All Robert Friedrichs wanted to go on was a stage title he found printed under an archival newspaper {photograph} that confirmed her posing with completely different Las Vegas showgirls.
It may take him larger than 20 years to unravel the thriller of Lee A. Merlin’s true id.
Friedrichs, 81, shouldn’t be a detective. He’s a historian and a retired scientist who acquired his start in the middle of the atomic age, a complicated second in American historic previous when the highway was blurred between fear and fascination with nuclear power.
Between 1951 and 1992, tons of of nuclear assessments have been carried out, largely underground, inside the desert open air Las Vegas. Nonetheless it was the massive mushroom clouds from the above-ground nuclear blasts that captured most of the people’s creativeness all by means of the Nineteen Fifties and early Sixties.
Las Vegas sought to capitalise on that craze, and in 1957 despatched a photographer out on process to shoot a promotional advert for nuclear tourism. He acquired an idea to grab the lead dancer on the Sands Lodge in a swimsuit inside the type of a fluffy mushroom cloud. Inside the {photograph}, the high-heeled showgirl is smiling with arms outstretched as a result of the desert unfolds behind her like a stage.The image carried out a key place in shaping Las Vegas ‘ id as a metropolis of fantasy and spectacle. However little was recognized in regards to the star of the {photograph} – until now.
Chasing clues
Friedrichs first received down to find Miss Atomic Bomb spherical 2000. The Atomic Museum was set to open in Las Vegas in various years and as a founding member, he was “hoping in direction of hope” that she was nonetheless alive and can attend the grand opening.
What started as a straightforward question – Who was she? – turned an obsession for Friedrichs that outlasted careers and outlived associates.
Friedrichs crammed stacks of binders with clues and potential leads, like one which led him “to a person in South Dakota.” Days off have been spent each combing by the use of on-line newspaper archives or sifting by the use of specific collections on the library.
He tracked down the photographer from that well-known photoshoot and interviewed former showgirls who confirmed Miss Atomic Bomb’s stage title. Nevertheless the woman’s precise title nonetheless eluded him.
Leads dried up and months was years.
The thriller didn’t preserve him up at night time time, nonetheless he talked about when he was awake, it consumed his concepts. He would typically stare on the {photograph}, questioning if she’d ever give up the reply.
Then, ultimate winter, one factor sudden occurred. He gave a chat on the Atomic Museum about his search, and the next day, an viewers member despatched him a reproduction of an obituary. A aspect stood out: The girl had as quickly as been the lead dancer on the Sands Lodge.
Her title was Anna Lee Mahoney.
Previous the stage title
She was born on Aug 14, 1927, inside the Bronx. Mahoney educated in ballet in New York sooner than performing in reveals and musicals under her stage title, Lee A. Merlin.
By 1957, she was the lead dancer on the Sands Lodge’s Copa showroom, a frequent haunt of the Rat Pack and mobsters. She carried out for elite audiences, along with Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong, according to her obituary.
After hanging up her dancing footwear, Mahoney labored for 30 years as a psychological properly being counselor, moved to Hawaii and acquired married. She died in 2001 in Santa Cruz, California, after a battle with most cancers.
Her {{photograph}} is doubtless some of the requested of the 7.5 million pictures saved inside the Las Vegas Convention Center and Visitors Authority’s archive. It has impressed Halloween costumers, and former Playboy Bunny Holly Madison recreated it in 2012. One in every of many outtakes from the well-known shoot appears inside the background of an episode of “Crime Story,” a police TV drama set inside the Sixties.
“It’s merely truly very good that one click on on of the shutter could have such an have an effect on,” Friedrichs talked about.
A brief lived exhibit showcasing the decades-long search opens June 13 on the Atomic Museum.
“It’s about Miss Atomic Bomb, about Anna Lee Mahoney,” talked about Joseph Kent, the museum’s deputy director and curator, “nonetheless it’s moreover about Robert’s quest to hunt out out her precise id.”
New associates and outdated tales
By the years, the enterprise had become deeply non-public for Friedrichs.
He and the photographer, Don English, turned fast associates after their first meeting. Sooner than the Atomic Museum opened to most of the people, Friedrichs took English inside to tour the home. English launched the distinctive digicam he used to take the infamous {photograph}.
English posed inside the lobby for {a photograph} with a life-sized cardboard cutout of “Miss Atomic Bomb.” Friedrichs jokes it’s his favorite of the entire pictures he’s collected of her in 25 years.
English died in 2006, prolonged sooner than Friedrichs solved the thriller. In its place he often known as English’s daughter to share the knowledge.
“She was truly excited that we had gotten this put to mattress,” Friedrichs talked about.
After which there have been the showgirls who spent hours talking with Friedrichs. They shared their stage names and tales about traditional Vegas – fancy dinners, photoshoots and lavish presents like a beautiful citrine ring that thought-about considered one of them acquired from an individual who wanted to marry her.
The women provided a glimpse into the atomic interval, life as Copa showgirls and the way in which they turned icons of Las Vegas, however have been typically misidentified in {photograph} captions or their names altogether omitted.
And eventually, with the help of private investigators who donated their time, Friedrichs uncovered conclusive proof linking all of Miss Atomic Bomb’s names to a single Social Security amount.
“It’s one factor I on a regular basis hoped could possibly be achieved in my lifetime,” talked about Friedrichs, teary-eyed.
His motivation to resolve the thriller didn’t come from curiosity alone. The missing title was a distinct segment inside the historic report, he talked about, and he wanted to restore it.
“It’s kind of like determining someone was the first president of america, nonetheless what was his title as soon as extra?”