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Joel Rosales/LeavingLV.net
Glass Pool Inn sign after being taken down.
Friday, June 8, 2012 | 12:10 p.m.
A favorite Las Vegas landmark is missing, and the Neon Museum is on the hunt for answers via Facebook.
The Neon Museum and Boneyard posted a photo of the Glass Pool Inn sign on its social media page Thursday, accompanied by the words “Have you seen this sign?”
The curvy blue sign that stood on Las Vegas Boulevard near Russell Road was being donated to the museum, but Danielle Kelly, the museum’s executive director, said she received a call Thursday from the facilitator of the donation, telling her that the sign has been missing since at least the end of May.
The sign was all that was left of the two-story motel with an above-ground pool with large, circular windows that allowed passers-by to see swimmers underwater. The motel, originally named the Mirage, was built in 1952 and demolished in 2006. It was widely photographed and featured in movies, including "Casino."
The sign was sitting on the property behind a locked fence. Nearby, construction is underway for SkyVue’s 550-foot tall observation wheel.
Kelly learned recently that the Glass Pool Inn sign had been taken down when a workman working on Las Vegas Boulevard called to tell her he had seen people digging through the scraps of the Casa Malaga sign, which had fallen apart while being dismantled.
Given the size of the Glass Pool Inn sign and what its extraction would require, the sign might not have survived its removal from the lot. Kelly says she doesn’t know the exact dimensions, but that removing it from the property would require breaking the lock, driving in a large truck — possibly a crane — and the manpower of at least two people.
Unlike many of the older cabinet signs in the Boneyard, the Glass Pool Inn sign was made of a curvy metal perimeter and plexi, which can be damaged easily. If a crane wasn't used, Kelly says, it would have needed to be cut apart. The sign was made up of several parts, including another curvy piece that featured the word “slots” and the marquee box listing the hotel’s amenities.
The photo of the sign and the announcement that “someone stole it from the site” was posted on the Neon Museum and Boneyard’s Facebook page just before 4 p.m. Thursday.
“I’m concerned somebody stole it for scrap and that it’s probably gone,” Kelly says. “It’s sad. It has such a sentimental value for people. People loved that place.”
This story first appeared in Sun sister publication Las Vegas Weekly.
find the sign
If it was so sentimental and had such great value, why wasn't it moved earlier to prevent any theft or damage? Not trying to be snarky, but just genuinely wondering why you wouldn't protect something like this better.
Really is to bad that there are people among us that feel the need to steal others property and part of our Las Vegas history.
This sucker is big, not going to be easy to hide. Hopefully someone comes forward and tells there where it is at.
I don't see any reason to blame the victims.
:-(
Did anyone ask Robert Plant???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AONyzALnc...
The original name of this motel was "The Mirage," until Steve Wynn bought the name. Its the same sign with the name changed.
I was with Joel of LeavingLV.net when he took that top shot. And actually, I was also the one who gave him the tip it was on the ground.
Such a shame this sign has gone missing though. I'm wondering if perhaps the property owner had anything to do with it. Such a great sign. One of my favorite shots has the Glass Pool Inn and Casa Malaga in the same shot looking south.
Very sad. Hope they find the crooks and get the sign back. I remember back in the swimming in their pool.
This is the crime of the century.
My guess would be metal thieves who cut it up and scrapped it. (Hopefully I'm wrong). Nowadays metal thieves steal thousands of dollars worth of components from well sites, construction sites, air conditioners, etc., including those actually running, for a few dollars at the scrap yard.
Too bad the Neon Museum doesn't post news like this on their own website. or a link to their facebook page
There was also a glass sided pool on the west side of the strip at one time, in addition to the fact that the Last Frontier had a stairway to walk down to an area that you could see the pool from the side.
Typical of the carelessness of the Neon Museum and their blame somebody else attitude. I alerted them 6 years ago that the sign was going to be available after Clark County issued a demolition permit. Did they make arrangements then to secure the sign and move it to the boneyard where it would be safer? NO! Thet let it sit to rust and for someone else to improperly take the sign down and lay it on the ground scratching it all up and breaking off any projections that remained. Oh, and after how many years and the museum is still not open to the public.
The Direct TV commercial that says "when you go to Vegas you lose everything" (wonder why people haven't compained about that) looks like it was shot in front of the "glass pool" site. However on closer examination, it looks like it was shot in NLV maybe by the Silver Palace? Not sure?
http://vimeo.com/40276935
It is the PINK MOTEL. not a motel but a movie set. I think it is in SOCAL.
Gee...is security at McCarran that bad?
Well 777's that's what happens when a "museum" is run by an artist who went to UNLV. Last time I checked, UNLV doesn't have a museum studies program and it takes a hell of a lot more than being an artist to run a major non-profit organization.
Look at what a mess the Bellagio Gallery has become with an artist in charge. Maybe if all of these yokels would stop giving jobs to their friends and clique members and actually went out and got talent this kind of thing wouldn't happen.
It's an embarrassment of the first order and, frankly, they should have kept their mouths shut about it. I wouldn't give a dime to a museum that lets its donations sit in the middle of a vacant lot unattended. Stupid is as stupid does.
I would just about guarantee that if they got in touch with the ownner of the lot they'd find out that the thing was sent to the trash.
Sportyetpractical: The whole darn lot of them at the Las Vegas Arts Commission, their staff, and the Neon Museum are either rich art collectors "who care about the city" or UNLV art majors who have never had a real job and have no idea how to manage anything. That breathy, soft spoken chic on the news yesterday was a horrible joke. They could have at least got Nancy Deaner out of ivory tower at new city hall. Look at that stupid, $850,000 paint brush project that did not work for 2 years in the arts district and now has almost no impact what so ever. Art man, wow.