MAY CONTAIN NUTS
HOME
 
JUMP TO PAGE   100  >  200  >  300  >  400  >  500  >  600
VINTAGRAPH • WPA • WWII • YOU MEAN A WOMAN CAN OPEN IT?

Stardust Memories: 1964

Taken by my dad in Las Vegas, June 1964. 35mm Kodachrome. View full size.

Taken by my dad in Las Vegas, June 1964. 35mm Kodachrome. View full size.

On Shorpy:
Today’s Top 5

Mercury Colony Park wagon

The standout in this shot is the light blue Mercury late fifties Colony Park four-door hardtop wagon. The style was derived from a 1956 Ford show car that foresaw high-speed turnpike cruising in comfort on the new Eisenhower Interstate Highways which, by the way, were the most successful government stimulus program in history. And since the government, meaning American citizens, financed and built it, there have been no, zero, tolls on the interstates since they were built.

They still make wagons

The wagon lives on in the car catalog under its new name: the crossover. "Station wagon" is a dated term that conjures images of, well, you know what a station wagon looks like. "Crossover" is hip and new, even though its literally the same thing as a station wagon, but styled to look like its SUV big brother.

The marquee

Stardust photos are usually easy to date because the year was on the marquee most of the time through the 50s-70s. Not so in '64, so it's nice to see an accurate date with the photo.

Honeymoon

My wife and I honeymooned at the Riviera, across the street from the Stardust, in October of 1959. When I took my new bride to the Lido de Paris she was blown away by the nudity. Almost too much for the small country farm Texas girl. Could not understand how the girls could keep the strategically-placed flowers in place. I suggested glue.

The old Rivera is gone, so is the old Startdust and most of the culture that made Las Vegas of the 1950s. We lived in Las Vegas from June 2000 through August 2005 and things were a lot different.

My car at that time was a 1958 Chrysler Newport 4-door hard top painted in three colors with fins so high I occasionally though some was on my bumper.

You'se read my mind!

All the classic car comments were right out of my head! Today, this parking lot would be worth a cool couple million!

Nice

1959 Pontiac convertible hiding behind the '61 Falcon wagon to the right of the snap. Where is it now?

Dream Cars

I would take the 59 Chevy, hands down.

Pick of the crop . . .

If I could pick one of the cars in this remarkable photo to have, it would be the 1961 gold-and-white T-Bird. That red two-door Chevy is also a beauty.

Got here in a C-47

As a USAF ROTC cadet at the University of Arizona, along with a bunch of other boys, I was dumped here at the Stardust for an afternoon by the base bus from Nellis AFB (we had flown up from Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, in a veteran C-47 as part of a practical exercise). That was in early 1963, a little more than a year before this picture was taken. Although I was only 18, being in a brand-new, well fitting Class A blue uniform must have made me look grown up. At any rate, no one kicked me out of the casino and I made $12 in silver dollars at the slots. At the time, back in Tucson, I had a ’62 Chevy Impala 2-door hardtop SS 409, 380 hp (one 4-bbl carb), 4-speed, not unlike at least one of the cars in the photo.

Coincidence?

We just returned from Las Vegas today. It was 113F in the shade. This is old Las Vegas, quite different from the Las Vegas of today but one thing in common - a lot of high hopes and broken dreams.

I found a few clips of Esquivel, and Delworthio is right. They sound like something Major Don West of Lost in Space would listen to in his pad.

Got here in a C-47

As a USAF ROTC cadet at the University of Arizona, along with a bunch of other boys, I was dumped here at the Stardust for an afternoon by the base bus from Nellis AFB (we had flown up from Davis-Monthan AFB, Tucson, in a veteran C-47 as part of a practical exercise). That was in early 1963, a little more than a year before this picture was taken. Although I was only 18, being in a brand-new, well fitting Class A blue uniform must have made me look grown up. At any rate, no one kicked me out of the casino and I made $12 in silver dollars at the slots. At the time, back in Tucson, I had a ’62 Chevy Impala 2-door hardtop SS 409, 380 hp (one 4-bbl carb), 4-speed, not unlike at least one of the cars in the photo.

