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One of the oldest establishments in Las Vegas, the Golden Gate Casino opened in 1906, when the city was little more than a busy railroad junction. Located at the corner of Fremont and and Main Street, the hotel was originally known as the Hotel Nevada and was both the first hotel property in the city and the first hotel made of concrete in southern Nevada. For $1 a night, guests at the Hotel Nevada could stay in one of the most modern hotel rooms of their time. The hotel was one of the first to have electric lights, ventilation and steam heat radiators. It was also the first property in Las Vegas to have a phone number--number 1. The hotel also operated a casino from its opening until 1909, when Nevada banned gambling. At that time, Las Vegas was little more than a desert outpost. Fremont Street was unpaved until 1925 and gambling was legalized again in 1931, an event which changed the fortunes of the property, which was renamed that year as the Sal Sagev, or Las Vegas spelled backwards. In 1955, while the hotel was still called the Sal Sagev, the Golden Gate Casino opened on the ground floor. In 1959, a Las Vegas tradition was born when the hotel introduced the shrimp cocktail. Since 1974, the entire property has operated at the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino. The property celebrated its ninetieth anniversary in 1996, with the mayor of Las Vegas declaring it the city's "Most Historic Hotel." The property underwent a major expansion in 2012, which included a 35,000 square foot tower. In August of 2017, the hotel hosted a grand opening following another major expansion, this time of the casino.&nbsp;

The original hotel opened in 1906 and is pictured in the circa 1920s photo.

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One of the only Casinos to survive the Las Vegas slump, this hotel is best known as the first hotel to serve shrimp cocktail. It still operates as a casino and is considered by many to be one of the last "authentic" Las Vegas casinos around. The legacy spans the birth of Las Vegas, the Roaring 20s, the Rat Pack era and now into the 21st Century.

Golden Gate Casino

This tour offers a lot of history in a relatively short drive through Sin City. The tour includes about a dozen casinos that were constructed in 1961 or prior, including establishments that catered to African Americans in the era of segregation. The tour includes a museum dedicated to the early years of the city when gambling establishments were under the control of the mob. The tour also includes a few classic Las Vegas signs such as Vegas Vic and the iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign that remains a symbol of the city. 

Classic Las Vegas History Driving Tour

Until the 1960s, Las Vegas was a largely segregated city, with downtown restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues off-limits to African-Americans. Even African-American entertainers who came to the city to perform often found themselves unable to stay in downtown hotels, which served white patrons only. Consequently, the city's West Side became a thriving African-American enclave with numerous businesses and venues that filled the void created by segregation. One such business was Town Tavern, which opened in 1955. Town Tavern offered a bit of everything when it came to entertainment--it functioned as a restaurant, bar, casino, lounge, and entertainment venue. It became one of the most popular gathering places for Las Vegas's African-American community. In its heyday, Town Tavern hosted numerous well-known performers, including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, the Ink Spots, and Nat King Cole.&nbsp; By the early 1960s, federal laws prohibiting segregation meant that establishments like Town Tavern, which catered largely to African-Americans, were less relevant than they once were. Residents of the West Side were free to patronize whatever establishments they chose, and some of the businesses in the neighborhood, including Town Tavern, began to decline.&nbsp; Town Tavern changed owners numerous times over the years. It was closed from 1970 to 1981, then changed owners several more times. In 2003, part of the building's ceiling collapsed, and the city eventually closed the building in 2010 because of its deteriorating condition. At present, the bar remains closed, although there is talk of restoring and reopening Town Tavern in the future.

Opened in 1955, Town Tavern flourished for many years in Las Vegas's predominantly African-American West Side. Until the 1960s, much of downtown Las Vegas was segregated and bars, restaurants, and hotels often prohibited African-American patrons. For much of the 1950s and 1960s, the Town Tavern was one of the most popular nightspots on the West Side, and some of the leading entertainers of the day appeared there. The tavern closed in 2010.

