What explodes near Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas
Atomic tourism was all the rage in Las Vegas in the 50s. And nobody seemed to care much. Winds took death and disease elsewhere.
Picture, if you will, large groups of people watching nuclear tests without any kind of protection besides darkened goggles. And paying for it.
Tragedy fetishists
Today, atomic tourism is a successful industry, with people taking sightseeing tours through some wonderfully pleasant places like Chernobyl, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. It’s part of the burgeoning field of disaster tourism. Yes, this is real, this is happening.
But in the 50s, atomic tourism offered the real deal: actual nuclear explosions, that could be appreciated from an urban centre. Between 1951 and 1963, 100 atmospheric tests were performed at the Nevada Test Site (before the Partial Test Ban Treaty, in 1963, only allowed underground tests) — about 100 km northwest of Las Vegas.
Nukes for the masses
“Performed” was the key word here. America being America, local entrepreneurs, as well as the Chamber of Commerce, saw a great opportunity to make money and help the city grow fast (the population almost tripled in ten years). At the time, it was mostly casinos operated by gangsters.
And so it came to pass that the city and its environs became the place to be if you looked for the thrill of watching a nuclear blast — but not that close to suffer the dreadful effects, at least according to the scientists working in the programme. The tests were scheduled taking into account the distance and, crucially, the weather, so that the wind would blow in the other direction. It didn’t end well for other people and places, as we will see later.
The party at the gates of dawn
You could watch the tests from the rooftops of hotels, swimming pools, or even picnics. It was a major social phenomenon. In the words of a casino owner, the bomb was “the best thing to happen to Vegas”. Among the main attractions were the dawn bomb parties, where people got wasted while waiting for the blinding flash of the explosion before sunrise.
Nuclear-inspired drinks were a staple in these parties. Writer Bruce Rettig describes one of the most famous, the “Atomic Cocktail”:
“A near-toxic concoction of vodka, brandy, cognac, sherry, and champagne over ice, shaken well, then poured into an oversized champagne glass and topped off with an orange wedge on the rim.”
You would certainly be ready to face a nuclear blast with such a mix — provided you didn’t black out before it happened.
But staying safely within the city limits might not be that thrilling. Many were determined to get as close as permissible, taking tours to watch the mushroom cloud rise as if they were in an open air cinema (with dark goggles, of course).
Atomic City
The test programme was so secretive that Las Vegas was informed just two weeks before the first explosion, on January 1951. It wouldn’t take long for the city officials to nickname it “Atomic City” and start promoting the new attraction.
Things went to a head in April the following year, when the first live television broadcast of a test (see video below) gripped America and started the fascination with all things nuclear. Sin City was the right place, at the right time.
Drinking with the stars
Among the many local entrepreneurs who capitalized on the mushroom clouds nearby, Joe and Stella Sobchik started a business that became a landmark: Atomic Liquors, the oldest bar in the city, which had many famous patrons over the years, such as Frank Sinatra, Hunter S. Thompson, Rod Serling, Clint Eastwood, Barbra Streisand, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr.
Remember the scene in Martin Scorsese’s Casino when Joe Pesci’s lovely character murders some random guy with a pen? It was filmed there. The Hangover and even The Twilight Zone also used Atomic Liquors as a setting. The bar, now resurrected after the Sobchiks died, went from profiting off a tourist attraction to becoming one itself.
The nuclear craze was everywhere. Las Vegas salons launched a variety of Atomic Hairdos, while a showgirl at the Sands Casino, Lee Merlin, became Miss Atomic Bomb. The image of a nuclear mushroom made of cotton did the job. The impact on pop culture can be appreciated in the Las Vegas Atomic Museum’s nice website.
Viva Las Vegas
A story about Las Vegas wouldn’t be complete without a certain Elvis Aaron Presley. For his first concert in the city, in 1956, he was announced as “the atomic powered singer”. The show at the New Frontier casino scored points amongst the teenagers, though it was not well received by the critics. But in a not so distant future, Elvis and Vegas would be a perfect fit.
The unlucky ones
It’s all well and good, but what about the obvious risks? Las Vegas today is safe from the effects of radiation, this is for sure. And there doesn’t seem to be enough data to know if there was an increase in cancer and other ailments among the many atomic tourists who came and went over all those years.
Yet a recently declassified report gives credence to the accusation that “many of the tests were conducted specifically in order to determine the effects of nuclear fallout on the American public”. And even if Las Vegas might not have suffered, others were not so lucky.
Winds spread fallout radiation elsewhere, sometimes to great distances. It affected tens of thousands, especially in Nevada, Utah and Arizona, who became known as “Downwinders”. The most famous victims were John Wayne, Susan Hayward, Agnes Moorehead and Lee Van Cleef, who filmed The Conqueror (with Wayne playing Genghis Khan) in Utah, in 1956. Cancer took its toll on 91 cast and crew members.
In the end, Las Vegas was mostly spared the fear and loathing. We can’t be so sure about all the tourists who visited Sin City to get their thrills. But the city itself hit the jackpot: money, growth, and a definite place in America’s — and the world’s — imaginary. Sinners had the last laugh. Don’t they always?
I was totally surprised. Didn't know the story. Shocking the carelessness of people at the time.