A single photograph sparked a decades-long mystery, and now, finally, it’s been solved.

For 25 years, historian and retired scientist Robert Friedrichs searched for the true identity of the woman known only as “Miss Atomic Bomb,” a showgirl immortalised in a famous 1957 photo wearing a mushroom cloud-shaped swimsuit in the Nevada desert. The image, shot as part of a promotional campaign during the height of atomic tourism, came to define Las Vegas as a city of spectacle. But the woman behind the iconic image remained anonymous until now.

Friedrichs, 81, began his search around 2000 while preparing for the opening of the Atomic Museum in Las Vegas, where he hoped to invite the showgirl if she were still alive. All he had was a stage name, Lee A. Merlin, and a vintage newspaper clipping. What followed was a meticulous search through libraries, newspaper archives, interviews with showgirls and photographers, and even tips from strangers across the country.

Though Friedrichs tracked down the original photographer, Don English, and collected countless leads, none definitively identified the woman. Then, in a breakthrough last winter, a museum talk led an attendee to send Friedrichs an obituary. One detail leapt out: the deceased had once been the lead dancer at the Sands Hotel. Her name was Anna Lee Mahoney.

Born in the Bronx in 1927, Mahoney trained in ballet before adopting the stage name Lee A. Merlin. By the mid-1950s, she was headlining the Copa showroom at the Sands Hotel, performing for audiences that included Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong. After leaving the stage, she became a mental health counsellor, moved to Hawaii, and later settled in California, where she died of cancer in 2001.

Her photo remains one of the most requested images in Las Vegas archives. It has inspired Halloween costumes and pop culture tributes, but her real identity had long gone unrecognised.

A new exhibit at the Atomic Museum, opening June 13, tells both her story and Friedrichs’s determined search. It includes photos, documents, and interviews gathered over 25 years, a tribute not only to Mahoney, but to the forgotten women of Vegas history.

“It wasn’t just curiosity,” Friedrichs said. “It was a hole in the historical record I needed to fill. Like remembering someone was the first president, but not knowing his name.” AP