Chief Hotel Court

Once located on Fremont Street, the Chief Hotel Court’s signage is the oldest operational sign in The Neon Museum’s collection, from c. 1940. The techniques used to fabricate neon signs have not changed much since Georges Claude created the first neon signage in 1912. The craft of this sign requires the delicate hand of a skilled neon-bending artist. When making a neon sign, the fabricator needs to gradually bend a hollow glass tube over an open torch into the desired shape, matching a pre-designed stencil. Electrodes are carefully attached to both ends of the tube; air is vacuumed from the glass tube and is filled with a specific noble gas like neon or argon—depending on the desired color—and is finally sealed. When an electrical current is ran through the gas, the tube emits light, creating its characteristic glow. Neon glows red-orange, while argon glows blue-white. These colors can be manipulated by coating the inside of the hollow glass tubes with phosphors.

Both neon and argon are featured on the Chief Hotel Court signage, portraying a polychromatic—or multicolored—design of a stereotypical Plains Indian motif, a recurrent aesthetic used to portray Las Vegas as an Old West town. Not representative of the Southern Paiute Tribe and other indigenous peoples who are native to the Las Vegas Valley, this misrepresentation of Native American imagery in branding, mascots, and advertising has directly contributed to the erasure of Native American voices and perspectives.

The Chief Hotel Court signage is believed to have been inspired by the train cars from the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad, which once featured similar branding. Other properties on the Las Vegas Strip that utilize indigenous symbols as an inspiration for their architectural design include the Sundance Hotel and the Thunderbird Hotel. Opened in 1948, the Thunderbird’s name and aesthetic were connected to the Native American thunderbird mythos, reflected in everything from its signage, the property’s public fireplaces, and its Pow Wow Showroom.