A model posed underwater to play a slot machine in the pool at the Tropicana April 24, 1969. This publicity stunt, envisioned by the Las Vegas News Bureau, was created to promote Las Vegas as a "Fun in the Sun" destination. Courtesy of Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority Archive Collection

Las Vegas: For many people the words conjure images of the glittering lights of casinos, the floor shows, and, of course, the famous Las Vegas Strip. Many of those images came from the Las Vegas News Bureau, which had photographers take pictures to market the city to the world. Over 7 million images, 11,000 reels of film and video, and other artifacts are now housed in the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) Archive Collection. This corporate archive is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a new website showcasing many notable photos.

In 1947, the casino owners who sat on the local chamber of commerce decided that there needed to be a publicity arm to market Las Vegas as the entertainment capital of the world, explained Kelli Luchs. That’s how the Las Vegas News Bureau was born; photojournalists covered the town and took pictures of anything that would make Las Vegas an appealing place to visit. Eventually the collection was transferred to the LVCVA in 1992.

LVCVA is the largest photographic archive of Las Vegas post–World War II, said Luchs. Many images feature celebrities, either performing or going about town, as well as recreation close to Las Vegas such as the Grand Canyon or Zion National Park. “They took photographs nearly every day, certainly every week, from 1947 on, so you have a shot-by-shot experience of Las Vegas,” Luchs said.

For its 75th anniversary, LVCVA will be releasing photo collections around different themes every two to three weeks. The first, 75 Iconic Images, includes photographs of the Beatles playing at the Las Vegas Convention Center, Elvis Presley at the International Hotel, and daredevil Evel Knievel jumping over the fountains at Caesar’s Palace.

The second collection, Celebrities, contains photos of movie stars, musicians, and singers through the decades, from actors Dean Martin and Dianna Lynn lounging at the poolside; Liza Minnelli, Betty Grable, and Carol Burnett at a party; and Groucho Marx hanging out with Nat King Cole at the opening of the Tropicana hotel.

Over the next few weeks, the 75th Anniversary Gallery will release a collection dedicated to Atomic History, including coverage of A-bomb tests. That may not sound like a selling point to modern viewers, who are aware of the atomic bomb’s deadly history—including long-term medical devastation from nuclear fallout for the people of the Shoshone Nation, on whose territory the tests were conducted—but Luchs explained, “People wanted to watch it. There was an excitement factor.”

Venues publicized the times of the atomic tests and had viewing parties; the Nevada Test Site was only 65 miles from Las Vegas­, so the atomic clouds could easily be seen on the Strip or elsewhere in town. People got into the spirit of it, Luchs said: There were atomic hairdos, cocktails, and interpretive ballet dances on Mount Charleston looking over the test site. That’s where idea for Miss Atomic Bomb, a 1950s pinup girl with an atomic theme, came from.

LVCVA will continue to release additional collections every few weeks through the fall.

For Luchs, one of the best parts of the archive is that she discovers new surprises every day. For example, while working to fulfill a photo request, she came across an envelope labeled “Mother Teresa,” with a negative of the Roman Catholic nun who founded the Missionaries of Charity inside. Luchs was extremely interested in how this photo came to the collection, so she reached out to historians, museums, and others in town who might know something about how it came to be part of the archive, with no luck.

Luchs decided to reach out to the Mother Teresa Center, and they knew all about her visit to the city. “They shared with me that it was an immensely important part of her life,” Luchs recalled. “It’s the first time she’d left India [since 1929]…and she spoke at a Women’s Catholic Conference.”

The photojournalists documenting Las Vegas hadn’t imagined that their pictures would become an archive; they were just aiming to market the city as a destination. But fortunately the Las Vegas News Bureau kept everything from the negatives to pieces of ephemera, from a 1971 Elvis Presley dinner program to 300 cameras dating back to the 1950s, and ended up caring for the collection until the LVCVA hired its first archivist around 2006.

The collection has been used by a wide range of people and organizations. When Caesar’s Palace celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening in 2016, the archive shared older images with the casino so it could display the vintage photographs at the hotel and complex.

In the past, HBO has included LVCVA photographs in the background of productions to provide period atmosphere. Images have been used in newspapers and magazines throughout the United States and internationally. The Miss Atomic Bomb photo is the most popular, said Luchs. On May 24th, 1957, the Las Vegas News Bureau captured the famous “Miss Atomic Bomb” photo to coincide with Operation Plumbbob at the Nevada Test Site. News Bureau photographer, Don English, took the famous photo of the Sands Copa showgirl, thought to be Lee Merlin.

Scholars have used the archive to write books on atomic tourism, gambling, and the history of the city. Professors have asked for photographs to use in classes on Las Vegas, the Hoover Dam, and Boulder City. Richard Zoglin’s 2019 book Elvis in Vegas: How the King Reinvented the Las Vegas Show used images from the archive as well.

Currently there is no fee to use the photographs and other media from the archive. “That is one of the things that we are proud of,” Luchs said. “We do not charge fees. We’re happy to share our collection with the public” for public use. (The archive does not fulfill requests for photographs for home use). The best way to reach out is via a form on the LVCVA website.

Luchs hopes that the 75th anniversary website will increase public awareness of LVCVA’s materials. “We want people to visit,” she said; while photographs are watermarked with the 75th anniversary logo, users are welcome to download any of the images. “We want people to see it,” said Luchs. “We want to share it.”