- On this edition of "Arteffects," an anthropologist from Reno turns to creative writing.

(lighthearted music) - It's great to write a first draft, then stick it in a drawer, and then reread it three months later.

It helps you mature the piece.

(lighthearted music) - [Beth] Preserving Reno's bright history through the Nevada Neon Project.

(lighthearted music) - When you think about a business, a lot of what you remember is the sign.

We're basically collecting these stories, letting these legendary businesses live on.

- [Beth] Meet Northern Nevada's longtime neon sign makers.

(lighthearted music) - Neon is like eye candy.

I couldn't get enough of it once I really got into it.

- [Beth] And capturing the Reno Rodeo's 100 year history in paint.

(lighthearted music) - I'm hoping to achieve this narrative that can tell the story of so many separate pathways of people, and locals, and national figures that came to Reno and made Reno really, really interesting.

(lighthearted music) - It's all ahead on this edition of "Arteffects."

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] Funding for "Arteffects" is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, in memory of Sue McDowell, the Carol Franc Buck Foundation, Chris and Parky May, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

- Hello, I'm Beth Macmillan and welcome to "Arteffects."

This week, we're featuring a number of local artists who bring Reno's history to life in a number of ways.

First, we introduce you to anthropologist Bill Douglass, the founder and former director of the Basque Program at the University of Nevada.

Bill is the eldest son of Jack Douglass, a Nevada gaming pioneer who owned and operated the Comstock and Riverboat Casinos in downtown Reno until the late 1990s.

When Bill retired, he combined his family's history in Nevada gaming with his love for writing about the human experience.

(lighthearted music) - I read three or four hours a day.

I've got, I don't know, 5,000 books in my house.

If you're aspiring to write, you better be a reader.

I'm an anthropologist by training.

I've published two dozen books and 200 articles in my life.

And most of them have to do with Basque culture, Basque immigration, also Italian culture.

I was the director and founder of the Basque Program for 33 years and then retired, so it was the only job I ever had.

Until I was retired, I really didn't publish outside of my field.

But in 2002, I decided to write a book about fly fishing around the world, because I'm an inveterate fly fisherman and I had spent many, many years traveling to a lot of different destinations around the world.

So I wrote a book called "Casting About in the Reel World."

That was my first real venture in non-academic publishing.

And then at the same time, I was starting to work on "Starlight Hotel Casino."

(ethereal music) There's a way in which the novel is an ethnography of the casino industry.

I was an owner and an administrator in both the Riverboat and Comstock.

They went under in the late 1990s.

They failed for a variety of reasons, competition from Las Vegas, competition from Indian gaming spreading around the country, and evolution of technology and whatnot within the industry.

Starlight is a composite of the Riverboat and Comstock.

And so, the novel is about what happens within a casino family and the employees of a casino that's failing.

I actually started writing Starlight right after our family casinos collapsed.

Something would happen to me and I would think, that would work for such and such a character in Starlight, and so I jot it down, maybe write a couple of pages on yellow pad.

And then I had a whole box full of yellow pad.

When I finally sat down maybe three years ago to do the final edition, it was a way for me to get through and set aside that experience and get on with life.

"God, Manny was nervous as he waited to be admitted to the in progress meeting behind the closed doors.

Manny Cohen had always thought of himself as a good ad man, at least until he volunteered for assignment in this burg.

With Vegas's hands around his throat and Indian arrows pointed at its heart, Reno Gaming was toast.

Only the schmucks in the inner sanctum failed to realize it."

(lighthearted music) It's amazing how autobiographical all novels are and how focused they are upon family because those are the most intimate relationships that their authors have experienced in life.

As an anthropologist, you have to describe the setting that you're working in.

When God paints landscapes, he is an impressionist.

Except for the coastlines that separate watery domains from terrestrial ones and the occasional soaring mountain range, his transitions are subtle and shaded, more processed than events.

Not so in the Truckee Meadows, along whose western edge the alpine energies of the Sierra Nevada's dissipate in a last gasp of conifer groves.

To the east, juniper and sagebrush-covered foothills herald the beginning of the vast Great Basin.

In short, Reno sits astride the division between verdant California and the arid interior of the American West.

(lighthearted music continues) My writing style, I never work with an outline.

When I sit down and start on a project, even my academic work, I really don't know where the book's gonna go.

And then consequently, the last thing I do is come up with a title.

- Harold's Club, the Merry Wink Motel, the Mapes, these are just a handful of Reno's former hotels and motels whose gorgeous neon signs electrify our memories.

