One of the more iconic views in Las Vegas is beneath the spurred boots of a 40-foot-tall, cigarette-smoking cowboy. As one of the world’s largest mechanical neon signs, the wrangler seems out of place among the modern spectacle that is the Fremont Street Experience. But the lean, friendly figure is one of the few constants in a changing city.
Old Vegas regularly leaned on Western iconography as part of its sale to tourists, and no other symbol illuminated that pitch better than Vegas Vic. The towering, neon cowboy presides over Fremont Street, dressed in his iconic garb: a checkered yellow-and-red shirt, tight blue jeans and a bandana under a 10-gallon Stetson hat.
For 75 years, the sign remained as Las Vegas changed around it, but time is starting to catch up with the buckaroo. People have started noticing how Vegas Vic has been inactive more often in recent years. (When I visited downtown Vegas one evening last fall, I was disappointed to see that Vic’s lights were completely shut off at night.)
A city ordinance requires that neon signs in the Las Vegas downtown district — which includes the Fremont Street Experience — are to remain fully illuminated from one hour prior to dusk and until an hour after dawn. The ordinance also states that animated signs must be fully operational. A spokesperson for the city told SFGATE that they’re working with the owners to make sure the sign is in good working order; however, as recent as April, the code enforcement office received a complaint about Vegas Vic…