Town Tavern

<div>Though its lifespan was short, the Moulin Rouge hotel occupies a significant space in the history of Las Vegas. At a time when Las Vegas was segregated, most of downtown--including restaurants, hotels, and entertainment venues--was off-limits to African Americans. Consequently, the city's Westside neighborhood, which had long been home to African American families, offered a place for people of color to eat and shop with dignity. The neighborhood was also home to with numerous jazz clubs and nightspots. The Moulin Rouge, which was named for the famed Parisian nightclub, opened in May of 1955. The hotel was the brainchild of developer Will Max Schwartz with the support of investors Alexander Bisno and Louis Rubin, as well as&nbsp;boxer Joe Louis. Located just on the edge of the Westside, the club was intended to bridge the divide between white and Black Las Vegas. Not only was it the first desegregated casino in the city, it was the first casino in the United States built to serve all races.&nbsp;&nbsp; In its first week, the Moulin Rouge hosted the Platters as entertainment. Other early guests of the hotel include&nbsp;Tallulah Bankhead, Edward G. Robinson, and Harry Belafonte.&nbsp;Moulin Rouge played host to great white and Black singers and performers alike, including many A-list entertainers such as&nbsp;Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King Cole, Judy Garland, Sophie Tucker and Frank Sinatra. Within a few weeks, the venue was popular enough that a third show beginning at 2:30AM was added. The hotel cost an estimated $3.5 million and featured 110 rooms, 7 suites, a full size swimming pool, and the casino, showroom and bar. The hotel and casino also included stylistic features designed to mirror the glitz of&nbsp;Paris. The sign featured the Eiffel Tower, a design that&nbsp;was also featured on the casino's chips. For dining, patrons had a French chef at their disposal. Not only was the Moulin Rouge popular, it inadvertently became a force for change in the city. Many of the club's patrons became civil rights activists and the club itself--a model of biracial cooperation--is seen by many as the spark that helped to end segregation in Las Vegas. However, casino closed suddenly after four-and-a-half months. When employees came to work one day in October of 1955, they found the Moulin Rouge padlocked. No one seems to know exactly what happened to the club. Some speculate that mobsters or rival nightclub owners had it shut it down to eliminate competition. Some blame the proliferation of downtown establishments in better locations, or the inability of the largely African American Westside to support the venue.&nbsp; For a number of years, the building that once housed the Moulin Rouge was home to other businesses such as a motel, a public housing apartment complex, and a flophouse. Preservationists and historians made numerous efforts to save the property, but plans staled and a fire on May 29, 2003 that severely damaged&nbsp;the complex reduced the likelihood of the building's preservation. The following January, the Moulin Rouge sold for $12.1 million, and a $200 million renovation was announced. In May 2009, however, the building caught fire again, causing significant damage to the original hotel lobby.&nbsp; Though the building had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992, the remains of the structure were demolished by the city because of safety concerns in 2010. Because of a quirk of Nevada gaming laws, which require that gambling take place occasionally to maintain a gaming license, gambling still takes place at the site every two years. Video poker machines are brought in for the day in order to keep the Moulin Rouge's gaming license, even though the casino closed in 1955.</div>

Listed in 1992 on the National Register of Historic Places, Moulin Rouge Hotel was a symbol of the Black civil rights movement and a reminder of Las Vegas's racist past. The Moulin Rouge Hotel open its doors on May 24, 1955 and became the first Las Vegas hotel and casino to cater to all races. Although preservationists and supporters of African American history hoped to save the historic property, most of the original hotel was demolished. 

Moulin Rouge Hotel (1955)

The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement, opened on February 14th, 2012. What used to be the Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, built in 1933, is now home to the museum. It is just two blocks away from the casinos, which were in great use during the time of the infamous mobs. The museum cost about $50 million, including renovation and acquiring the exhibits and artifacts.&nbsp; Dennis Barrie, who also worked on other museums, developed museum. In 2000, the government sold the post office and courtroom for $1, hoping the building would be renovated and put to use towards the community. In 2002, a former mob attorney Oscar Goodman developed the idea of the museum, although his ideas were opposed to by the people affected by the mob.&nbsp;&nbsp;During tours, visitors can learn more about Las Vegas life itself, including the casinos, stories behind organized crime, prohibition, and the personal lives behind the mobsters. Artifacts from mobsters, including Al Capone, a gangster in the prohibition era, and Mickey Cohen, a gangster in the Jewish mafia, on on display in the museum.&nbsp; At the museum, there are more than just exhibits to look at. You can interact with the artifacts, including an electric chair, listening to wire tapes, watching FBI interrogation clips, and look at images of gory, deceased mobsters.&nbsp;

