Famous Vegas Sign Now 50 -- And A Landmark

The iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign is now officially a piece of national history.

Clark County officials say the sign has gained a listing on the National Register of Historic Places, to fit with the county's centennial celebration this year.

County Commission Chairman Rory Reid says the 50-year-old sign at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip is an important symbol, as well as the backdrop for untold thousands of tourist photographs.

The National Park Service designation became official on May 1.

The sign cost $4,000 in 1959 and was designed by Betty Whitehead Willis of Western Neon.

It was erected after a group of Strip hotel owners asked Clark County for a sign welcoming visitors to Las Vegas.

The 50th birthday party for "one of the most recognizable road signs in the world," as Early Show national correspondent Hattie Kauffman describes it "brought out the mayor, showgirls, even bikini models, the kind of over-the-top celebration that's as old as Las Vegas itself," Kauffman says.

But when the sign hit the strip, there was little else to see.

"We came over the mountains and looked down," Vegas Mayor Oscar B. Goodman told Kauffman, "and saw a couple of twinkling lights in the desert. And then we stopped the car and a tumble weed rolled in front. My wife said, 'Where have you brought me?!" '

Famed singer and longtime Vegas fixture Wayne Newton was one of the first to see the sign when he arrived in Sin City -- also in 1959. It was, he told Kauffman, "where we landed. That (sign) was the first thing you saw."

Newton was only 15 at the time, and says, "We would do six shows a night, six nights a week."

Back then, Kauffman points out, as Alaska and Hawaii were celebrating statehood, Vegas was promoting a "fun in the sun" state of mind.

And, Newton notes, the "Rat Pack" (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and Joey Bishop) were at the Sands -- you got dinner and that show and the cover was $5.95!"

Many famous attractions have come and gone since then, Kauffman observes, but the sign lives on.