MORE Rare Memorabilia From Gilley’s Las Vegas.
As I promised in my original post of Rare Memorabilia From Gilley’s Las Vegas, here are more of our rare pieces from Gilley’s at the old Frontier Hotel & Casino.
(March 2012 – New Addition)
By pure luck we came across an incredible piece of Frontier Casino and Gilley’s memorabilia here in Las Vegas. Before the casinos switched to slot machines that use paper they had change girls with carts walking around the casino to give rolls of coins to slot players. Two bucks bought a roll of nickles and the house never wanted a player to walk away from a machine to get change, so this was the only way to have a “cashier” come to you.
These carts are heavy. About 50 pounds or so, without coins. With coins, they can weigh as much as 300 pounds. They have a sliding cash register type tray in the top under a sliding cover, with a large area for rolls of coins below. The Frontier Casino Las Vegas change cart stands about 38 inches tall, not including the adjustable handles. The box itself is 17 inches wide in front and 26 inches wide on the sides, and 29 inches high. There are 3 small heavy-duty swivel wheels and 2 large bicycle style spoked wheels with solid rubber tires. It rolls and changes direction with ease.
The front and sides have plexi-glass covers where signs can be held. It was common to use these carts to promote anything from concerts to restaurants to slot clubs. Our Frontier Casino change cart came complete with three promotional cards behind the plexiglass covers.
Since we’re GilleysMuseum.com and not Frontier Museum, let’s do the obvious and start with the left side view of this great Frontier Casino change cart with the Gilley’s promo. Notice the incredible similarity to the photo on the Frontier standee a few pictures further down this page.
Frontier Casino Change Cart with Gilley’s poster. Left side of cart.
The other side of this Frontier Casino Las Vegas change cart shows a poster saying “Your Table Is Waiting” above a picture of a blackjack table.
Frontier Casino Change Cart with gaming table poster. Right side of cart.
The front of our Frontier Casino Las Vegas change cart shows a poster promoting their casino Players Club on the front of the cart.
Frontier Casino Change Cart with Players Club poster. Front view of cart.
Finally, let’s take a look at the back end of the Frontier Casino Las Vegas change cart. This is where the change girl pushed the cart and accessed the top drawer to get bills and coin rolls. Notice the cover for the change and bill storage area is open and has some old Gilley’s Las Vegas coupons on the bill tray.
The two shiny bars at each side of the top are the adjustable handles for pushing the cart. They curve back towards the user like stainless steel candy canes with black sponge padding. They can be set higher or lower using spring loaded pins inside the cart to fit the height of whoever is working with it.
Frontier Casino Change Cart & Money Tray
Next is a very rare, and probably one-of-a-kind, standee from the Frontier Hotel & Casino floor. It is a large standee with a collage of pictures showing different parts of the property, including the front of the hotel, views of inside a hotel room, Margarita’s Mexican restaurant, and of course, Gilley’s. We know they had at least one or two other standees on the casino floor, but to the best of our knowledge they had different graphics and didn’t have the Gilley’s promo on them.
The banner, or poster, on the standee is approximately 6’6″ (78″) tall by 2’10” (34″) wide and is a very high quality printing on a heavy canvas-like material. It’s designed to last for a long time. The banner is still attached to the original lighted standee display that held it during its casino days. When the light is on the banner reflects light in a way that makes it look extremely realistic. The neon signs actually look like they are lit up. It’s an awesome piece.
Original Frontier Hotel & Casino Standee Featuring Gilley’s.
For a better look, here is a close-up of the Gilley’s section on the above standee.
Close-up of the Gilley’s photo on the Frontier Hotel & Casino standee.
Newly acquired in February of 2014 is a second Frontier Hotel standee that used to stand in their casino. With different graphics than the standee above, this one features the huge Frontier sign from the front of the casino hotel with a large Gilley’s logo on it. The standee is otherwise the same in size and construction as the one above. Here is a picture of the complete piece.