The Mob Museum, the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law enforcement, opened on February 14, 2012. The museum contains artifacts from previous mobsters, including a blood stained wall from the Saint Valentine's Day Massacre. It is housed in the former Las Vegas Post Office and Courthouse, which was built in 1933 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Mob Museum 

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce hired a
firm in 1947 to market the city in hopes of attracting more visitors and businesses. The
company created the concept of Vegas Vic, as well as his “Howdy Podner”
greeting, and first made it into a postcard. Vegas Vic’s character quickly
became popular, though, and as a result, the owners of the Pioneer Club hired
Young Electric Sign Company to create a neon sign version of Vegas Vic for the
casino. As the city was moving towards the new, flashy neon design, the Pioneer
Club casino opted to move away from its current sign, which merely sported a
horse and the words “Pioneer Club.” 

Vegas Vic was completed in 1951, sporting moving arms,
a moving cigarette, and a voice box that would blare out his “Howdy Podner!”
greeting every fifteen minutes. The sign was massively popular, and became an
iconic piece of the Las Vegas experience. However, in 1966, Vegas Vic’s
greeting was silenced because director Lee Marvin, who was filming The Professionals at the time,
complained that the greeting was far too loud. Vic remained silent for years,
but was given its voice back in the 1980s. Vic remained well-maintained until
The Pioneer Club closed down in 1995, and Vegas Vic quickly fell into
disrepair. However, the Neon Museum at the Fremont Street Experience opted to
restore the sign as long as the current owner of the sign and building, Schiff
Enterprises, would pay for the electricity required to keep it going. Since
then, the sign has been maintained and continues to be a Las Vegas icon.

From its creation in 1951, this neon sign based on the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce's friendly mascot "Vegas Vic" became one of the symbols of Las Vegas. The sign stood outside the Pioneer Club casino and was innovative for its time owing to its size and moving arm and cigarette. The sign even offered a friendly greeting every fifteen minutes by exclaiming “Howdy Podner!” to tourists and gamblers along Fremont Street. The Pioneer Club is no longer a casino, but the Vegas Vic sign is still located in the same place as it was in 1951.

Vegas Vic and the Pioneer Club Casino

The Golden Nugget was built by Guy McAfee in 1946, making it one of the city's oldest casinos. At the time of its construction, it was the largest casino in the world, and one of the city's most luxurious.&nbsp; The casino expanded in the 1950s, when Buck Blaine, a co-owner, began buying adjacent properties. Even as the venue expanded, it remained strictly a casino. In 1972, Steve Wynn bought a stake in the property, but gradually increased his ownership of the casino and became CEO in 1973. Wynn had an ambitious expansion plan for the Golden Nugget that included adding hotel rooms to the property and in 1977, he opened the first hotel tower on the property. At the time, Wynn was the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. The period marked not only the transformation of the Golden Nugget but the emergence of Wynn as one of the most high-profile developers in Las Vegas. In the 1980s, the Golden Nugget's facade was remodeled, and two more hotel towers were eventually added.&nbsp; In the latter years of the twentieth century, the Golden Nugget underwent a number of transformations, becoming one of the city's iconic hotel-casinos. Today the property features a lagoon-like swimming pool that circles a three-story shark tank. Guests at the Golden Nugget can climb 300 feet, then slide through the shark tank in an enclosed slide. Another popular attraction at the hotel is the Hand of Faith, a massive, six-pound golden nugget (and the largest one still in existence) which is on display near the North Tower elevators. The Golden Nugget has been featured in numerous television shows and movies, including Diamonds Are Forever and the Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas.&nbsp;

Built in 1946, the Golden Nugget was the largest casino in the world at the time of its construction. It was also the first modern Las Vegas Casino that was built as a stand-alone casino rather than a combination hotel-casino. Now one of the city's oldest casinos, the Golden Nugget now contains a hotel and blends modern features with many of its original elements including mahogany bars, marble floors, and crystal chandeliers. The casino gets its name from the 6 lb 11 oz gold nugget--said to be the largest in the world--which is housed on the premises.

