Soul to Soul

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Good morning.

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This is Soul to Soul, universal ideas for a brighter tomorrow. This show is a free-for-all of positive energy that includes book discussions, music, politics, books, food, COVID-19, oral history, books, and Las Vegas history. Today I have a guest whose last name I can't pronounce so she's going to do it for me. Emily is here from the Neon Museum and is going to talk to us about a brand new tour that is coming up soon. Emily's last name is Lebanese. Emily, could you pronounce your name for me the way it's supposed to be pronounced? Yes, my name is Emily Douda. So that's my last name, Douda. Douda. Okay, I'm close. All right. So Emily, can we start by you telling me just a little bit about your background, and then about your work at the Neon Museum? A little bit about me?

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Yes.

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Okay. So I work at the Neon Museum here in Las Vegas. I'm still new to the city. I'm from LA originally, and my background is in museums, more art museums, but generally others in LA, but also in Chicago. So I have a very, you know, museum background. I'm very excited to be here in Las Vegas though doing a lot of great work a lot of history work that I love It's really my focus Wonderful. You've been doing lots of research and I love that So I want you to talk about this new tour that you are putting together Tell me about the history. Tell me about the research. Just just talk about this new tour that you're doing? Yes, so I'm the tour development coordinator at the Neon Museum and the tour right now that I've been working on and we're, you know, working on starting to roll out training and envisioning that is called the Perspectives Tour. And it is focused around desegregation and the desegregation and the civil rights movement in Las Vegas, particular to the black community, the African American community here in Las Vegas. And our collection, for those who have never been to the museum, at the Neon Museum, we are, bulk of our collection is neon signage of businesses, small businesses, large businesses, casinos, resorts that are, you know, a part of the Vegas life. We like to say we're the Museum of Vegas history. So it's really trying to chronicle and to tell that story through our collection. So my research has used a lot of your work, Lee-T, a lot of your oral histories, and I mean, you helped me a lot throughout this. I would like to say thank you.

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You're welcome.

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And it's a 45-minute tour through our, what we like to call our bone yard, it's like our main gallery. And it goes through and kind of tries to tell not just the history broadly, but a lot of like the local untold stories and figures that, you know, Las Vegans would be familiar with or maybe not familiar with, but might have heard the names in passing and really get in there. So that's kind of what the tour is. Okay, good. So I'm going to ask you to go into more detail. Yeah, because I want to know, I want you to make me want to come and to go on this tour only 45 minutes. And right now, all of the tours at night. Right now, they're starting because we're more in the summer hours. Yeah, right kind of more in the beginning of the evening time So not fully when we're at dark at night But yes, so like evening at night, especially because what's great is that? We have signs that work some a lot of them are still illuminated So you really get like the the beauty and the power of those signs So we really got to do it at night as well as we have like the general admission where tours aren't happening. Okay, so tell me when is this tour going to open? So this tour is going to be launching the fall of this year And then more details, but right now definitely fall of this year. I got that confirmation. So I'm very excited about it. Yes Okay, so Now I'm standing in the boneyard Getting ready for my tour Tell me what I'm going to see. Walk me through this tour. Walk you through this tour. Yes. I'm like, oh, how do I sell this tour? I've talked about it so much. So the way that I think about it is that Vegas in my mind because I'm I'm still new to the city We think of this the 40 40 50 60s is very glamorous The Golden Age, you know, and I'm like, let's get Let's get deeper than that. Let's get let's get into this Golden Age. Let's talk about these players, you know Let's talk about you know, we love talking about the entertainers. We love talking about all these big known names. What were they up to? And you know, how were they working with each other, you know, in business? And how were they treating each other? And really, what was like, kind of happening, happening in Las Vegas, people think that they know again, very glamorized golden age. But let's talk about these untold stories. Yes. So what is my first sign that you're going to show me? These neon signs, everyone, were on these businesses at one point and now they're in the Boneyard. Go ahead. Well, our first sign to roll off the tour has to be the Moulin Rouge sign, which is, I love to say, it's like one of the only pieces of the original building left, one of the only signs, it works. So it is working, gorgeous. So even if you want to see it just for like craftsmanship of the sign, most of the even neon tubing's original, so it's like that's really exciting. And you really get, it is ginormous because this is the front of the Rouge, of the, you know, right when you're going driving up to the entrance. that really like sets the scene and it's really going to be our touch point during this tour. And I love it because it's also like that great pink that I feel like doesn't really get used a lot in signs. So that's our first sign. So do you think that pink is because, do you think Betty Willis, the designer of that sign, decided on the pink? That's a good question. I don't know. I mean, in reading her oral history. She said like how she kind of came up with the The script and she was like I went to the library and I picked a bunch of books on France and of Paris And kind of came up with like the script of the sign But I don't know if the pink was like we want it to be pink But I think like in the dead of night like especially we're talking about on the west side like that's gonna stand out. That's calling your eyes. It's such a great sign. Okay, so what is your docent going to tell me about the Moulin Rouge as we walk through? Or is that giving away too much information? I don't think it's giving away too much information. Tell me of just a bit. So right now we have a existing tour which is like our collections tour. So the way that I was thinking about this is how do we approach the Rouge and go into the deeper side? How do we give it more color and bring this place to life? So I used it in this tour since it's our first sign to set up where we are in history, where we are in Las Vegas, what's going on. If we're talking about civil rights and desegregation and the significance of the Rouge really sets it up. And I think also adding to, I like talking about the competition that the Rouge gave, like all these amazing qualities that it had that other resorts couldn't buy, like why is it such an impactful place? That's kind of how, where I start. And then I, because we'd touch on the Rouge a couple of times during the tour Definitely throughout kind of its its its history, you know, and its legacy that I Have them start there and not give it all the way at once. Okay good and What is sign number two? sign number two so There's to tell the chronology. There's certain signs that are like they have to you know I would say like they need to be sane. So since the way that the Boneyard is laid out, the museum kind of at the very beginning of the Boneyard, the signs are more geographically close together. So we're kind of in the downtownish area. So it could be, you know, an El Cortez, or it's maybe not geographically correct in the downtown, but it could be a Flamingo. Those are, you know, or a Binions to talk about, again, what's going on downtown, what's going on in Las Vegas. And with Binions and the flamingo, you have a lot of great people,

