{"id":317387,"date":"2024-04-22T07:13:56","date_gmt":"2024-04-22T12:13:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=317387"},"modified":"2024-04-22T09:53:04","modified_gmt":"2024-04-22T14:53:04","slug":"vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/","title":{"rendered":"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name — as strippers often do.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Vegas Vickie is a neon cowgirl decked out in a 10-gallon hat and form-fitting fringed outfit. One of her legs — either the left or right, depending on your viewing angle — used to kick skyward. (Image: Wikimedia Commons)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Actually, make that two<\/em> myths, because Vickie wasn’t<\/em> installed atop a strip club, as is almost universally claimed. Glitter Gulch became<\/em> a strip club in 1991, but poor innocent Vickie had nothing whatsoever to do with that.<\/p>\n

\"\"
It’s moving day for Vickie, as she gets transported to a storage warehouse in 2017.\u00a0 Note how both her legs align in this position. (Image: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When she went up back in September 1980, Glitter Gulch was a casino. And her name was always Vickie, because owner Bob Stupak envisioned his casino’s rooftop draw as a female counterpart to Vegas Vic.<\/p>\n

Vic — installed in 1951, back when his arm still waved and he yelled “Howdy Podner!” at passersby — generated more business and publicity for the Pioneer Club than Stupak believed the low-frills casino deserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Stupak hired Charles Barnard, of Ad Art in Stockton, Calif., to design Vickie.<\/p>\n

In a 2017 interview with the Stockton Record,<\/em> Barnard recalled being told by the casino mogul: \u201cI\u2019d like to put up a cowgirl sign.\u201d Instead of waving hi like Vegas Vic, Barnard instructed him, \u201cI\u2019d like to have her kicking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Barnard originally envisioned a pin-up girl drawn by George Petty. The animator’s titillating “Petty Girls” were a popular decoration on the nosecones of WWII warplanes.<\/p>\n

However, Barnard told the newspaper, since securing the rights would have taken too long, “I just sat down and I started drawing a cowgirl seated on a big gold chunk.”<\/p>\n

\"\"
This photo explains the confusion over Vickie’s name. Sassy Sally\u2019s operated from 1981 to 1999 and was replaced in 2001 by Mermaids Casino, yet the misnomer stuck. (Image: Stockton<\/em> Record<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Barnard admitted that Vickie wasn’t modeled on his wife, Ellie, whose only comment to her husband about his neon cowgirl was that \u201cI went overboard on the bosom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Less than a year after he opened it, Stupak sold Glitter Gulch to Herb Pastor, founder of the neighboring Golden Goose Casino. It was Pastor who, in 1991, combined the two locations into a strip joint he called the Girls of Glitter Gulch.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pastor kept Vickie up top, but by then, she no longer kicked. In fact, that mechanism broke about six months after the sign was installed, but Stupak wasn’t about to give his main attraction any sick leave.<\/p>\n

Myth Understanding<\/h2>\n

Confusion about the neon cowgirl\u2019s identity began in 1981, when Pastor opened another new casino next door to the Glitter Gulch.<\/p>\n

Sassy Sally’s — which occupied the same space as the Silver Palace (1956-64), Carousel (1965-74), Gambler’s Hall of Fame (1974-76), and Sundance West (1976-1980) — had a bigger and brighter sign than the Glitter Gulch’s. And there was a female name already in it. (Sassy Sally was what Pastor\u2019s children called their favorite babysitter.)<\/p>\n

So, tourists commonly mistook Vickie for Sally.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Vegas Vickie and Vic get hitched in 1994. (Image: Scott Roeben\/Vital Vegas<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A 2017 press release about Vegas Vickie’s removal misstated the common misnomer as fact, which resulted in many legit publications following suit.<\/p>\n

The sign was \u201coriginally dubbed Sassy Sally, after the casino where she rode high over Fremont Street,\u201d reads the story in the Las Vegas Review-Journal<\/em>,<\/a> which adds that \u201clater, Sally underwent a name change to Vegas Vickie, reflecting her 1994 \u2018marriage\u2019 to neighboring neon cowboy Vegas Vic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yahoo.com, <\/a>\u00a0RoadsideAmerica.com<\/a>, and Travelandleisure.com<\/a> all also either cut-and-pasted the erroneous press release or assumed that a Las Vegas newspaper would know enough not to print myths about its own city’s history.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, none of the articles has been corrected.<\/p>\n