Golden Nugget 

El Cortez was the brainchild of Marion Hicks and John
C. Grayson, who, weary of California’s strict gambling laws, decided to open a
casino further away from home. El Cortez opened for business in 1941, but
quickly found that, at that time, it did not attract nearly enough business to
be profitable. As a result, the duo sold El Cortez to Thomas Hull. In the following
years, El Cortez became a popular gambling spot and was hugely profitable – so much
so that it attracted the attention of mobster Bugsy Siegel and his crew, who
then bought it from Hull in 1945. They could not gain the affordances they
wanted by the city to expand El Cortez, however, and as a result, they sold the
property some six months later to William Moore and J. Kell Houssels.

In 1963, Moore and Houssels sold El Cortez to Jackie
Gaughan, one of Las Vegas’ biggest casino buffs, who would hold on to the
casino-hotel until 2008. El Cortez saw a great deal of change under Gaughan’s
ownership, beginning with the addition of Pavillion rooms to the hotel in 1963.
The property of El Cortez was expanded in 1974 when Gaughan bought a property
across the street from El Cortez, the Odgen House, and renovated it in order to
make more room for guests, and further additional rooms were added in 1980 when
a tower was constructed. After decades of additions, El Cortez underwent a
full-scale renovation that reworked the full interior of the property in 2007.
After the completion of the renovations, Gaughan sold El Cortez to Kenny
Epstein, but he continued to live in the casino until he died on March 12th,
2014.In Las Vegas, things tend to
change quickly, and casinos and hotels—no matter how beloved they may be—are
frequently here today and gone tomorrow. El Cortez is one of the few Vegas
institutions that looks today much as it did when it opened. It’s one of the
few casinos to have never changed its exterior façade.&nbsp;Today, El Cortez retains much of
its midcentury, gangster style. It isn’t one of the city’s flashiest casinos,
and its guest rooms are unremarkable. But the casino tends to appeal to locals
who don’t want all of the bright lights and crowds that come with the newer
casinos.&nbsp;

El Cortez is a smaller hotel and casino in Las Vegas off of the Las Vegas Strip. Established in 1941, it is one of the oldest hotel and casinos in the city, and has a reputation for being less geared towards tourists, and more towards Las Vegas locals looking to get away from the flashy casinos of the Strip. Though El Cortez has undergone several renovations, it has never been closed for an extended period of time, and it is currently still going strong decades after its opening.

El Cortez

Joe and Stella Sobchik opened “Virginia’s
Café” in 1945, but soon found that rationing brought on by the war left them
limited in what they had to offer patrons. The couple soon grew tired of
serving food and Joe, in particular, preferred serving the cocktails that he
invented himself, particularly the one he dubbed the “atomic cocktail.”&nbsp;

The café gradually evolved into a
liquor store and secured the very first liquor store license in the state. The
evolution of the café into a liquor store and eventually a bar occurred against
the backdrop of the Cold War, and at a location roughly 50 miles outside the
city, the United States Army was developing a testing site for nuclear
weaponry. According to legend, patrons of the bar would get one of Joe’s atomic
cocktails, climb a ladder onto the roof, and look for mushroom clouds on the
horizon.&nbsp;

In some ways, Atomic Liquors was
in a perfect location. Its location is just a short walk from the Fremont
Street casinos but far enough away to be a quieter alternative to the city’s
crowds. Because of its relative peace and quiet, the bar became a favorite of
celebrities visiting or performing in the city, including the Rat Pack, the
Smothers Brothers, and Barbara Streisand, who still has an honorary stool at
the bar. Some long-time patrons claim that Jimmy Hoffa was a frequent visitor.&nbsp;

Toward the end of the twentieth
century, the increasing popularity of the Strip led to a decline in the
popularity of Atomic Liquors, and the bar’s best days seemed to be in the distant
past. The Sobchiks hoped that the bar could eventually be revitalized, but they
passed away in 2010 and 2011, before the bar got a chance at a second act.&nbsp;

Following the death of the
Sobchiks, a group of investors purchased Atomic Liquors and fully remodeled the
property while maintaining much of its kitschy midcentury splendor.&nbsp;

Over the years, the bar has been
featured in a number of movies and TV shows, including Casino, The Hangover,
The Twilight Zone, and Parts Unknown with Anthony Bourdain.

