Dancer Charles Nur Fernald first came to Las Vegas in 1963 to perform for five weeks in the Kay Starr Show at the Sahara Hotel and again in 1964 working with Donn Arden for three months at the Desert Inn Hotel. Born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1939, Charles moved several times to various places in Arizona and southern California with his parents, Charles Knox Fernald and Marguerite Marie Higgins Fernald, and half-siblings before settling in Hollywood, California, where he remained (except for his short stints in Las Vegas) from 1961 to 1967. In January 1968 Charles came to Las Vegas to perform with Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca at the Flamingo Hotel. After the show closed Charles auditioned for Donn Arden to dance in the Lido de Paris show at the Stardust Hotel, where he remained for sixteen years, 1968 through 1984. He remains the only male dancer who performed with Lido through five different, consecutive productions. In 1969 Charles met his partner, Aquiles Garcia, who was a dancer at the Dunes Hotel. The couple remain in Las Vegas and have been together forty-five years. Charles’s father was very poor and left school after the third grade to go to work and help support his family. He was born in 1889 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the fifth of eleven children. As an eight-year-old he became a “groundhog,” a digger of New York’s underwater tunnels, who helped build the Holland Tunnel. At fifteen he made more money than his father selling newspapers, fresh fruit, and clothing door to door or from the street corner. According to Charles, his father “drank too much, ate too much, smoked too much, and loved too much.” As an only child, Charles’s mother had a very different upbringing from his father, although her family too was very poor. She was born in Detroit in 1902 to a railroad switchman father and mother who not only scrubbed the floors of wealthy Detroiters but also cooked meals for twenty-one boarders at a rooming house. Marguerite’s parents worked hard so they could send their only child to Catholic school and the Detroit Conservatory of Music.

Information about the Pair A Dice Mobile Home Park sign that sits at 2067 N Las Vegas Blvd.
Site address: 2067 N Las Vegas Blvd
Sign owner: Peyman Masachi and Pair A Dice Estates LLC
Sign details: Originally construction was in 1956 for a Manufactured Homes park. This location offers 137 spaces for mobile homes and have 42 permanent parked homes.
Sign condition: 3.5- paint has faded drastically
Sign form: Pylon
Sign-specific description: This pylon has 2 plastic back lit red dice on the top of it with the one on top with the number 5 and the lower one reads 2 to make the lucky number 7. To the non-road side of this double sided sign is a yellow circle plastic back lit sign that has painted black letters stating "Pair A Dice". Below this is an orange triangle shape that has channeled neon white steel letters near the top of it stating "Trailer Park" in a block type font that illuminate white at night. Below these letters are a white plastic back lit sign stating "R.V.'s Welcome" with their phone number posted underneath. Below is another plastic back lit sign that is yellow with a black font stating "Senior Park". Below this is a skeletal neon arrow that points to their driveway that illuminates yellow at night.