Frontier Hotel standee featuring the Frontier sign with Gilley’s logo.
Here’s a close up of the Las Vegas Frontier Hotel and Casino sign featuring the Gilley’s logo from the standee.
Frontier Hotel standee featuring the Frontier sign with Gilley’s logo – close up.
Glassware from the old Gilley’s Las Vegas is rare and hard to come by. Despite the fact that the club was open from December of 1998 until July of 2007, these glasses are almost never seen on ebay or anywhere else that I’m aware of. Not even in collectibles stores in Las Vegas! I think they may have only been available during the early years of Gilley’s as I don’t remember seeing them during the last 4 years or so the club was open.
This first one is a mint green hurricane style glass. It stands about 8 1/4 inches tall and is relatively light weight, made of fairly thin glass. It has a mirror-like finish with the Gilley’s logo above Saloon, Dance Hall & Bar-B-Que, then The New Frontier logo above Las Vegas printed in white. On the back is a larger version of The New Frontier logo, then Las Vegas – Nevada, again printed in white. So far this is the only one of its kind that we’ve seen.
Frontier Gilley’s Las Vegas Hurricane Glass
Next is a Gilley’s glass beer mug. It stands about 5 5/8 inches tall with a thick, heavy bottom. In red print it says The New Frontier, then Las Vegas, then the Gilley’s Las Vegas logo. The exact same print is on the other side, so we put white paper inside the mug to make the print show better. These mugs are quite hard to find.
Frontier Gilley’s Las Vegas Beer Mug
Want to see some one-of-a-kinds? We’ve got ’em! Let’s start with the original, framed Best of Citysearch award for the Best BBQ Food in Las Vegas. This framed certificate of award measures 5 1/2″ by 8″ (cert. only) and hung as you see it in the old Frontier Gilley’s Saloon in Las Vegas until after it closed in 2007. It was headed for the garbage bin when it was fortunately rescued.
Frontier Gilley’s 2006 Best of Citysearch BBQ Food Award
Our next one-of-a-kind is the original framed certificate of award from the Review Journal’s “The Best of Las Vegas” to Gilley’s at the Frontier for “Best Place to Dance” in 2005. The actual certificate measures 8″ by 10 1/2″. Note they mis-spelled “Gilly’s.” Again, this framed award hung in Gilley’s at the Frontier in Las Vegas until closing and was rescued from the dumpster.
2005 Review Journal award to Gilley’s L.V. for “Best Place to Dance”
Our third one-of-a-kind is the original, framed certificate for the Las Vegas Weekly’s “Readers’ Choice” award to Gilley’s at the Frontier for “Best Country Music Scene” in 2007. This certificate measures 7′” by 9″ and, you guessed it, hung in Gilley’s Las Vegas until closing and was rescued from dumpster hell to hang proudly in the Gilley’s Museum.
Gilley’s Las Vegas 2007 Readers’ Choice Country Music Scene award
This next one-of-a-kind is a plastic sign that was displayed in a chrome stand next to the restaurant host’s stand just inside the club entrance whenever business was slow and the host wasn’t assigning tables. It measures 11″ by 14″ and reads Please Seat Yourself. Yep, it’s another dumpster save.
Original Gilley’s Las Vegas “Please Seat Yourself” restaurant sign.
Finally, we have a two-of-a-kind, and we have both. These 11″ by 14″ plastic laminated signs hung next to the shoe shine stand that spent several years near the host stand just inside of Gilley’s at the old Frontier Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Two very pretty young girls shined shoes and cowboy boots when they weren’t dancing with me. Part of the dumpster save and now part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection.
Original Frontier Gilley’s Las Vegas Shoe Shine sign.