The Vanishing Wagon

In the days before federal fuel mileage standards, almost every car model had a wagon in the lineup, from the VW Squareback to the Buick Roadmaster.

Because those mileage limits applied to cars but not to trucks, manufacturers determined that they could best get their fleet averages under the limit by discontinuing wagons and building more trucks and SUV's for people who want to carry more than what a sedan's trunk will hold.

This is called the "law of unintended consequences" and it trumps every law on the books, every time it's tested.

[It was the minivan, not the SUV, that did in the station wagon. - Dave]

Station wagons

I always wondered what happen to station wagons. My family had several during the '50s & '60s. They seem like a useful design- better than SUVs that seem to have replace them.

The Rambler and the Falcon

The owners of the "economical" cars in the parking lot could be at The Stardust for the 99 cent buffet....yum.

Googie!

The Stardust appears to be from the commercial architectural school of design known as "Googie", which originated in 1950s Southern California with the styling of coffee shops and fast food outlets. It was all about The Space Age.

For someone born in 1950, the car lot is a feast for the eyes. My favorite is the 1961/1962 cream Continental hardtop, a design that is still fresh today - look at the current Roller.

Funny thing is...

...compared to today's gargantuan hotel/casinos, this looks like a fancy strip mall.

De Castro Sisters got their big break

As a hobby, I sell vinyl records at local record shows. An older customer came up to me once looking for the song "Teach Me Tonight" (1954) a big hit by the De Castro Sisters that he had been looking for for years. But he only wanted it on a 78rpm record version. Just so happened I had brought a separate box of 78's that had a copy of the record in it. He was ecstatic and bought it right away, thanking me profusely. I saw him later in the show, asked him how he was doing and he told me that he had taken the record out to his car, placed it on his front seat to drive out to lunch, opened the car door, got in, forgot the record was there and sat on it - broken into a hundred pieces. I sympathized with him and told him he'd find another copy in 20-30 years.

Betcha!

I'd wager that my aunt and uncle are inside there somewhere. They drove a Caddy and gambling in Vegas was their favorite pastime. They both were in the CIA so I can only guess where they got their gambling money! LOL

Not just American Iron

A lowly, lovely, pastel blue VW bug lurks in this photo.

Gone at age 59

This dazzling casino was built in 1958 at the pinnacle of space age enthusiasm when Sputnik (1957) was newly launched and all the world was reaching for the stars. The decor and architecture proclaimed everyone's fascination with outer space and inter-planetary exploration and when all lit up at night, this moving, twinkling light display was hypnotic. It was one of the many casinos frequented by Sinatra's rat pack and was used to film the Robert DeNiro movie "Casino". Not only were the cars, decorative signage and motifs unique to that era but people really did feel optimistic and hopeful, looking forward to a great and prosperous future. Alas, by 2007 it was being demolished as obsolete, dated and shabby. To me it represented the best of times but for people of other ages, it may mean something different. I'm pretty sure that the phenomena of "happening only once in a lifetime", like many things in life, makes those memories special to hold on to. This picture was taken when the casino was just 6 yrs. old.

Mixed memories of old iron

In the desert, these beauties wouldn't rust out in 5 years or so like they did here in the Midwest. But these are most likely out of towners for the most part.

I lovingly, painstakingly patched and filled the rust on my secondhand '62 Bel Air, gave it SS trim, dual exhausts and '67 Chevy bucket seats and console, then smashed its primer-coated hulk in a car wreck in 1970.

Trending now

Spike in google searches for the De Castro Sisters and Esquivel!

The cars of my youth

We will not see their like again.

Vintage cars

Oh my... just look at that parking lot of vintage cars. What I wouldn't give to have those in my garage.

Fords and Chevys and Caddys, Oh My

What a great illustration of good old American iron. We
started the family garage business in 1962 and I probably worked on most of those as a teenager helping my dad and learning the business.

ESQUIVEL!

My all-time favorite space-age bachelor pad music hero is on the bill and that almost made me giddy.

Syndicate content  Shorpy.com is a vintage photography site featuring thousands of high-definition images. The site is named after Shorpy Higginbotham, a teenage coal miner who lived 100 years ago. Contact us | Privacy policy | Accessibility Statement | Site © 2024 Shorpy Inc.