Today’s flea market find took me many miles away from the comfy confounds of Neato Coolville to the bright lights of Las Vegas. Last week the first lady and I enjoyed a simple vacation in Sin City and one of our stops was the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop.
Yep, this pawn shop is the home to History Channel’s popular reality show, Pawn Stars. If you haven’t seen the show, it’s kinda a lowbrow Antiques Roadshow filled with goofy characters, zany humor and interesting junk. I’m not a reality TV fan, but I do enjoy all the “antique collectors” shows, including this one.
We didn’t know what to expect when we entered the shop.
The main guys were MIA., supposedly out shooting some scenes for the show. Chumlee, the store's court jester was at the shop, but mostly stayed hidden in the back. The few times he popped his head out, you would have thought Elvis had been resurrected from the dead. The crowd went nuts when they glimpsed Chumlee.
The fun part for me was viewing all the cool items in the shop.
I didn't think I would actually find anything to buy until I found a cannon.
No that's not the cannon. Instead, I purchased this 18-Pounder Field Gun toy in the original box.
This little cap gun cannon was made by Crescent Toys from 1958 to 1979. I believe this one is from the 1960's. I’ve never collected cap guns or military toys, but for fifteen bucks I decided this was a much better Pawn Stars souvenir than a magnet or shot glass.
Check out this snapshot that my friend Allen Sandquist co-author of the book Las Vegas 1905-1965 uploaded to his flickr site. It's the Gold & Silver Pawn building before it was a pawn shop.
If you find yourself in Las Vegas, make sure you visit the Gold & Silver Pawn!
3 comments:
I'm so jealous! Love Pawn Stars, and Chumlee, and the crazy old man, all of them. My other new favorite is American Pickers. We saw lots of good places to recommend to them last weekend in Branson.
This is a very cool souvenir, good choice! I was curious to see what you got because I have an old cannon that was my grandfathers made by one of the big fireworks company still in the box. If I find it soon I'll post a picture on flickr!
No, Chumlee, we will NOT call it "The Walrus Street Journal"
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