Reno has glittered with vibrant neon lights for nearly 100 years. Reno native and former elementary school teacher Will Durham has spent his life preserving and restoring as many artifacts of Northern Nevada’s 10 decades of neon as he could.
Now, just a little more than five years before the centennial of legalized full-scale casino gambling in March 1931, and the heyday of neon that came with it, Durham has announced plans to open a museum of neon signs called The Light Circus at the National Bowling Stadium in downtown Reno.
Durham, who has also had a career doing props, art direction and production design in the film industry, said he wants the museum to be a happy place.
“The world right now is a lot to be worried about and … I want this to feel like an absolute escape,” he said. “When you’re there, you’re in this place that takes you away.”
Durham began collecting signs in the 1990s, because he loved neon and thought the signs were cool. When Harold’s Club and the Nevada Club were demolished in 1999, and the Mapes Hotel was demolished in 2000, he realized there was no organization or plan to preserve the iconic signs.
“They played a huge role in Reno’s history, and they were closing,” he said. “And I thought, ‘The buildings won’t be saved, but isn’t someone supposed to be saving these signs?’”
Durham has since been working to secure and preserve neon signs, not just in Reno, but throughout the state. His collection includes signs from Las Vegas, Elko, Wells, Carson City, Sparks and other locales.
This project has been a labor of love for Durham. He said he has funded the project himself for all these years, paying not just for the signs but for their transport, repair and storage. His parents and a few dedicated friends have helped him throughout.
Durham has always wanted to open a neon museum, but securing and restoring the signs left him no time to find a space for one. Then, in May, the Reno-Sparks Convention and Visitors Authority put out a request for proposals for the multipurpose room in the National Bowling Stadium, saying they were “seeking a qualified operator who can deliver an experience that captivates the diverse array of tourists passing through the National Bowling Stadium (NBS) each year, while also fostering meaningful engagement with the local community.”
Durham thought this was the perfect spot for The Light Circus. The downtown location would make it an attraction for tourists, and its proximity to Fourth Street and the Brewery District would make it accessible to locals. Plus, the space has an important feature for displaying neon signs: tall ceilings. Durham reports that the Harold’s Club letters are six feet across; the Nevada Club letters take up 30 feet of wall space; and the “R” from the Riviera sign is 17 feet tall.
Durham was awarded the contract, and he began fundraising, assisted by his parents and his friends. They secured sponsorships from people and businesses whose names will be displayed within the museum and on printed materials. Craft Wine and Beer hosted a fundraising event where supporters could buy founding memberships. Durham said that he and his family are so committed to making The Light Circus happen that most of the funds they are investing are their own.
In 2012-2013, the Nevada Museum of Art hosted an exhibition of many of Durham’s signs. The museum kept ambient light to a minimum, letting the neon lights themselves illuminate the room.
“It created this beautiful, really wonderful calm, but also exciting feel,” Durham said.
He wants to capture the same atmosphere at The Light Circus, so the bowling stadium will erect walls to keep sunlight from coming through its 100 linear feet of windows into the exhibit space.
The stadium is also undergoing additional improvements in preparation for the museum, including new floors, partition walls and more electrical outlets to accommodate a lot of signs in proximity to each other.
“I think one of the most important elements of displaying these is having a lot of them on display at the same time, just like the way Virginia Street used to light up,” Durham said. “It wasn’t just one really cool sign. It was having them en masse. You were seeing versions of these signs beckoning people in. … It was all about having a lot of them together to tell that story.”
Durham has applied for matching funds to help offset the cost of these improvements from the Reno Redevelopment Agency’s ReStore Facade and Tenant Improvement Program. The agency’s website says ReStore funds are to be used to “stimulate economic development and revitalize downtown and surrounding districts.”
Once the museum opens, Durham dreams of it becoming a “community hub.” He plans to keep it engaging and relevant by rotating the collection frequently so there are always new things to see, facilitating educational field trips for fourth-graders studying Nevada history, keeping the art of neon alive by offering classes on working with the medium, and showing movies in the National Bowling Stadium’s theater that are set in Nevada and feature neon. He hopes to one day create and feature documentaries about neon in Nevada.
The Light Circus will also be available to rent for private events. Durham is inspired by the American Sign Museum in Cincinnati, which has become a popular event space.
“People really like unique spaces for corporate events, weddings and reunions, and we think that we can create a very special place,” he said.
There won’t only be vintage signs in The Light Circus, though; Durham wants to show that neon is not a dead art.
“This isn’t a mausoleum; this is a celebration of neon,” he said. “This isn’t something that needs to be history. This can also be part of our future, and we’re hoping it really is.”
He surmised that people who loved Reno in the ’90s will love seeing the Deux Gros Nez neon sign. Folks sad to see the Laughing Planet leave Reno will appreciate seeing their signs in the museum.
Many of Nevada’s neon signs have been lost to history. Durham mentioned the sign for the Primadonna Club, which featured five 20-foot-tall statues of showgirls, each in her own arch of glittering lights. People ask Durham about the sign frequently. It was taken down after the club sold in 1978, so Durham didn’t have the opportunity to save it or any of the showgirls.
“If that had happened when I was doing this, I would’ve moved heaven and earth to make sure that those were saved,” he said. “That facade was legendary.”
Durham has tried to track down the statues and is pretty sure they’ve all been destroyed. He said one was moved to an adult bookstore.
“They were going to do a cabaret there, and it burned,” he said. “I remember seeing it in the Yesco yard. … It was just this bare chicken wire. … If there was any sort of feature that was salvageable, I would’ve preserved it in some way. But it was just chicken wire and a steel pole. There was nothing.”
Durham does not have a firm date for the grand opening and lighting ceremony yet, but is aiming for “as close to the start of the year as possible.”
If you wish to become a member or a sponsor of The Light Circus, reach out to Will Durham at willdurhamnv@gmail.com.