“Unveiling the Mystery: The Surprising Truth Behind the Iconic ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ of 1957 Revealed!”
Her career eventually led her to Las Vegas, where she performed as the lead dancer at the Sands Hotel Copa showroom. In 1957, she was asked to be a model in the Las Vegas News Bureau photoshoot, during which Don English snapped the famous Miss Atomic Bomb photograph.
Don English/Las Vegas News BureauAnother photograph of “Miss Atomic Bomb” from the same shoot.
Five years after the photoshoot, Mahoney married, later moving to Hawaii and working as a mental health counselor. By the late 1990s, she had once again relocated to California, where she worked for the Cabrillo College Foundation to help raise funds for student scholarships.
Anna Lee Mahoney died in 2001 after a battle with cancer. Curiously, though serendipitously, it was around this same time that the search for her true identity began.
In honor of the discovery, the Atomic Museum will be displaying a temporary exhibit dedicated to Friedrichs’ investigation into Miss Atomic Bomb’s identity, as well as how the image’s place in American culture has evolved over the years. The exhibit will be a collaboration between the museum and the Las Vegas Archives, which maintains the Las Vegas News Bureau’s collection.
“We have 7.5 million images in the LVCVA Archive,” said archivist Kelli Luchs, “and the ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ photo is one of the most requested images that we have.”
Don English/Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority ArchivePhotographers capture the atomic testing in the Nevada desert.
The mushroom cloud became the defining symbol of the Atomic Age, so it’s little wonder why English’s photograph has had such a long life in the American imagination. As the press release notes, the photo is symbolic of “a distinctive convergence of Cold War culture, science, and the burgeoning entertainment industry of Las Vegas” and “helped cement Las Vegas as a cultural epicenter of the Atomic Age.”
“Las Vegas played a vibrant and unique role in the Atomic Age, and ‘Miss Atomic Bomb’ has always been a symbol of that era’s colorful history,” said Joseph Kent, deputy director and curator, Atomic Museum. “Thanks to Robert Friedrichs’ tireless dedication, we now have the opportunity to connect her story to the history we preserve at the Atomic Museum.”
After learning about the story behind this iconic photograph and the search for Miss Atomic Bomb’s true identity, read about the creation of “Little Boy,” the first atomic bomb used in warfare. Then, learn all about the Manhattan Project and the development of the first atomic bomb.
