7:30 AM, May 8, 1953 - Atomic Blast And Mushroom Cloud 75 Miles Away, Seen From Hotel Last Frontier,

7:30 AM, May 8, 1953 - Atomic blast and mushroom cloud 75 miles away, seen from Hotel Last Frontier, Las Vegas Strip.

The atomic blast was real; the photo was planned promotional effort by the Las Vegas News Bureau.

Las Vegas News Bureau, the resort industry’s own PR team whose mission it was to get the name “Las Vegas” into the national media by any means possible, found the series of atomic tests in the 1950s to be a proven success. An earlier photo by Bureau photographer Don English showing an atomic cloud rising in the distance over downtown Las Vegas skyline had been his biggest success to date with his photo published in LIFE and newspapers around the world.

English planned these photos for the May 8th test blast hoping for a similar success. He was perched on a balcony at Hotel Last Frontier facing northwest, overlooking the courtyard and pool. It was early-morning on a day that wasn’t particularly hot, with the swimmers possibly also positioned for the photo.

The covered wagons in the distance are the hotel's Last Frontier Village theme park. The screen of Motor-Vu Drive-In theater is beyond the hotel. A Union Pacific train passed in the distance of the second photo.