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I don't wanna say characters,

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but people you could even talk about. So now you're not just talking about history, but you're really saying, you know, about the relationships. Good. So getting off the subject just for a moment, for people who haven't been to the Boneyard, what kind of shoes should they wear? So we're an outdoor museum and it's not paved, so I would say no, I would suggest no sandals, no open toe. Like maybe like a, you want something with some cushion, like a nice flat or a sneaker. That's just, that's just me. That's what I wear. That's what I would recommend. I mean I wear heels there, but they're at least close Yes, that's I would recommend. We're a DA compliant so you could come you know Walker wheelchair cane just you definitely want to be comfortable and So they're you know with a lot of little things that just might be on the ground good. Yes so now We get the flavor of the town at this time. We have seen some other hotels. You'll probably talk about the beginning of the Flamingo and how it has evolved over the years. And then what else are you gonna show me or tell me? So I had to work with kind of what the existing layout of the museum was. These signs are, they're the literal signs from the building so it's not like your typical, you know, maybe like an art museum or or maybe a More of an indoors place where you can say could you move these things around? So I definitely worked with the the whole museum team to to kind of get a feel for it and We're kind of going to go through the bone. You're kind of the midsection that we like to call it motel row And that's when we get into the La Concha and Paul Revere Williams. So tell me who Paul Revere Williams is. Paul Revere Williams is a world-renowned architect known as, we love to say at the museum, like the celebrity, the architect to the stars, but I'm like, he was so much more than that. I say like, he's a Renaissance architect. That's my line, because the man could truly do it all. But he was an African American architect, which is very rare for his time, working from, you know, he's in Los Angeles, like growing up in Los Angeles in the early 20th century, to like, I think, maybe stops working in the 70s.

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Yeah.

