What do International Women's Day and the Neon sign of "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" have in common? They have Betty Willis.
It was the year 1959, a tumultuous time in the United States, with civil rights struggles and figures like Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and Malcolm X dominating the socio-political scene in the fight for equality. Women's rights were not even a significant topic during those years. Women had their roles in society and resigned themselves to them.
The city of Las Vegas, whose very interesting history can be learned at the Neon Museum, is known for gambling and its origins linked to the Mafia. But this city is much more than that; we've already lifted a bit more of this veil.
Our topic today is the woman, Betty Willis.
Betty was born in 1924, the youngest of eight children.
Her parents arrived in the region in a horse-drawn carriage in 1905, when the first white settlers came here to benefit from land auctions held by William Clark that led to the city's creation.
By the way, the casinos began to be built on the land adjacent to Las Vegas known as Heaven, because the lots were more affordable.
Betty had a passion for design and went to study in Los Angeles. Even back then, this region—California—enjoyed certain privileges, greatly influenced by Hollywood, that were achieved much later in other states. She returned to Las Vegas, where she designed advertisements for newspapers featuring showgirls. She continued her design work, transitioning to neon signage.
At that time, it was a man's business in a man's world. There were very few women designers, and they were greatly scattered across the territory, further diminishing their influence or importance. Designing neons was not an easy task. The roles of men and women were well-defined. The technical aspects involved in creating a neon would not be of interest to most women, who were destined for less masculine tasks. The technical components of voltage, pressure points, neon capacity, and contact with engineers and artists did not belong to this feminine world.
It was Ted Rogich, a local businessman, who approached her in 1952 and challenged her to create an eye-catching and impactful neon sign to welcome visitors to the city. Las Vegas had a sign for everything except for itself.
Neon production is an art of glassworking. The glass is bent and then filled with gas. Each one is unique, and the more expensive process was replaced by more industrial and economical processes like LEDs. The signs of Las Vegas use millions of light bulbs and 15,000 miles or 24,140 kilometers of tubing, enough to span the United States five times from coast to coast. Indeed, the glow of the city is so powerful that it is visible from space.
This specific neon has some particularities. The diamond shape automatically makes it different from the other signs in the city. In a nod to Nevada’s nickname, "the Silver State," the seven stars of the "silver dollar" make up the seven letters of the word "Welcome." In 1959, the sign was completed, and for her work, Betty accepted $4,000, stating it was her gift to the city and its citizens, not demanding rights for its creation, which is why this sign can be reproduced by anyone who wishes.
The sign was chosen as a symbol of Las Vegas in celebration of its 100th anniversary.
Willis continued to design and work until she was 77 years old, also creating the well-known neon sign of the Moulin Rouge.
Without a doubt, the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" neon sign is the mark of a woman who, through her work, thrived in a man's world and stood alongside the best male designers of the 20th century in a vast and significant country like the USA.
At the Neon Museum, walk through its sandy streets, lined with the fallen neons of casinos that made history in the city. Each neon tells a story, and together they narrate the history of Las Vegas—stories of the Mafia, the first casino owner who wasn’t a mobster but rather eccentric, the Casino Sahara that allowed entry for Black and Native American patrons and, due to its success, was forced to close, and even the architect of the museum building, La Concha, who was Black and drew from the opposite side of the table because the other architects were white. Las Vegas also allowed divorces to be just as easy to obtain as marriages.
Welcome to Betty's Fabulous World.