Next we have a framed collection of hard to find memorabilia from the old Gilley’s Frontier in Las Vegas. It starts with the two plastic privacy cards made for hanging on your room door to let staff know whether you wanted them to enter to clean up. The green “Ride Me” is on one side and the red “Don’t Ride Me” is on the other. We’ll let you decide which side means what. LOL This card measures 3 1/2″ by 8 1/2″. Top center is an unused Frontier Hotel & Casino post card that features the famous Frontier sign with Gilley’s in the middle. It measures 4″ by 6″. Below the post card are 2 cardboard VIP cards, one showing each side. This card would get you and one guest in for free for one night. It measures 2″ by 3 1/2″. Management and some of the staff gave these to certain regulars, gamblers, VIP’s, etc.
Gilley’s Las Vegas privacy cards, VIP cards, and post card.
Here is a very rare item. New Year’s Eve in 2006 was the last NYE party at Gilley’s Frontier in Las Vegas before they closed in July of 2007. Top center is a re-print of the Review Journal’s promo for the party. In each corner are cards passed out to customers to put on their drinks when they went to dance or use the bathroom. Bottom center is a complete, original ticket to the New Year’s Eve party. They cost $25 each and were hand numbered. Used tickets were torn in half as each person entered the club. This unused ticket was given to me by Randy, the head of security. It measures 2″ by 5 1/2″. The party was co-sponsored by country radio station KWNR and featured live music by Carolina Rain. It was a fun night of music, dancing, etc.
Frontier Gilley’s New Year’s Eve ticket for 2006.
I’ll bet you haven’t seen this one. It’s a plastic phone card with the Gilley’s at the New Frontier logo on it. We’ve never seen another like it. Measuring 2 1/8″ by 3 5/8″ it is part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection.
Frontier Gilley’s Las Vegas Phone Card.
We’re almost done. Here we have a plastic electronic card room key with the Gilley’s Frontier Las Vegas logo on it. Measuring 1 3/4″ by 3 1/2″, it must not have been in use for long as this is the only one we’ve been able to find.
Frontier Gilley’s Las Vegas Electronic Room Key.
And now, last but certainly not least, we have an original Gilley’s Frontier Las Vegas belt buckle along with the box it came in. It’s very thick and heavy, and measures 2 1/2″ by 3 3/8″. So far it is the only one we’ve seen available anywhere and we believe this was the only buckle design sold by Gilley’s at the Frontier. It appears to be chrome plated and has a deep relief design. If you know what these sold for, please let us know in a comment below. Thanks.
Frontier Gilley’s Las Vegas Buckle with original box.
So there you have it. All are part of the GilleysMuseum.com collection. Hope you enjoyed seeing these great pieces. And, as always, please feel free to ask questions or comment. We always love hearing from Gilley’s fans and especially love it when we can get further info on anything in our collection.
Thanks ya’ll,
Bubba
GilleysMuseum.com Blog 
I have an Original Gilley’s Brand Cowboy Hat from the Pasadena Days. What would be the value of this as I cannot seem to find any online?
Hi Devon,
You’re right. Original Gilley’s vintage hats are not often seen for sale, so there isn’t much to go by when trying to price one. And since styles change and size matters, finding a buyer can be a challenge.
Gilley’s sold straw hats starting at $30 all the way up to high quality Charlie 1 Horse hats for $300 each, so as you can see it’s impossible to value a hat based on what you’ve told me. In addition, there are questions of style, color, size, and condition. Do you have the original box, and what condition is it in? Its value to a collector (does it display well, with the box), as opposed to someone who wants to wear it, would impact the price also.
We purchased a beautiful Gilley’s Charlie 1 Horse, in its original box, both in brand new condition, for a little over $100. We also bought a Gilley’s straw hat, in its original box with some fading of the Gilley’s logo, for about $30. These deals were made a year or so ago, so take that into consideration. Hopefully that will give you some parameters within which to value your hat.
If you want to sell it, or would like a more specific opinion, send pictures and answers to the above questions to me at GilleysMuseum@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you.
Hope that helps.
Bubba