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is the actual lobby of a motel that he designed that was on the strip, the La Concha. So we talk about PRW there, Paul Revere Williams. And so tell me where that lobby is right now, the lobby of the La Concha. So that lobby is the lobby of the museum. It is our, our, our, like, welcome center, our visitor space, when you walk in, when you pull up that gorgeous white structure, that's our lobby, but that's a Paul Revere Williams lobby. So if you don't go to anything else, you have to drive by and look at the lobby to know who Paul Revere Williams is. All right. So back to my tour. What else do you tell me? We'll definitely talk about Paul Revere Williams. I would say come into the lobby because the lobby is also the inside's amazing. Like, it's just, it's so fun. And I think then we're working our way through the later half of the, or the latter half, the last third of the museum. And that's kind of where, in our story, we're now getting to the desegregation and the civil rights movement. So we're starting, and starting small. I like, I kind of spotted it at Anderson Dairy, since we have the Anderson Dairy sign. I love the sign, it's of a actual, like a little milkman, of a little cartoon milkman from the 50s style. And he perfectly tells the story. So saying, you know, this is how the NAACP chapter, the local chapter here and the West side are really, you know, setting their eyes on, you know, ending segregation in Las Vegas and pushing it forward and then expanding to other areas and other industries in the city. Anything else that I will see on the tour? I don't want to give you the whole tour. I want people to come. She doesn't want to give me the whole tour. I want to... But aren't these signs so elegant? Yes. I think I stopped at the Flamingo signs twice because I just love their they're broken apart, but their signs from when it was the Flamingo Hilton, designed by Raul Rodriguez, was a float designer. Crazy, not. Yeah, he was he was, he was the most even to this day, the most like, I'm losing my words. Renown? Renown, but his floats have appeared the most in the Tournament of Roses parade in Los Angeles. So he is like top tier designer, not just signs, floats, you know, truly an artist. And I love those signs because you really get to see how they, you know, with just neon and just steel really like capture your attention, your imagination. So I told you that I would wouldn't ask any follow up questions that you couldn't answer. And I don't know if you know the answer to this. For people who don't know, we don't understand what neon is. How much can you tell us about a neon sign? What is that? So a neon sign could be something as simple as a illuminated sign or a lit up sign that you can see when you're going to your favorite small restaurant. Now you can even buy little neon signs to decorate your house or if you're here in Las Vegas all along the strip. So they're an illuminated sign that is at nighttime or when it's shadier or darker, meant to bring in business or capture your attention by conveying a very short, direct message to the brain. And so the neon is using tubes, capturing neon's a gas, the gas, and then depending on what colors you wanna make it, you can add different gases more or less. I'm pretty sure neon designers are like, no, like it's more specific than that. You know, to get the color and even the shapes are hand, like they're neon benders who are like bending, but you know to get it to say even something as simple as like an open sign or you know, or to do like a feather or you know a giant letter, it's like bending these huge tubes and capturing the gas and a whole lot of electric work. So we're talking about an artist who putting these signs together. Yeah, it's definitely and it's not just like one person, it's a whole team from design to again like bending, constructing, painting. It is really an art form that we don't think about it. We think of they're just like parts of buildings, but in the same way, there are pieces of architecture that are there are forms. Yeah. Wow, that's wonderful. So you told us when it's going to open. So how do you train staff to tell this story? So that's what we're trying to work on right now of how do we train staff to tell this story. And so those are conversations I think where we have not decided yet. Because it's much more than, you know, reading the words that I wrote, or, you know, just like walking the museum, the Boneyard itself, I think it's in a mind of, part of it that was I was envisioning is really getting when we have someone's first hand an oral history or a memoir, making sure that they have that first-hand account, that primary source, and really kind of understanding the, kind of how things interplayed with within each other. And I think part of, again, so we're going and we're telling like a, we're using our same collection to tell a different story. So having them also kind of yeah, understand like the these fuller stories of these properties, and and the nuances between them and the time periods that we were in. It's kind of the the way that I think the discussions that we're having. And so are these paid people are these volunteers? How do you get people? So the docents that we have right now, it's they are paid, they're hired, so they work at the museum, giving tours, they're working, you know, they're there for our visitors there from simple like answering questions, giving gallery talks, giving full tours, helping them facilitate their whole experience from start to finish. So they are paid positions that we have. I think it's always like a great exposure if you're interested in in like working in a museum where you have a like or a love of history. I think these are great. All our staff love history. They love what they do. They love the city, you know, whether they're into like pop culture or they're into more nuanced history or architecture. So those are paid positions. And do you use volunteers as well? Right now we're going through a strategic plan at the museum, so kind of reimagining what our volunteer program will be, because we've used volunteers in the past, and I think right now deciding how we want to use volunteers in the future, because like in every museum we definitely, you know, need volunteers and just thinking how best do they work for our needs. So also that's an update I can give you when I know. Wonderful. So you just said something about a gallery talk. Is this a regular tour or is this something different? A gallery talk is different. So it's if you happen to be visiting the museum, when it's more general admission hours, they're small maybe five to 