Miss Atomic Bomb’s Identity—Revealed!

If you visited Las Vegas in the 1950s, you might have sipped an atomic-themed cocktail and watched a mushroom cloud blast from your hotel room at the Sands or Flamingo, from the Sky Room at the Desert Inn, or even the rooftop of Atomic Liquors (now the oldest freestanding bar in Las Vegas). You might even have been one of the many to follow the blast calendar issued by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce and take an atomic box lunch to Mount Charleston for a viewing party.

At the end of 1950, President Harry S. Truman authorized a section of the Nellis Air Force Gunnery and Bombing Range as the Nevada Proving Grounds where, for the next four decades, 928 nuclear tests would be conducted—exploding into dramatic clouds above ground until 1962. (After that year, the tests were performed underground.) Las Vegas, already an up-and-coming entertainment destination, now had another way to reach visitors: atomic tourism.

Atomic fever was on, in everything from interior design and architectural elements to culture. Mostly unofficial pageants named showgirls the winner of Miss A Bomb, Miss Atomic Blast, and Mis-Cue (a Copa girl at the Sands named by US Army personnel after a delayed detonation in 1955). The most famous image of them all is “Miss Atomic Bomb,” a voluptuous blond Copa girl clad in a fluffy mushroom cloud swimsuit, her arms outstretched to the sky, embodying the convergence of Cold War intrigue, science, and the glamour of a young Las Vegas. 

But for nearly 70 years, Miss Atomic Bomb held her own secret—her identity.

The image was captured in 1957 by Las Vegas News Bureau photographer Don English, whose team created her costume and captured the photo—her foreground image dwarfing the telephone poles behind her in the Nevada desert. The woman in the photo had long been identified as Lee Merlin, a stage name for a Copa showgirl at the Sands. Tracking down her real identity—Anna Lee Mahoney, a classically trained dancer who would later become lead Copa girl under her stage name—took Atomic Museum founding member and historian Robert Friedrichs over twenty years, a riveting story of super sleuthery, involving a detective agency, tracking living relatives, and linking two names to one Social Security number.

Of the more than seven million images in the LVCVA Archive Collection, Miss Atomic Bomb is one of the most frequently requested. It has appeared everywhere from the Killers’ single of the same name to a re-creation by Holly Madison. To honor the discovery, the Atomic Museum will open a temporary exhibit this summer, in collaboration with the Archive Collection, displaying everything from Don English’s camera to the wide variety of so-called Atomic cheesecakes—the “pageant” images that came out of atomic tourism—to the discovery of the real woman behind the iconic image.

The exhibit is set for summer 2025. You can check the website of the National Atomic Testing Museum for the opening date as it is solidified.