The 1952 film "Sky Full of Moon" is about a modern-day Nevada cowboy who ventures to Las Vegas, Nevada on his 21st birthday hoping to enter the city's rodeo and win enough money to buy a ranch. He encounters a woman and casino gambling. There are many scenes of Las Vegas in 1952 when the film was made including the famous Flamingo Hotel, Thunderbird Hotel, and Pioneer Club. Scenes set at a small bar and casino called the "Lucky 13 Club" show coin operated slot machines and silver United States coins. Ironically the "Lucky 13 Club" in the film was fictitious but later there was a short-lived club with the same name. The coins shown in the film are quarters (mostly Washington) and silver dollars (mostly Peace).

Harley Williams, also known as "Tumbleweed" is a 21-year old cowboy working on a ranch near Tonopah Nevada. He wants to buy a ranch and to raise money he travels to Las Vegas to enter the Helldorado Rodeo as a contestant. A sign shown later states that the rodeo runs May 15 to 18, 1952 which sets the period of the film. Harley takes a bus from Tonopah to Las Vegas. Despite the cowboy's name there are no motorcycles in the film.

Harley has never been to a big city and is awed by Las Vegas. Soon he spots Las Vegas' most famous landmark, "Vegas Vic", the Pioneer Club cowboy mascot.

Harley asks for directions to the Rodeo office and is told "I'm a tourist also." With the next man he is more successful as Nevada celebrity Rex Bell directs him.

Rex Bell was a film actor, married to silent film star Clara Bow, and later Lieutenant Governor of Nevada from 1955 to 1962. He did run a clothing store in Las Vegas at the time. Harley heads for the Rodeo office and is told that he needs $50 to enter each rodeo event. He does not have that much money and wanders around the town. Eventually he enters the "Lucky 13 Club", a small bar with slot machines. The club is managed by the gruff "Al" and is open 24 hours a day. Pretty blonde Dixie Delmar works at the club and meets Harley.

Harley plays several coin-operated slot machines starting with the 10 cent machine

Silver dimes (10 cent coins) are visible in the machine window, they appear to be the "Mercury" type, minted from 1916 to 1945. Harley wins a "jackpot" or largest payout which for the 10 cent machine is $20.

A "ROL-A-TOP" brand 5 cent slot machine appears, a similar dollar machine was the villian in the 1960 "Twilight Zone" episode "The Fever." For more information please visit: Twilight Zone - The Fever An obnoxious gambler has been following the "lucky" Harley and plays a 25 cent machine.

The 25 cent machine show United States quarters.

The quarter coins appear to be of the George Washington type minted starting in 1932. And, of course, these are silver quarters.

A closer look at the quarters waiting to be paid out to the lucky winner. After winning several hundred dollars, Harley and Dixie head out for a drive in an old jalopy car which she bought in California. She tells Harley that she left Kansas to make money as a dancer but that things did not work out as planned.

We get to see the back of the famous Pioneer Club. The pair then stop at a drive-in restaurant and have hamburgers and then head over to another famous Las Vegas establishment.

The Flamingo Hotel was built in 1946 as the Flamingo Las Vegas by entrepreneur Benjamin Siegel who was no longer running the place in 1952. The pair then head for a casino for more gambling, this time playing blackjack.

The blackjack or "21" table has a change tray with silver dollars showing.

The silver dollars are of the "Peace" type which were made from 1921 to 1935.

The bills are standard Mexican Revolution motion picture stage or prop bills. For more information on these bills please visit: Mexican Revolution Currency Notes.

Harley loses all of the money he has won and the pair head back to the Lucky 13 Club for some dancing.

A sign reads "We do not employ shills - There must be a reason." Shills are casino employees who pretend to gamble in order to lure in customers. Dixie drops Harley off at a campground and then heads home. The next day they look for each other.

The sign reads "Gas Reg. 28 5/10" or 28.5 cents per gallon. Dixie visits another casino.

Slot machines are frequently called "one-armed bandits" and here the name is made real. Harley heads for the Lucky 13 Club and watches Al working on a slot machine.

We get to see the inner parts of the famous machines. Dixie and Harley meet up and as they both need money, she tells him about a former boyfriend who showed her how to use an electric drill to cause a slot machine to produce a jackpot. She gives him the drill and he heads for the club.

He holds the silver dollar and the drill.

Before he can use the drill, the machine "jackpots" by itself, the manager sees the drill, and Harley runs out of the club and jumps into Dixie's car. They drive out into the Nevada desert and to a ghost town.

The pair argue about going back to Las Vegas or heading east to Utah. While he looks for water she drives off leaving him in the town. Dixie turns around, heads back to the town, and picks up Harley. The drive east and encounter a bridge right out of an Indiana Jones movie.

They stop at a railroad junction and Harley goes to sleep on a bench. Dixie leaves the money with him and drives off to Utah. Harley gets a train into Las Vegas just in time to enter a rodeo event.

The sign reads:

Harley heads for the rodeo and meets Al.

Al tells Harley that his drill did not cause the slot machine jackpot. He also tells him that Dixie is driving home to Kansas. Harley heads back to his cowboy life.

Harley dreams of visiting Las Vegas "next year."

Carleton Carpenter as Harley Williams AKA Tumbleweed
Jan Sterling as Dixie Delmar
Keenan Wynn as Al
Rex Bell as himself (store owner)
Director: Norman Foster
Writers: Norman Foster