Sign - type of display: Neon and plastic back lit signs
Sign - media: Steel and plastic
Sign - non-neon treatments: Plastic Back lit portions
Sign animation: Chasing, flashing, oscillating
Notes: The logo cabinets which adorn the entrances on the elevated walkways: The letters start with both rows of text in the off position. The top row flashes on, while the bottom row is dark then the bottom row illuminates, as the top row goes dark. Once the top row flashes off it flashes back on so that both rows of text are briefly illuminated simultaneously before they both go dark and the sequence stars over again. While this is going on the incandescent bulbs which line all of the raceways are chasing each other from left to right on the horizontal planes, while the arched sections chase each other downward. The triangular peaks which radiate around the top of the logo sign, flash on and off in a sequence which chase each other downward. First the top center peak flashes on, then the next sequential triangular channel on both sides illuminate simultaneously, flash off, then the next two in the series illuminate. The resultant effect is a chasing pattern starting from the top. The sister animation is located on almost the exact same design on the porte cochere. I would think the previous smaller sign would be based on the larger porte cochere. The other variance besides obvious size difference is the that the channel letters are filled with incandescent bulbs instead of neon. The animation is a bit simpler as well. The incandescent bulbs oscillate continuously while the triangular pan channels which create the radiating crown, animate. The neon in the channels chase each other as described in the smaller walk way version, while the text continues until the entire text flashes off, then on, off, then begin to animate once again. All of the bulbs, which line the raceways of the exterior edge of the porte cochere, as well as the encrustation of bulbs on the brass bull nose portion, animate in rapid succession. All the raceway bulbs chase each other while the bulbs on the brass portion continually oscillate. Animation continues on the east face of the building with the entrances first. The principle for these two signs is oscillation and chasing. All bulbs on the underside of the entrance, as well as in the logo, oscillate rapidly. All bulbs on the raceways chase each other. Further on the surface of the building as well, the Pepsi cola wall sign is found displaying a very unique form of animation, seen here on the strip. The signage for the Pepsi ad is located on the eastern wall. (Detailed in specific description) The Incandescent bulbs which fill the inside of the text that spells Pepsi, chase each other from left to right, leaving all the bulbs in its path illuminated, as if writing out the word Pepsi. The neon bars located within the tilted bottle of Pepsi are illuminated, and chase each other downward, leaving the bars it its path dark. As this sequence in taking place, the waving tubes of neon illuminate, flashed subtly making the neon appear as soda pouring out of the bottle. As the tubing flows then the vertical neon bars in the cup illuminate one at a time making the cup appear as if it is filling up. The text above each of the painted fires head, flashes back and forth as if talking to each other as well. ESPN ZONE animation: The letters in the vertical blade portion of the ESPN Zone illuminate one at a time, starting from the top. Once the entire phrase is lit, in flashes off then on then off, before restating. The orange and red neon tubing which resides inside the pan channels that represent flames flash on and off in a relaxed manner as if to animate the flickering of the flames. The small incandescent bulbs on the black portions above the main matrix reader board flash on and off subtly.
Sign environment: This location is in North Las Vegas along Las Vegas Blvd. It is north of Jerry's Nugget by about a mile.
Sign manufacturer: There is a marking for "BMS" on this sign which is a sign manufacturer in Minneapolis, Minnesota but could not get in contact with anyone to see if this is the correct manufacturer/maintainer or if it had a different meaning.
Sign - date of installation: Has been up since at least 2007 but does look a lot older than that
Sign - thematic influences: The triangle in this sign does have a mid-century modern theme (50's/60's) to it with curved geometric shapes.
Sign - artistic significance: The theme of Pair A- Dice plays perfectly with the theme of Vegas since for many table dice games you need a pair of dice. Though you are also in paradise here in Vegas particularly since the incorporated area of Vegas which we all know as the strip is technically the city of "Paradise". Also the Pair O' Dice was the name of one of the first casino's down on the strip when gambling was re-legalized in the state of Nevada in 1931.
Survey - research locations: Assessor's Page, Loop Net- Information on what the property offers http://www.loopnet.com/Listing/18840376/2067-N-Las-Vegas-Boulevard-Las-Vegas-NV/ , _Las Vegas Sun article https://lasvegassun.com/news/2011/mar/01/2-southern-nevada-contractors-file-bankruptcy/_, google maps satellite and roadside view
Survey - research notes: With the BMS sticker on this sign, it could be a sign company but the only one found online was in Minnesota. Unless if there was a BMS in Las Vegas but was bought out by a bigger sign company.
Survey - other remarks: The Pair A Dice LLC company went bankrupt in 2011 which this Las Vegas Sun article discusses https://lasvegassun.com/news/2011/mar/01/2-southern-nevada-contractors-file-bankruptcy/
Surveyor: Emily Fellmer
Survey - date completed: 2017-09-12
Sign keywords: Neon; Plastic; Backlit; Steel; Roadside