15, depending the time of year, you know, is it summer, is it not? And the time of day, it'll be a short talk that we that we offer for free for our audiences to come, you know, on a certain topic. So it's just like a little like a little tidbit, you know, going deeper into museum if you don't have time for a full tour. Oh, I see. Okay, that's, that's interesting. So after all this research that you've done, looking at integration, what does people always ask more and more about the Moulin Rouge? What does the Moulin Rouge mean to Las Vegas? I feel I'm like, the Moulin Rouge showed like the spark of possibility. Or like, I'm like trying to quote you directly. But it really was, I think the Moulin Rouge, and I don't think originally the owners intended it to be more than a successful business, but it really, I think it's an establishment that really meant a lot to the community and to Vegas and broke barriers, whether people wanted them broken or not. And I think that it proved in my research, I found that it was a lot of maybe naysayers saying like, oh, people won't come if you know, we have integrated resorts or, you know, on the strip in the 40s, you know, it won't be good for business. And I think that the ruse really did from a business decision, so like, no, people will come, it will be great. I think it just showed like, I love how you say it, possibility and, and what Vegas could be. And, and like Vegas at its best. So that's what I think about it. Wonderful. And that brings to mind something else. As you know from your research, it is now a vacant lot. Someone has purchased it. We don't know what's going to happen with that property. If a miracle happens and a hotel casino goes back onto that location. Do you think today in 2022 2025? Do you think people will go? I think they would. I think it's a huge first it's huge. It's a huge property. It's the even thinking about where it is compared to downtown, where downtown so built up, and this is huge. It's built out. I think it would go I think I'm, I'm not a business person any sense. I don't have any degrees. But I think that you could even corner a market in going back to that golden age of Vegas that people want if you do it. If you do it right. If someone who knows what they're talking about has money, I think I think you could. 100%. Let's hope that someone with money is listening to this program, money and vision. Yes, yes, vision. They cut us in that deal yes so those are the most important topics that I wanted to talk about now because we're talking about a museum we don't have an art museum we have a mob museum museum, a neon museum, a natural history museum, children's museum? Do we need others? And what do you see as the future at the neon museum? So I love the way that our director, Aaron Berger talks about the neon signs. This is where I feel like him and I are eye to eye on this, where he's like, these are artworks, these are art pieces. So where people are like, we don't have a formal art museum per se, but these, these are artworks, like you said, these are artists who are designing this, that's an art form to do this. There are whole teams that do this. And I think that coming from an art background, the way that I see like a painting is like a vessel to, to this period to this time to this, you know, entering the scene. And I see him the same way with our neon signs. And I think that that's kind of where the direction I think the museum is going is that our director really does, he strongly does believe that. And he says, like, we are the art museum, I mean, the history museum of Vegas. We tell Vegas history because we have so many pieces of Vegas history that are not just huge, you know, they're small businesses, they're local. So I think that that's where we're going. To really let Vegas know like we are your history museum, we're your museum. Oh, that's great. I like that a lot. So when you started talking, I didn't give you time to give us anything about your background, your education, what how you majored in art, how did this start? So I was in high school, and I actually had a vacant, like, my senior year class schedule, like a class period, like a, we had a like a hole in my schedule and my Counselor put me in AP art history because I said I liked history He's like I'll throw you in this class and that's how it kind of started where I was like Oh art works are history and I always really liked history That was my best subject and I think that that's what got the ball rolling for me how I got in And then yeah And then I went at Community College and I just tried it out and I was like Let me see if I really can do something of it. And that was really where I started. Okay. And where did you graduate with your degree in art history? Yes. So I have a bachelor's in art history from UCLA. I have a master's in arts administration and policy from the School of the Art Institute in Chicago, and a master's in modern and contemporary art history, theory and criticism, such a long name from Azusa Pacific University. Where's Azusa Pacific? In Azusa, like upper, past Pasadena, like LA, yeah, out of LA County area. Yeah. Wonderful. So that's, that's it so far. Wonderful. And you thinking about more education? Maybe a doctorate.

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We'll see.

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It's a goal, but we'll see if I get there.

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Oh, that's great. I think that's wonderful to know you'll feel that intimately. That would be wonderful. I love this.

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Is there anything else you want to add? Thank you for having me, Klaise. I mean, you've been, I just want to say thank you again, because you really helped me put this tour together and help, and you're just a friend of the museum and you're just a really great resource and well I just want to say thank you I'm on it. You're welcome I just think that I think you're right I think it is our art museum I love it I love going there I love taking people there to see it so I will be there in a few days because I have a person coming into town so we have to come to the museum please do yes definitely so we're finished for today. This is it. It's only a half hour. It's a half hour of soul to soul, universal ideas for a brighter tomorrow. This show, as you know, is a free-for-all of positive energy. We talk about all aspects of Las Vegas. So Emily, thank you so much for being with us.

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I'm going to be doing a lot of work on this. I'm going to be doing a lot of work on this. You're welcome.

Transcribed with Cockatoo