The famous marquee of the New Frontier hotel-casino on the Las Vegas Strip was removed in December 2008 at the request of Steve Wynn, who supplied the manpower for its deconstruction, as he prepared for the opening of Encore and didn't want his new resort's approach, nor the publicity shots, marred by a derelect sign that once flashed "Cold Beers and Dirty Girls."
ELAD Las Vegas, owners of the site, who planned to build a version of New York's famous Plaza hotel there, gave Wynn their permission to remove the old marquee. Click for an evocative photo montage of the process published by the Las Vegas Sun.
For some reason we couldn't get to the bottom of, the Neon Museum did not become involved in the process until fairly late in the day and they didn't get the whole sign, just four of the letters that spell out NEON, and a star. It was a massive sign -- a Neon Museum representative we spoke with estimates that the letters alone are about 15 feet tall. They did get the sign from the back of the property, however, that used to sit on Industrial Road.
As to the Neon Museum itself, it's been a long time in the coming, but the latest we heard is that they plan to break ground in May and hope to be up and running this time next year. In the meantime, small private tours are still available by appointment -- they advise you to book at least a couple of weeks out, as they tend to sell out.
