12
Popular Culture Review
To counter the negative images of their city resulting from these various
investigations, the chamber of commerce accelerated their promotional efforts
that had begun as World War II was ending. The chamber placed dozens of
billboards in southern California, Arizona, and around Salt Lake City; placed
advertisements in national magazines like Time, New Yorker, Esquire, and
Holiday as well as major newspapers in Los Angeles, New York, and select
other markets; distributed hundreds of thousands of brochures; worked closely
with travel agents, even inviting dozens to Las Vegas on free “Quickie
Vacations;” and distributed a travelogue called “Las Vegas Playground U.S.A.”
to theaters around the country. The chamber closely coordinated their publicity
efforts with this advertising blitz. Besides sending stories to newspaper and
magazine editors and colunmists, the chamber saturated the nation with photos
of tourists relaxing at the resort hotels and of attractive women, including
entertainers and dancers from the shows. To handle these various promotional
efforts, from advertising to “cheesecake” photos, the chamber hired three
different advertising and publicity firms between 1945 and 1949—the J. Walter
Thompson agency, West-Marquis, and Steve Hannagan and Associates.
Eventually, the publicity efforts fell to the Las Vegas News Bureau which had
been called the Desert Sea News Bureau under the Hannagan agency.
Two themes emerged from these various advertising and publicity efforts.
First, the chamber continued the theme of Las Vegas as the “Last Frontier
Tovm” which had been so successful from 1935 to 1945. Indeed, one of the
icons of Las Vegas, the smiling cowboy named “Vegas Vic” whose warm
greeting of “Howdy Podner” became ubiquitous on billboards as well as in print
ads, brochures, and chamber stationary, was developed by the West-Marquis
agency in the late 1940s. Eventually, however, publicity efforts and advertising
depicted Las Vegas as a hospitable, relaxed resort city with an extraordinary
climate and numerous nearby scenic attractions. The prevailing theme
encouraged tourists to come have “Fun in the Sun.” Regardless of the theme
promoted at any given time, advertisers and publicists cooperated in crafting a
positive image of Las Vegas because they understood that many Americans saw
their community as a sinful place. Legalized gambling and the numerous stories
of organized crime’s influence in the development of the casinos had made the
town a pariah to some. Consequently, images of gambling scarcely appeared in
the promotional campaigns.^"^
To bolster this promotional campaign, the chamber cooperated wi Ѡ)