In this segment, we meet Will Durham, who hopes to find a permanent home for his extraordinary neon sign collection and create a vibrant blend of Reno history, art, and entertainment.

- Neon signs are magic.

There's just something about the glow and the colors.

It's kind of like candy, it's something you wanna touch.

The detail, the craftsmanship.

A lot of different artists collaborate to make these.

And they're designed to excite people, entice people.

My name's Will Durham.

I'm the director of the Nevada Neon Project.

We've been preserving and restoring neon signs all over Nevada for the last 20, 21 years, with the ultimate goal of developing a neon museum here in Reno.

We've preserved close to a hundred signs.

The Buffalo Bar, it's one of the best signs I've ever seen.

It's got a martini glass pouring out the figure of a buffalo.

This sign is from the El Rancho Casino in Wells, Nevada.

It's really neat because it's an animated sign.

He's pulling the handle on the slot machine, and perpetually cheerful, and it seems like he's winning.

This sign is just the top part of the El Cholo Cafe in Las Vegas, which is one of the first Mexican restaurants on the strip.

This sign is originally not from Nevada.

It was from a place in Northern California called Van Ness Auto.

I think it's really interesting because he's very well dressed with his bow tie and his waistcoat.

And he's very welcoming.

But if you look at one hand, he's welcoming, and then if you look at the other, it looks like he's crossing his fingers.

So it makes you wonder what he has in store for you.

We'd been storing signs in semi trailers, storage units.

Some of the signs are at my house, in my garage.

One of the signs that I was happiest to be able to preserve was from the Nevada Club.

The Nevada Club was just a small little club on Virginia Street right next to Harold's Club.

It was an interesting little club, but the most important thing I think was the sign, Bucky Buckaroo.

He was designed by Lou Heimer, a very famous illustrator from Reno.

And he's in the shape of the state of Nevada, with his giant hat and big shafts, and with always a very cheerful wave greeting people.

- I think a lot of people in Reno have very strong memories of some of these casinos and their big neon signs.

The Mapes is one that just comes to mind.

- [Will] The Mapes, it was a very elegant hotel with the Sky Room.

And part of their logo was these twin cowboys that guarded the entrances.

So it's really interesting the way they're designed 'cause they're standing together with their shafts, and their inner leg help form the M. - That was just such a terrific sign, such a whimsical and fun sign, but also really captured, I think, what Reno was going for, which was this combination of a real cowboy, Western culture and then this urban and glamour, this urban appeal.

So that's one of everyone's favorites.

- I was born and raised in Reno.

We lived fairly close to downtown, enough to actually see the glow.

I was originally attracted to neon signs because they always represented something exciting.

As I became more aware of Neon, I started realizing that there was a lot that was coming down.

It was a real time of change in Reno.

I felt like there should be someone that was saving this.

The first neon sign that I got was from the Zephyr Motel.

And part of it was a woman in a bathing cap diving into the to the pool.

It said heated pool, swim.

It really gave you the feel of being on a long road trip and seeing that pool sign.

It was just kind of a neat thing to have.

One of the most recent signs that we were able to preserve was from the Golden West Motel.

And it was from a section of Virginia Street across from Circus Circus, where there was a cluster of motels with great neon signs.

The sign was a little bit difficult to take down.

It was built probably 60 years ago, and it was built to last for hundreds of years.

And so, it was a real puzzle on how it was constructed and how it would be removed.

- You know, it's amazing what they used to do in the old days.

- They never built these signs to be taken down.

You know, they expected that when they came down, it would be with a bulldozer.

And so, it was an interesting process to get it down.

It took all day.

There is no ordinary removal.

At the end of a removal job, you'll be dirty, tired, bleeding.

By the end of the day of removing it, I always say to myself, why do I do this?

Like, this is awful.

But at the end, you know, when I see it's safe, it's like, okay, this is worth it.

There's something really exciting about putting your hands on 'em because they're some of the most delicate things you'll ever be around and they're also some of the most durable.

The way the metal feels after it's aged, with the paint kind of chipping and the way the glass feels.

The glass is always super smooth and there's real elegance to the glass.

And there's the sturdy frame.

I think it's a nice compliment.

People are starting to see these in a new way because there's a lot of different layers of artists, the original illustrators, the craftsmen that make the signs, there's the sign painters.

The final, most noticeable layer is the neon.

I feel like these signs, they're very important artistically.

And historically, they've done their time in the sun, and so I think that they should be displayed in a manner that kind of fits their importance.

I always talked about, you know, these should be in a museum someday.

