Silver Slipper, 1975. Tonight – Viva Burlesque 10:15PM, 12:30AM, 2:45AM.

Silver Slipper in the boneyard, 1995. Photo by Nik Wheeler.

The slipper sign was designed by Jack Larsen Sr, built by YESCO, and installed rotating at Silver Slipper gambling hall sometime in late ‘54/early ‘55, where it was in use until the casino closed, Nov. ‘88. The sign was retired to YESCO’s scrapyard which later became the basis for the collection of the Neon Museum. The museum restored the sign and installed it in the middle of the road at 770 Las Vegas Blvd North on 9/21/2009.

There is a legend that claims Howard Hughes bought the Silver Slipper casino so that he could have the lights of the sign turned off because they disturbed his sleep across the road at the Desert Inn. In other variations of the tale, Hughes believed the slipper contained spy camera and wanted the rotating mechanism turned off, and/or the sign filled with concrete. In fact, the sign was never turned off, and none of Hughes’ biographers have turned up any mention of the sign in his volume of memos written in his Las Vegas years.

The tale first was first published by a Review Journal columnist. After Hughes had taken up residency in the Desert Inn and bought the hotel, the city was hungry for news about the mysterious billionaire.

“[Hughes] found the lights of the Silver Slipper, across the Strip, interfered with his sleep. Associates say he had them request the Silver Slipper to dim its lights. They refused. His emissaries say he has instructed them to negotiate for the purchase of the Slipper so it will no longer interfere with his sleep.” - Earl Wilson, column. Las Vegas Review Journal, 4/21/67.

In the months that followed Hughes began a buying spree of Las Vegas Strip properties, including the new build of the Frontier hotel, which had new sign many times the size of the Silver Slipper. When Hughes really did buy the Silver Slipper in Spring ‘68, Earl Wilson published reversed his claim from the year before.

“He’s not closing it down and he’s not turning out the lights. They might even burn brighter than ever. The Silver Slipper, with its old-fashioned burlesque show, is one of Vegas’ best money makers.” - Earl Wilson, “‘Hughesville’ Swings With New Purchases.” Las Vegas Review Journal, 4/17/68.

Whether Wilson’s first blurb had a source or it was pure fiction may never be known, but the culture of urban legend paid attention to that first blurb and ignored the second. The story in all its variations have been published several times over the years in newspapers like the L.A. Times, and books from unreliable and unsourced titles like When The Mob Ran Vegas (2005) by Steve Fischer, to the studious and otherwise well-documented The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream (2017) by Stefan Al.