It was used most recently as part Las Vegas' centennial celebration logo.

Willis, who now does artwork for a silk-screen shop owned by her daughter Marjorie Holland, created the large neon sign for the small Western Neon Co. and sold it to Clark County for $4,000.

R&R Partners unveiled the "What happens here" slogan in 2002 as part of a national advertising campaign to promote Las Vegas. The LVCVA, which paid for the $58 million ad campaign mostly through hotel and motel room tax revenue, could have chosen to capitalize financially on the slogan but did not.

R&R is suing a California woman who has been making clothing with a similar slogan, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

Willis' sign has since been used as a logo on T-shirts, mugs, hats and just about anything that can be sold. Untold millions of dollars have been made off the sign, but Willis has not benefitted financially from those sales.

Willis, who also designed the famous script sign for the Moulin Rouge hotel in 1955, said she was inspired to create the "Fabulous Las Vegas" sign by her father, Las Vegas pioneer S.R. Whitehead, Clark County's first tax assessor, who died 18 years before the sign went up.

"Dad was so strong on getting people to come here," Willis said. "I'm not unhappy over what happened (concerning lost profits). I still believe I did the right thing. I think my dad would be proud of what the sign has accomplished."