Betty Willis: Neon Sign Designer

Moulin Rouge Hotel & Casino letter M. 2019 photo taken with my phone at the Neon Museum boneyard, Las Vegas Nevada.

This week is the anniversary of the passing of Las Vegas graphic designer Betty Willis (1923-2015). Willis is best remembered for the design of the 25 ft. Welcome to Las Vegas sign that greets visitors to the city at 5100 Las Vegas Blvd. The Welcome sign was built in 1959 by the local sign company Western Neon under a contract with Clark County. Betty Willis, a graphic designer working at Western Neon, designed the sign.

The sign is influenced by period mid-century design and lettering, evident in the unique diamond and star shapes as well as the advertising style script spelling out the word Fabulous. I would speculate that it is a unique, hand drawn piece of lettering. The diamond and star motifs serve a distinct purpose, to convey that this is Las Vegas, with lights and casinos and attractions. One motif that is a little more subtle is the five circles behind the letters spelling Welcome that represent casino chips or silver dollars.

For the 1955 Moulin Rouge Casino in Las Vegas, Willis again employed hand lettering for the rolling French-style script spelling out the Casino’s name. On my 2019 visit to Las Vegas and the Neon Museum, I saw the famous M from the sign. At the time I didn’t know that Betty Willis was the designer, but that M has captivated me ever since, living in my phone with a handful of other pics taken that night at the neon boneyard.

Willis, like most commercial artists of the period, drew these designs with pencil and paper. Aesthetic considerations aside though, she not only had to be aware of all measurements and materials of sign fabrication, she had to know all about neon itself, its pressure points and wiring. Not to mention, she was a female in a dominantly male profession during the 1950s and 60s. As I take another look at the first image of the M from the Moulin Rouge sign and consider how hard that was to design and make beautiful, make it to where it could be handed off to a metal and neon fabricator to end up become a huge sign that lit up, my appreciation has gone way up.

Jeffrey Carlson wrote a great blog for neonmuseum.org, Put a Star on It: A Brief History of the Welcome Sign, about Willis and the story of the Welcome sign. It goes into a lot more detail than a easy search will yield about the Welcome sign. As a side note, if you’re ever close by, the Neon Museum and its neon boneyard is an incredible place to visit and is a design and lettering enthusiasts dream.

Betty Willis standing in front of the Welcome to Las Vegas Sign that she designed in 1959.

Vintage postcard, circa 1960s of the Welcome sign.

Moulin Rouge Hotel & Casino on 900 West Bonanza Road, circa 1950s

Front and back of a playing card with images from Moulin Rouge and the Welcome sign.

Casino chip from Moulin Rouge Casino, 1955 featuring the logo derived from Betty Willis’ design.