Pioneer Club Page 2- Over50Vegas

25 Fremont Street

Las Vegas, NV

Pioneer Club 1942-1956

New Pioneer Club 1956-1967

Famous Pioneer Club 1967-1983

Pioneer Club 1983-1995

Page 2

An assortment of memorabilia from the Pioneer Club in Downtown Las Vegas.

A lot of great memorabilia has survived the years to find its way into the hands of collectors

and will be preserved for others to enjoy. Below is a small sampling of my personal Pioneer Club items.

The Pioneer was famous for Double Jackpot Time. Every twenty minutes a pitch man would say to the players, “It's five minutes to Double Jackpot Time!” and a countdown would begin.

4-3-2-1 minutes until the Double Jackpot! Bells would ring and everyone would start playing slots as fast as they could, making sure they had their coin cups full of 5¢, 25¢, or $1.00 coins ready to put into their machine and then pull the handle as fast as possible. Slots were fairly loose then, and bells would ring, pitchmen yelling jackpot on machine number xxx !!!.

They had drink girls all over serving free drinks in nice glasses, all with Pioneer advertising on outside of the glass, with Pioneer Vic and casino picture. It was a exciting, and fun time to play. They created so much excitement, and the place was jammed. Mainly the old three wheeler slot's with $7.50 jackpot on the 5¢ one coin machine. I loved old Vegas and now love the history.

The original Pioneer Club drink glasses were about 3" in diameter and 4" tall, heavy glass bottom, and glass was clear, with painted black advertising on outside. I remember many people walking down Fremont St. carrying a Pioneer drink. It was great advertising.

The casino was mainly for the common folks, on a low budget. Not a high roller type of clients, but so much fun. My wife and I were married in 1960 and went to Las vegas on our honeymoon. We were young kids, just 21 years old and on a low budget, but we had the best time ever. We have been going back for 55 years, 2 to 3 times a year.

We just loved old Vegas in 60's,70's & 80's, when the mob ran Vegas, and rooms, food, drinks, and the shows were very reasonable. Gaming was the only profitable department. Now every department is a profit center and the bean counters stay up all night making rules to make gaming more profitable for the casinos.

(.... Fred Lamb)

Memories of the early Pioneer Club

by CC&GTCC Life member Fred Lamb (LM-5294-117)

Postcard with a 1949 postmark but showing the original 1942 building.

Here are two postcards taken about 20 years apart but from exactly the same perspective.

You can use iconic Vegas Vic on the Pioneer Club to orient your focus as well as the sign for the Las Vegas Club.

In the upper postcard that little dot of white at the end of Fremont Street is the Union Pacific railroad depot which the Union Plaza replaced in 1971.

In the lower postcard the Union Plaza tower dominates the end of Fremont Street and Main St.

In the upper postcard the first large neon Pioneer Club sign sits atop the brick building that housed the Las Vegas Pharmacy.

In later years the Las Vegas Pharmacy was replaced with the Carousel Casino.

There's more Pioneer Club!

A 1948 Pioneer Club Postcard.

Note that in the text of the postcard it says a friend is there for “the cure”, which usually referred to a quick Nevada divorce.

This is a non-commercial, educational, hobby site. Images on this site are from our personal collection and from personal collections of fellow enthusiasts who have shared their scans with us. Other images are noted by source with links to the original. If you feel that any image used here has infringed upon fair use of an image you hold the copyright to, please contact us at the links above and it will be credited or removed at your request.

Sources you might want to visit for more information include:

Newspaper Archive Newspapers.com UNLV Digital Collection UNLV Reno Las Vegas Sun mypubliclibrary.com

TCR numbers are used by express permission of SSS Publishing publishers of The Chip Rack.