edible traditions
NEON CULTURE
Celebrating a diminishing art.
WRITTEN BY JEN A. HUNTLEY
PHOTOS COURTESY OF NEVADA MUSEUM OF ART
From the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino’s fountain of light to the world’s largest freestanding neon clown at Circus Circus, neon illuminates the length of Reno’s Virginia Street. A modest cousin to Vegas’ glitter gulch in the south, Reno nevertheless has carried its share of the quintessential 20th-century advertising medium, proclaiming to visitors and residents alike the glitz, glamour, and modernity of Nevada’s first city.
In the 1980s, Reno was home to more than 70 neon martini glasses, expressing the twin images of neon lights as simultaneously glamorous and seedy. Neon stretched across miles of dark highways, proclaiming rest and refreshment to the weary, hungry, and parched drivers crossing Nevada’s desert after the completion of the Lincoln Highway in the 1920s.
The first neon sign in the United States was the 1928’s illuminated Packard advertisement that literally stopped traffic in Los Angeles. The car connection continued over the decades as establishments recognized the power of neon’s glow to catch the eyes of drivers from a distance.
A few hours’ drive west from that Packard sign, Las Vegas was destined to become the pinnacle of neon displays in the midcentury, starting with Vegas Vic tipping his hat over the strip to the dazzling displays of Glitter Gulch. Nevada’s historic love affair with neon caught flame in Reno as well, where the Lincoln Highway drew transcontinental drivers through town, and motel, casino, and restaurant owners vied to attract customers. The glowing tubes not only promised martinis but also those staples of the roadhouse: steak, burgers (such as the “awful awful”), Mel’s Diner, or Mexican food. But the casinos adopted neon as their preferred medium to draw gamblers to the nightlife, and the majority of Nevada’s most creative lights focused on gambling and entertainment.
Like Vegas, Reno has lost many of its iconic neon lights, or the midcentury signs have been redesigned and repackaged. Some of these lost beauties are on display in the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno exhibit, The Light Circus, running October to February, with vivid reminders of Nevada’s 20th-century urban landscapes.
Jen A. Huntley is professor of humanities at Truckee Meadows Community College, and author of The Making of Yosemite: James Mason Hutchings and the Origin of America’s Most Popular National Park.
Resources
For details on the exhibit, visit https://www.nevadaart.org.
