The Nevada Club opened at 113 Fremont Street on 12/5/52. They operated until 1969. They used to publish a booklet/magazine called This is Las Vegas. We have the 8th anniversary issue, from 1959, and there's some pretty cool stuff in it.
Here's the magazine
Captioned: The three clubs in 1957 before the new marquee was built. Going right to left (yes...backwards!) Nevada Club (107 Fremont, formerly Western Union), Fortune Club (109 Fremont), Nevada Club (113 Fremont), Lucky Strike Club (125 Fremont), Golden Nugget (129 Fremont).
A postcard with the marquee
From the magazine:
"The Nevada Club itself was established in 1952. The original club which is now the central portion of the Nevada Club was opened in December 1952 and was known then as the Fortune club. Three years later the room to the east was added and in 1957 the former Western Union building adjoining on the west was purchased for $300,000--more than the 1905 sales price of the entire city of Las Vegas. In July 1957 the three clubs were combined as the Nevada Club under one 75-foot marquee and the name Fortune Club was dropped and rights to it released."
And...
"The Nevada Club was successful from its beginning. by 1957 it consisted of three adjoining buildings. However, there were 16-inch concrete walls between the three buildings and legal and engineering problems had to be solved before the walls could come down. In 1957 the only bar was in the Nevada Club itself. Cocktail waitresses were prohibited by law from walking into the street with drinks--and players in the Fortune and Zodiac clubs were as thirsty as those in the Nevada Club. Holes were sawed in the ceilings of all three clubs and waitresses tripped demurely across the roofs to serve their drinks." "That situation did not last long, however. Soon the separating walls ame down and the three small rooms merged into the Nevada Club as it is today."
I love reading those old Vegas mags!
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