This is a heavy duty Western restaurant dinner plate from the Last Frontier Village, a facsimile of an old Western pioneer town build next to the Last Frontier hotel and casino in Las Vegas. The Last Frontier was built in 1942 and was the first themed casino in Las Vegas and the second resort to be built on the fledgling Las Vegas Strip (the Last Frontier eventually became the New Frontier… to read a full history of the hotel and casino see – http://www.lvstriphistory.com/ie/frontier.htm). Ronald Reagan performed there in 1954 and Elvis Presley’s first show in Las Vegas was at the New Frontier in 1956. This plate was manufactured by the Wallace China Company (Los Angeles, CA) and is considered to be rare and hard to find.
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Allee Willis
What an excellent companion plate for your El Rancho dinner plate!
I never even heard The Last Frontier or The New Frontier so great to read about them here. Can’t believe that’s where Elvis’s first show in LV was.
How many Western themed restaurant ware plates do you think you have?
Michael Ely
You’re right about it being a companion piece to the El Rancho plate I shared the other day, as this plate too is part of the El Rancho pattern (often restaurants commissoned Wallace to stamp their pieces to advertise their establishment on existing patterns). I just recently sold off some of my excess Western restaurant china, and I now have six differnt dinner plates left (plus other pieces such as salad plates, coffee cups, soup bowls, disc pitcher). I will be sharing a few other patterns and pieces in the near future.
Elvis first performed in Las Vegas in 1956 when he was just 21 years old. He was booked in the Venus Room at the New Frontier hotel, which billed him as “The Atomic Powered Singer.”
BeeJay
This is awesome, Michael! I also think this piece goes so well with your El Rancho Plate, very nice!
Michael Ely
Thank you, BeeJay! I don’t use my Western china very often, but once in a blue moon, I get all of my pieces out to throw a cowboy themed dinner party. Only thing is, the plates are in such mint condition that I get nervous watching people eat off of them!
BeeJay
I can imagine! I got a wonderful vintage tea set with two cups plus a small teapot to my my wedding. Two years later the couple who gave us that wonderful pressie visited us and the guy accidently broke one of the cups – yes, my friend who once found this treasure! That was the total irony, he had no words for how ashamed he was.