20 Old-School Las Vegas Photos From the 1950s and ’60s

During the 1950s, tourists and residents sometimes watched atmospheric tests from Las Vegas rooftops, hotel terraces, and specially promoted viewing spots. Mushroom clouds rising from the Nevada Test Site became part of the city’s surreal tourism identity. Photographs now look astonishingly casual, with spectators treating distant detonations like dawn entertainment. The era’s confidence came with consequences poorly understood or publicly minimized. Vegas sold excitement so aggressively that even the horizon became a scheduled attraction today.