Las Vegas is a city that continually reinvents itself and few things in the city last. One of the exceptions to that rule is Atomic Liquors, which has been a staple in the city since the mid-twentieth century. It opened in 1945 as a café and gradually became a bar. Over the years it attracted all manner of Vegas denizens, including the rich and famous. The city’s oldest free-standing bar, Atomic Liquors is now a reminder of Cold War-era Las Vegas.

Atomic Liquors 

Until it closed in 1999, the Green Shack was a Las Vegas institution. The restaurant opened as the Green Shack in 1931, but a restaurant called the Colorado previously operated in the building since Christmas of 1929. The Green Shack operated out of a Union Pacific Railroad barracks that was moved to the site. Jimmie "Mattie" Jones operated the Green Shack, a restaurant she opened with the intention of provided simple fare to workers on the Hoover Dam as they commuted back and forth to the city. The barracks were painted green, hence the restaurant's name. When Jones opened the Green Shack, the barracks formed the dining room, and when Prohibition ended the following year, she added a bar, gaining the first new liquor license in the city.&nbsp;Though the Green Shack was nothing fancy, everyone who was anyone patronized the restaurant. Bugsy Siegel was a regular customer while his Flamingo Hotel was under construction. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Liberace were also regulars. Over the course of its long life, the Green Shack catered to all manner Las Vegas residents, regardless of social class. The very rich ate and drank alongside the working class. It was widely known that if you wanted to be elected to public office, the Green Shack was the place to get votes, because if you went often enough, you eventually met everyone in the city. During its long life, the Green Shack had a unique claim to fame: from the time it opened until it closed at the end of the twentieth century, it used the same cast iron pans. Those pans were the source of another element of the restaurant's popularity, its fried chicken.&nbsp; Following the death of Mattie Jones in 1967, relatives took over the operation of the restaurant. By the 1990s, the venerable restaurant faced too much competition and closed in 1999. The restaurant sat vacant for several years and vandals and time took their toll on the building. It was torn down a few years later, leaving only a vacant lot and the old Green Shack sign to mark the restaurant's existence.

One of Las Vegas's longest-lasting restaurants, the Green Shack opened in 1931 and was in business until 1999. The proprietor was Mattie Jones. The restaurant was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1994 but was demolished several years after it closed.

Site of the Green Shack 

The Las Vegas National Golf Club
and the Paradise Palms development are contemporaries of each other, both
emerging in the early 1960s. And today, both offer a time machine-like glimpse
into mid-century Las Vegas, when the city was at the height of its swinging,
cocktail-infused popularity.&nbsp;

The golf club, originally known
as the Stardust Country Club, opened in 1961. It was designed by Bert Stamps, a
caddy and amateur golfer who became well-known for his golf course designs. At
the time, the Stardust course was one of the most modern in the country, as
well as one of the most popular, hosting numerous tournaments.&nbsp;

Within a few years of the
Stardust’s opening, a residential development began to take shape around the
course. Designed by developer Irwin Molaksy, who was responsible for much of
Las Vegas’s postwar growth, Paradise Palms became the first planned community
in Clark County. The neighborhood’s homes were designed by famed architects Dan
Palmer and William Krisel, who made a name for themselves with their
ultra-modern designs in Palm Springs.&nbsp;

The homes are—depending on your
taste—painfully dated or a remarkably intact example of mid-century
architecture. Driving though Paradise Palms’ curving streets, you’re greeted by
low-slung homes with a distinctly Sunbelt aesthetic: textured concrete walls,
asymmetrical rooflines, patterned breeze blocks. The colors are fanciful, the
vivid hues and unexpected combinations one might expect to find glittering in
neon on the Strip.&nbsp;