Ann Wolfe from the Nevada Museum of Art asked if I would like to have the feature show, Light Circus, the Art of Nevada Neon.

That was an amazing experience because I was able to see what a museum show would look like, that this could work as a standalone museum.

- These are not just symbols, they're not just works of art, but they're part of a community.

And if we bring them to the public, they become part of a community again, and it helps that community continue that memory and then make its own memories.

- We have enough signs and enough very important signs that we have enough to do, you know, a world class museum.

I see it being a real strong fit in downtown Reno.

We're working with the city of Reno to identify possible locations.

We know that a lot of people are really excited, but that needs to be shown to the city council and the mayor.

- I would love to see nothing more than a big, beautiful neon museum here in Reno.

This is one of those arts initiatives that could be a game changer in a lot of ways.

I think it could bring in a lot of tourism.

They've seen it in Las Vegas.

They've seen it in California with their neon museums, but ours would be truly tremendous for Nevada history and preserving that.

- Ultimately, the project will happen.

To be able to show this art the proper due and to represent it in the way that we feel it's worth, there's work to be done and we're ready to proceed.

- Today, Will Durham has nearly 200 neon signs in his collection.

To learn more, visit nevadaneonproject.com Now it's time for this week's art quiz.

Which of the following was not invented right here in Reno, Nevada?

Is the answer A, the Lear Fan Jet, B, popsicles, C, riveted jeans, or D, the laugh track?

(lighthearted music) And the answer is B, popsicles.

The bright colors of neon signs have electrified America for more than a hundred years.

A neon sign maker, also called a neon tube bender, knows this true form of craftsmanship inside and out.

Ken Hines learned the craft of neon tube bending from his father and has created countless neon signs around the region for decades.

Let's visit Ken's shop in West Reno to learn all about the color of neon.

(lighthearted music) - My art is hot glass, electrodes, and neon gas, and fire is my paintbrush.

My name is Kenneth Hines, and I am a neon tube bender.

I've been doing neon in the Reno area for 38 years.

I am the last full-time neon tube bender in northern Nevada.

Neon tube bender is a craft that you take a glass tube and you shape it to a specific pattern.

Then you put cold-cathode electrodes on each end, pull a vacuum on it, and backfill it with neon or argon gas.

The term neon is the red neon gas.

The majority of red's, pinks, oranges are neon gas mixed in with the other color phosphorus in the tubes.

(lighthearted music continues) Argon is a blue.

A little drop of mercury goes in, and there's fluorescent phosphorus in the tubes, and that's what makes the colors with the argon, and a little drop of mercury vapor.

I have a fire that's adjustable up to 16 inches and I have a blow hose that I keep in my mouth at all times.

So when it make a tight bend, it collapses, and then you just give it a little puff of air and blow it back out to the original diameter.

(lighthearted music continues) Hot glass looks cold, so you've gotta be very careful with that hot glass 'cause it burns down to the bone.

And getting cut with glass, it really bleeds a lot 'cause it makes such a clean cut.

We do deal with high voltage as well.

Pretty serious things, but you get used to it.

You're mindful of it all the time.

It's about a 10,000-hour process to really learn it, to really get it good, where you can do anything that comes in the shop.

When we go to create a neon sign, the first step is design.

(lighthearted music) Somebody says, hey, I'm interested in a neon sign.

So what we do is we put 'em in contact with a designer, Dennis.

And Dennis is a old sign painter that started in the vinyl business when the computers came out.

And I went to him to make patterns for me years ago, and we've been good friends for the last 25 years.

(lighthearted music continues) - I will make a pattern for Ken in reverse.

He will bend all the tubes.

I will create a cabinet out of acrylic or whatever we are doing the cabinet from.

When the neon is completed, Ken and I will put everything together on the cabinet and then we will wire in the transformers to complete the project.

Nowadays we've been actually including remotes for the neon so people can actually turn them on remotely without having to go up to the sign.

(lighthearted music continues) - We not only create new neon signs, we do restorations as well.

This sign right here, the dice, they're flag mount, which means that they're hanging out over the sidewalk, you can see it from both sides.

They were originally displayed on the Paradise Motel and Sparks, across from the Plantation Casino.

It got taken down, so I stripped them, and had 'em powder coated, and totally rebuilt all the neon, new transformers, put it on that piece of expanded metal, and hung it on the wall.

And it's been a quite the conversation piece for a couple years now.

(lighthearted music continues) - I've been a graphic designer for about 40 years now, and neon is my passion these days.

I love designing neon and seeing it come to fruition.

