Kuiper lives it up in Fabulous Las Vegas.
When we showed up at the sign at 8 am yesterday, we were surprised by approximately 200 huskies conversing loudly with one other. ? At first, I suspected they were some sort of secret Siberian Spitz society ??, but it turned out to be the annual meetup of the local #h2m2rescue! After waiting for the silly Sibes to segue to the Strip, crowds of people started descending. I had to deploy an emergency peacock call I learned from @littlebittyinthebigcityto get Kuiper to look at me for this picture. ??
The iconic Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign was designed in 1959 by a woman named Betty Willis, would would later refer to her masterpiece as “the little sign that could.” ? Betty was one of the very few female sign designers of her day (and according to her daughter Marjorie, was paid less than the men. “She always said, ‘Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I don’t have a family to support too.'”)
Betty’s sign is classic Googie style (which you can kind of think of as “Jetsons style.”) She said the starburst was inspired by Disneyland and the oblong design was inspired by the old Goodyear logo. She added the 7 “silver dollars” for good luck.
One of the reasons her sign is so recognizable is that she never considered copyrighting the design. She considered the design a gift to the city.* According to Marjorie, Betty always said, “If I had copyrighted the sign, it probably wouldn’t have been used as much and wouldn’t be as famous. But, it would be nice to have a dime for every time it’s been used.”
Space pictures are coming!! Thanks to the generosity of @stlsciencecenter @rocketcenterusa @msichicago, @adlerplanet @ualpl @lowellobservatory @nuclear_museum @spacecampusa and the Stafford Air & Space Museum, I now have enough artifact pictures to do a series of American space history posts in chronological order from Mercury to the Shuttle. Fingers crossed we’ll get permission to take just a couple more before we head home in 2 weeks. Can’t wait to share them.
* (I’m not sure about the 50s, but under modern copyright law, the rights would have likely have belonged to her employer Western Neon, now YESCO)
Original post: https://www.instagram.com/p/BoXLf8zD6ae/