The denizens of Paradise Palms
were as colorful as the neighborhood’s homes. Over the years, the neighborhood
was a who’s who of the entertainment industry, including Johnny Carson, Phyllis
Diller, Dean Martin, Dinah Shore, Bobby Darin, Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal, Gladys
Knight, Dionne Warwick, Donald Sutherland, and Debbie Reynolds and Sonny
Liston, who—at different times—lived in the same house. In addition to
Hollywood luminaries, Paradise Palms was home to a number of political figures
and casino executives, as well as Anthony Spilotro, the real-life mobster who
inspired Joe Pesci’s character in Casino.&nbsp;

The Stardust Country Club, which
went through several name changes before eventually becoming the Las Vegas
National Golf Club, attracted its own share of famous clientele. The Rat Pack
members were regulars there, with stories of late-night tournaments among Frank
Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Peter Lawford, and Dean Martin are legendary. The
club retains enough of its mid-century mod vibe that twenty-first century
visitors might still expect to hear the clink of glasses and see the Rat Pack
emerging from the bar.&nbsp;

Given its historical significance
and its almost perfectly preserved mid-century homes, Paradise Palms is
increasingly viewed in Las Vegas as a local landmark, and preservationists are
currently at work securing its designation as Clark County’s first historic
neighborhood.&nbsp;

Originally known as the Stardust Country Club, the Las Vegas National Country Club opened in 1961. Over the years, the club has become a Las Vegas landmark and was featured in the film Casino. The golf course abuts a well-known neighborhood in the city, Paradise Palms. The neighborhood is a fine example of mid-century modern architecture and has been home to a large number of celebrities.  Preservationists are working to get Paradise Palms listed as a historic landmark.

Las Vegas National Country Club and Paradise Palms 

Left Rosenthal had an interest in sports betting from childhood, when he used to skip school and go to Wrigley Field to watch sporting events. It was there that he began to learn the skills that would shape his adult life.&nbsp; He arrived in Las Vegas in 1968, after drawing the attention of law enforcement in Miami because of his role in a series of car bombings.&nbsp; As a young man in Chicago, Rosenthal honed his skill as a sports better under the tutelage of the Chicago Outfit, which rose to prominence under Al Capone earlier in the twentieth century. After his arrival in Las Vegas, Rosenthal again went to work for the Chicago Outfit, this time secretly operating the Stardust, Hacienda, Fremont, and Marina casinos, which were controlled by the Mafia. He operated all of the casinos without a gaming license because the Nevada Gaming Commission, which suspected he had mob ties, refused to grant him one. In addition to being a whiz with numbers, Rosenthal also proved himself a canny businessman. He brought sports betting, which had always been seen as a bit sleazy, to the Stardust, and created a plush, elegant environment where the practice flourished. He also brought in female Blackjack dealers, a move which doubled the Stardust's income in the space of a year. Rosenthal built a home for himself in the city's first guard-gated community in the Las Vegas Country Club. It was a high-tech home at the time; one room consisted only of monitors that allowed him to monitor the goings-on at the various casinos he ran. Reflecting the dubious circles in which he traveled, the home was built with bulletproof windows and doors. On once occasion, someone shot at Rosenthal from across the golf course. The bullet mark is still visible in the glass.&nbsp; Rosenthal, whose life was the basis for the movie "Casino," lived in the home just nine years. He built it in 1974 but moved to Florida in 1983 following an assassination attempt. The home was listed for sale as recently as August of 2017. It retains much of the Vegas-y feel that it had when Rosenthal called it home, including the bulletproof windows and doors.&nbsp;

Lefty Rosenthal was a pioneer of Las Vegas sports gaming. He moved to the city in 1968, after running afoul of Miami authorities, and proceeded to revolutionize the gaming industry by bringing sports betting to a casino. He also introduced female Blackjack dealers, which led to a dramatic increase in the Stardust's income. Rosenthal's home was fitting for someone with his questionable connections; the home features bulletproof windows and doors and was built in one of the city's first guard-gated communities.

