‘Debbie’ gets facelift: Work begins on Hollywood legend’s hotel neon sign

Debbie Reynolds, a trailblazing entertainer and businesswoman, often said her off-Strip hotel-casino that operated in the 1990s was “her little place” — and she had the massive neon signs to prove it.

Almost three decades later, her massive neon signature will be restored and redisplayed at the Neon Museum, thanks to a restoration project run by the museum and the YESCO sign company. On Wednesday, the organizations lifted the 24-foot-long, fading pink “Debbie” neon sign from its spot tucked behind the Stardust signage, in the museum’s Neon Boneyard.

“This is actually her autograph that they scanned, then enlarged and made into metal and neon,” said Todd Fisher, Reynolds’ son and brother to the late actress Carrie Fisher. “The idea that it can come back to life in its former glory was something that inspired us.”

Fisher and others fundraised to get the sign restored, along with the support of YESCO’s recently established conservation fund. Jeff Young, the company’s executive vice president, said the fund will allow them to do a handful of restorations annually, depending on the sign’s size.

For the “Debbie” sign, YESCO first lifted the sign out of the museum backyard with a crane. It then loaded it into a trailer to take it to the company’s factory on West Tropicana Avenue, where the restoration team will focus on repainting it, refurbishing the structure of the sign, installing new neon and new transformers.

“The trick for us is to try to figure out exactly what the neon is,” Young said. “Until we get it to the factory, we’re not able to test it to know what color it is. So to match that is going to be a part of the excitement for us.”

For Fisher, the sign’s renovation is a chance to relive some vintage Vegas memories and highlight his mother’s impact on the town. Reynolds was the first entertainer to receive a $1 million contract when she started a residency at the Riviera in 1962.

She and her then-husband Richard Hamlett purchased the former Paddlewheel Hotel in 1992 and converted it to the Debbie Reynolds Hotel and Casino, opening a year later. They later added a Hollywood museum. The property struggled to be profitable and ultimately closed in 1998.

Fisher said he had positive memories of his mother’s time as a hotel-runner. She performed to crowded showrooms and lounges, bringing back some of the old Vegas-era that began to disappear during the megaresort boom of the ’90s.

“When she bought the hotel, we all thought she had lost her mind,” Fisher said. “The idea that buying a property off the Strip was kind of an oddball thing to do. And many people thought that was a bad idea. But you know, all she was trying to do was market to her people.”

Neon Museum officials said they expect the renovation to take a few months and to put the sign back on display — across from Liberace and other entertainer artifacts — in the fall.

Contact McKenna Ross at mross@reviewjournal.com. Follow @mckenna_ross_ on X.