The sign that changed Aaron Berger’s life was the Moulin Rouge. He was interviewing for the top job at The Neon Museum, being guided through the collection, still deciding if Las Vegas was the right move, when the guide stopped and started talking about the Civil Rights Movement out west. Berger had come from Atlanta, a city steeped in civil rights history, and had never once thought about it here. Moulin Rouge was the first integrated casino in Las Vegas, a 1955 sensation that made the cover of Life magazine and closed within months.
“When I heard that story, I realized this is a museum that is incredibly rich with its storytelling,” Berger, now the executive director and CEO of The Neon Museum, tells Las Vegas Magazine.
Five years in, Berger has turned a beloved photo op into something far more ambitious. The museum is still best known for the Boneyard, the outdoor lot where the Strip’s discarded neon go to be saved, but it’s become far more than a place to photograph old signs. More than 200,000 people come through the doors a year, but there are also K–12 field trips, a summer camp and writing workshops for older adults…