Working with neon is quite unique because it takes me to a place where I'm really happy with what I'm doing.

It's not like work.

I enjoy the creativity, and the finished product, and the satisfaction of creating these beautiful pieces that people will have in their homes or in their businesses for years to come.

- I think people expect to see it, especially in downtown Reno or downtown Las Vegas.

It's just part of the overall awe.

- When you're driving down a highway or an old road and you see a bright neon sign in the distance, it's kind of alluring and it kind of attracts you.

(lighthearted music continues) Neon's been around for about a hundred years, and Ken and I are working hard to keep that art form alive and well in Reno.

We just wanna keep it going.

- To learn more, visit colorofneon.com.

The Reno Rodeo, dubbed the wildest, richest rodeo in the West, celebrated its hundredth anniversary in 2019.

To mark the occasion, the Reno Rodeo commissioned muralist Erik Burke to bring the stories, moments, and people of the rodeo to life on a familiar brick wall.

(lighthearted music) - My name is Erik Burke, and I'm a muralist.

I started getting into graffiti towards the end of high school.

I just loved it and I loved painting at that scale, but I got into so much trouble from graffiti numerous times.

Spent time in Lassen County Jail for almost a month.

And coming out of that experience is when I really changed.

And I was like I wanna figure out how to paint still because I'm definitely hooked and there's no way I can not paint, but I need to figure out a way to do it with permission.

And I slowly weaned my way out of graffiti and into muralism.

(upbeat music) I think my technique is kind of different than a lot of other people because I've learned not to get really hung up on details and really try to paint like more or less the feeling, and the form, and the color.

I am always trying to evolve and not get stuck doing the same thing.

So it's always interesting when you have a new project come down the pipeline because you're in a completely new arena of something you haven't really thought about.

Like, I have not thought about a rodeo mural ever.

But after this, I could say this is not my first rodeo mural.

(lighthearted music) - Reno Rodeo is 10 days of the wildest, richest rodeo in the West held every June of each year.

We started at almost two years ago to plan for our hundred year celebration of Reno Rodeo.

We said, how about painting a mural on Sutro Street, between 9th and Oddie Boulevard, that will depict a hundred years of Reno Rodeo?

And Erik Burke was a perfect fit for that.

- Once I found out that I got the commission to do the mural, I met with their centennial committee to talk about like, hey, what was important from the beginning in 1919 to now?

- We went through and looked at all of our photographs that we have.

Guy Clifton wrote a book about the first 80 years of Reno Rodeo.

- His book informed so much of the mural.

(upbeat music) Just reading through that and figuring out, like, okay, so in 1960, this is what happened, here's who the president was, this Brahma bull escaped, and all the crazy chaos stories.

And then kind of from that, distilling what were the important moments and what would be possible to paint.

(lighthearted music) - There's two pictures that really stand out in my memory, and that is the one of Cotton Rosser, our stock contractor.

The other one is Bob Tallman, our announcer.

Erik did an absolutely fantastic job on those two portraits.

- The rodeo is Reno's longest running special event.

You know, there's nothing else that's a hundred years old, no other special event in town.

So to be able to reflect that in public art is something really unique, I think.

- This mural is roughly about four blocks long.

- And it's broken down into decades, starting in 1919 and coming up to 2019.

(lighthearted music) - We have been talking about this absolutely incredible mural you've been doing and have been, I'm telling you, we're all blown away.

- So many people from the neighborhood walk by and say, you know, I've walked by this wall for 30 years, and it's always been a blank wall, and now this is incredible.

Like, the whole neighborhood's talking about it.

And I always think about how murals change that environment, but I've never really noticed it to the scale like this place, because it's a neighborhood that has a stigma attached to it.

It's like it's the hood, but really those are the places that absolutely need it the most.

- Most people probably didn't even know that wall was there, but they're gonna be able to see it now.

(upbeat music) - To learn more, visit eriktburke.com.

And that wraps it up for this edition of "Arteffects."

If you want to watch new "Arteffects" segments early, make sure you subscribe to the PBS Reno YouTube channel.

And don't forget to keep visiting pbsreno.org to watch complete episodes of "Arteffects."

Until next week, I'm Beth Macmillan.

Thanks for watching.

- [Announcer] Funding for Arteffects is made possible by Sandy Raffealli with Bill Pearce Motors, Heidemarie Rochlin, Meg and Dillard Myers, in memory of Sue McDowell, the Carol Franc Buck Foundation, Chris and Parky May, and by the annual contributions of PBS Reno members.

(upbeat music)