When historian Robert Friedrichs stumbled upon a vintage newspaper photograph featuring a showgirl labeled ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’, all he had was a stage name. Identifying the woman in the iconic image would turn into a two-decade-long quest.
It took Friedrichs more than 25 years to confirm the true identity of the woman behind the stage name Lee A. Merlin, eventually revealed as Anna Lee Mahoney.
Now 81 years old, Friedrichs is a retired scientist and historian who became interested in the nuclear age while still working. His fascination with the atomic age, a period when Americans were both fascinated and terrified by nuclear power spawned his tireless quest.
From 1951 to 1992, scores of nuclear tests were conducted in the desert just outside Las Vegas. It was the spectacular mushroom clouds from the above-ground tests in the ’50s and the early ’60s that struck the popular imagination. Exploiting that interest, Las Vegas tourism officials made a spectacle of nuclear testing, even adding it to the tourism package.
In 1957, a photographer was commissioned to create a promotion photo for what came to be called nuclear tourism. The concept? To dress the Sands Hotel’s top showgirl in a swimsuit to set like a mushroom cloud. The photo he took had her smiling with arms open wide, dwarfed by the swirling desert landscape behind her. That photograph went on to become one of the longest-lasting images of Las Vegas ever.
An Obsession Years in the Making
Even though the photo was famous, the woman in it was unknown for decades. Friedrichs started looking for her in about 2000, when he hoped she could come to the opening of the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas, where he was one of the original members.
“I was hoping against hope” she would still be alive, he said.
What began as a fleeting interest quickly became an all-encompassing quest. Friedrichs spent months scouring newspaper morgues, rummaging through library special collections, and chasing down tips nationwide, one led him to a source in South Dakota.
He was able to find the initial photographer, Don English, and conducted interviews with a few retired showgirls who verified the stage name Lee A. Merlin. But her true identity continued to elude him.
It didn’t keep me up nights, but it was on my mind when I was awake,” Friedrichs said. He would look at the picture repeatedly and wonder if it would ever reveal its secret.
Revealing Miss Atomic Bomb’s True Identity
Last winter, his fortune shifted. Following a presentation he had made at the Atomic Museum of his quest, an audience member contacted him the following day with a lead, a duplicate of an obituary. One tidbit stood out: the deceased had been the Sands Hotel’s top dancer.
Her name was Anna Lee Mahoney.
About Anna Lee Mahoney
Born in the Bronx on August 14, 1927, Mahoney danced ballet in New York before hitting the stage as Lee A. Merlin. By 1957, she was top dancer at Sands Hotel’s legendary Copa Room, a hangout for the Rat Pack and even mobsters. Her obituary said she had danced for legends like Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.
Following her dance career, Mahoney settled in Hawaii, where she married and worked as a mental health counselor for three decades. She died in 2001 in Santa Cruz, California, after a battle with cancer.
Mahoney’s Legacy
Her picture remains the most popular to this day among the 7.5 million photographs stored in the Las Vegas Convention Center and Visitors Authority archives. The photograph has been reproduced into Halloween costumes, one of them being re-created by ex-Playboy Bunny Holly Madison in 2012. An outtake from the shoot even appeared in the background of the TV series Crime Story.
It’s really just amazing that a single click of the shutter could have so much impact,” Friedrichs mused.
The tale of Mahoney’s rediscovery will be recounted in a special exhibit launching June 13 at the Atomic Museum.
“It’s about Miss Atomic Bomb, about Anna Lee Mahoney,” said Joseph Kent, deputy director and curator at the museum, “but it’s also about Robert’s search to discover her true identity.
Honoring a Forgotten Icon
Years later, Friedrichs’s efforts became very personal. He formed a close relationship with the photographer, Don English. Friedrichs took English on a pre-opening private tour of the facility, where he sat for a photo with a cardboard life-size standee of Mahoney holding the original camera used for the shoot.
Friedrichs values that photograph the most. “It’s my favorite of all the pictures I’ve gathered of her in 25 years,” he said. English died in 2006, many years before the mystery was solved. Friedrichs then phoned English’s daughter to inform her. “She was quite excited that we had gotten this in bed,” he said.
He also interviewed at length with retired showgirls who told their tales—some were mistakenly identified or completely unknown in historical picture captions. They reminisced about fancy nights, lavish photoshoots, and lavish presents, such as the citrine ring one of them was given by a suitor who wanted to marry her.
Later, Friedrichs worked with private detectives, who assisted in verifying through Social Security records that each of Miss Atomic Bomb’s aliases referred to the same individual: Anna Lee Mahoney.
“It’s something that I always had hoped would be done in my lifetime,” Friedrichs said, her voice choked with emotion.
His inspiration wasn’t individualistic, it was about maintaining historical truth. “It’s a little like knowing someone was the first president of the United States, but what was his name again?” he remarked.