What Sign Are You?<\/h2>\n

At least everyone got the marriage part correct. Vic and Vickie were \u201cwed\u201d in a publicity stunt to celebrate the creation of the Fremont Street Experience in 1994.<\/p>\n

Actually, they were married twice.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Vegas Vickie now resides in the hotel lobby at the Circa Casino. And her kicking leg kicks once again. An adjacent cocktail lounge at Circa is named in her honor.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I had no idea they were already married,” Jeff Victor, former president of the Fremont Experience, told Casino.org.<\/em> “So I came up with what I thought<\/em> would be a fun and original idea.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sometime between 2005 and 2007, Victor recalled, he sent an officiant up in a scissor lift between them and pronounced them statue and wife. Again.<\/p>\n

In 2017, Vickie was removed by downtown casino mogul Derek Stevens, so he could demolish the Girls of Glitter Gulch, Mermaids, La Bayou, and the Las Vegas Club to build his Circa casino resort where they all once stood.<\/p>\n

Vickie had some work done — please don’t tell her we told you! — by the YESCO sign company, and now resides in Circa\u2019s lobby, by a cocktail lounge named in her honor.<\/p>\n

Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday on\u00a0<\/strong>Casino.org.\u00a0<\/b><\/em>Click here<\/a> to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name — as strippers often do. Actually, make that two myths, because Vickie wasn’t installed atop a strip club, as is almost universally claimed. Glitter Gulch became a strip club […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":317489,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886,88494],"tags":[90528,90526,90527,82082,90529,83389,82141,82707,90524,90523,86094,90625,90520,90525,84793,86377,86382,90521,90522,90626],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name -- as\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally - Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name -- as\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-04-22T12:13:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-04-22T14:53:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1110\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"874\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Corey Levitan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/\",\"name\":\"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally - Casino.org\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-04-22T12:13:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-04-22T14:53:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\"},\"description\":\"Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name -- as\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg\",\"width\":1110,\"height\":874},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Las Vegas Myths\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-myths\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09\",\"name\":\"Corey Levitan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Corey Levitan\"},\"description\":\"Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corey-levitan\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally - Casino.org","description":"Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name -- as","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally - Casino.org","og_description":"Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name -- as","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-04-22T12:13:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-04-22T14:53:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1110,"height":874,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Corey Levitan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@Casino_Org","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Corey Levitan","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/","name":"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally - Casino.org","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg","datePublished":"2024-04-22T12:13:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-04-22T14:53:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09"},"description":"Vegas Vickie, Vegas Vic\u2019s better neon half, is the victim of a salacious rumor that has her performing in her early years under a different name -- as","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/wikimedia-commons.jpg","width":1110,"height":874},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-vegas-vicky-originally-went-by-sassy-sally\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Las Vegas Myths","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/las-vegas-myths\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Vegas Vickie Originally Went by Sassy Sally"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/281fd7b5480c9afb75e84ffb75039f09","name":"Corey Levitan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-3-3-96x96.png","caption":"Corey Levitan"},"description":"Corey Levitan joined Casino.org in 2022 after a long career covering Las Vegas. He currently covers gaming news on the US West Coast, including Las Vegas. Corey spent six years covering the Vegas Strip for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, where he also wrote the most popular humor column in the city\u2019s history. (For \u201cFear and Loafing,\u201d he tried out 176 Vegas jobs, including poker player, blackjack dealer and Follie Bergere dancer.) Corey has won more than 100 local, state and national awards for his journalism, which has also appeared in Rolling Stone, New York Magazine and the New York Post. Corey is a New York native whose hobbies include playing guitar, trying to be a better husband, and arguing with strangers on Facebook. Contact Corey at corey@casino.org.","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/corey-levitan\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317387"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/78"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317387"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":317990,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317387\/revisions\/317990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}