Columnist Susan Snyder: Group takes Vegas back to the ‘50s

Friday, May 20, 2005 | 5:15 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursday and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

WEEKEND EDITION

May 21 - 22, 2005

As Las Vegas' 100th birthday celebrants continue to reminisce about cowboys and the Old West, a handful of residents will gather this week to shed light on a more modern view of Sin City's history.

At 7 p.m. Friday members of the Las Vegas Modern Committee will gather to discuss promoting and preserving the community's retro architecture and styles of the Mid-Century Modern era, which covers a period from about 1945 to 1960.

Friday's meeting, the group's second, will convene inside Modify, a store specializing in vintage Mid-Century Modern furniture, at 8 E. Charleston Blvd., Suite 8-A.

"We're living in a city that was built and raised in the modern style, and it's ironic that there isn't already a group" working to preserve it, said Jonathan Foerstel, the Las Vegas lawyer who founded the group.

"We're gradually losing signs of it. We need to gather our forces and preserve some of it," he said.

The World War II postwar period was one marked by optimism, celebration and an eye toward the emerging Atomic Age. It brought us sleek cars with fins and Jetsons-style architecture, along with Tupperware and Tiki mugs.

"Mankind had this idea that man had arrived in the future in the '50s, and there was all that optimism." Foerstel said.

The styles span the childhoods of most Baby Boomers, half of whom aren't 50 yet. As a result, he added, society hasn't embraced its value.

"People don't think it's history. But it's like stuff from the '20s. It catches up on you really quick," he said.

Foerstel moved to Las Vegas seven years ago from Los Angeles, which he says has a strong Mid-Century Modern preservation society. The child of a jazz musician father and a mother who worked as an anthropologist, Foerstel figures his fascination with the 1950s lounge music and curiosity for history started at home.

Another founding member, Mary Margaret Stratton, helped create the Los Angeles movement and also is restoring a 1957 house she owns just east of the Strip. Check it out on her Web site, www.lottalivin.com.

The Las Vegas group hopes to affiliate with an existing nonprofit historical preservation group and offer expertise and volunteer work focused on their era of interest.

One of their goals is to preserve the signs and structures north of the Strip and near downtown. Foerstel hopes that by educating the public and talking with owners of Mid-Century Modern buildings, the group can find economically viable options to demolition.

"We don't want to file lawsuits or anything," he said. "We just want to work to publicize these places and educate people."

Foerstel collects vintage Tiki mugs, but thrift-store pickings are getting slim.

"What used to be considered gaudy junk is really popular. Tiki mugs can bring $100 on eBay," he said. "The style has come back, and there's no better city (than Las Vegas) to promote it.

"In the Centennial, they're focusing on Helldorado and the very oldest buildings," Foerstel said. "But when the world thinks of Vegas, they think of the '50s Vegas, and that's almost gone."

For information on the meeting call Foerstel, (702) 837-5590.