Lefty Rosenthal House 

In 1946, Cliff Jones and Marion Hicks worked together to invest
in a plot of land on which they planned to build a lavish casino. Construction
did not start until 1947, however, and the Thunderbird finally opened on
September 2nd, 1948. At this point in time, Hicks was the only man in Las Vegas
to own two resort hotels, the other of which was his resort “El Cortez.” To
better fit the Native-American theme of the casino, the Thunderbird was built
using materials that were native to the region. Additionally, it also sported a
large figure of a Thunderbird on top of a tower. The Thunderbird quickly gained
popularity amongst locals and tourists alike: so much so that it was overbooked
in 1952, prompting Jones and Hicks to build a companion hotel, the Algiers, to
help with the overflow of guests.

After
the addition of the Algiers, the Thunderbird underwent several additions in
1954 and 1955, such as the addition of the Terrace Room, which included a dance
floor, as well as a movie broadcasting system. In the following decades, the
Thunderbird was sold several times: once in 1964, once in 1972, and a final
time in 1977, after which it was renamed the Silverbird. The Silverbird did not
last long, however, as it was sold in 1981 and changed to El Rancho. El Rancho
closed after only a decade of service and was slated for demolition. The
building was imploded on October 3rd, 2000 to make way for a new casino/hotel
resort. As of right now, where the El Rancho, and previously the Thunderbird,
sat, is a currently unfinished building. The Drew Las Vegas Casino, formerly
known as Fontainebleau Las Vegas, is slated to open in 2020.

The Thunderbird was the fourth casino and hotel resort to open on the Las Vegas Strip. Built by Cliff Jones and Marion Hicks in 1948, the Thunderbird had a Native American theme and depicted scenes from the old west, as well as traditional Native American portraits and other décor. The Thunderbird only existed as its own entity until 1977, when it was sold and renamed to the Silverbird, which would eventually become the El Rancho. Like the other early Las Vegas casinos and resorts, this hotel was demolished although it was notable in its longevity, outlasting nearly every other Las Vegas hotel until it was demolished in 2000. Visitors can still visit the area to see where the casino once stood.

The Thunderbird (1948-2000)

In September of 1948, Cliff Jones and Marion Hicks
opened a casino/hotel called the Thunderbird, which was an enormous hit soon
after opening. Four years into the lifespan of the Thunderbird, Jones and Hicks
found that it was overbooked, and in response, they decided to build the
Algiers, a companion hotel to the Thunderbird. The Algiers opened in 1953 with
110 rooms and the promise that guests were privy to the same privileges as they
would have if they were staying at the Thunderbird. Other incentives provided
by the Algiers were telephones in every room, a heated outdoor pool, a cocktail
lounge, a coffee shop, and a television in each room. Though smaller than the
Thunderbird, it was by no means underutilized. 

Since the Algiers was built without an area for
gaming, it was given more space to craft larger rooms, making it have a
reportedly more comfortable feel than the larger casino resorts on the Strip.
It was qualities like this that allowed the Algiers to outlive the Thunderbird,
and it held a reputation for being a quiet, more relaxed space to stay on the
Las Vegas Strip all the way through to the late 1990s. In 2001, the Algiers
began working on plans to expand and add a casino and other amenities, but this
project was soon put on hold. Instead of the project being finished, it instead
was decided that the Algiers was to be destroyed. The Algiers held one final
farewell extravaganza in 2004, and closed in August of that year. The Algiers
no longer remains on the Las Vegas Strip.

The Algiers was a hotel that was originally built in order to house the influx of guests to the popular Thunderbird casino in the early 1950s. Like several other spots on the Las Vegas Strip, such as the Dunes and the Sands, the Algiers was a desert-themed hotel, hosting a heated pool for guests, as well as other amenities that served to cater to guests’ every whim. Though it outlived its companion, the Thunderbird, the Algiers closed in 2004, and is now gone from the Strip.

The Algiers Hotel

In the early 1950s, mobster William Bischoff pitched
the idea of a hotel called the Casa Blanca to a group of investors, bent on
creating the casino. Not long after acquiring the gaming license required in
1952, however, Bischoff bowed out of the project, and it was instead picked up
by a group of investors from Miami, Florida, called the Riviera Hotel Company.
Design was handled by Roy France and Son, another group which was based out of
Miami. Construction began soon after, and the Riviera opened for business in April
of 1955, and after an extravagant opening, the Riviera was considered a hotel
and casino for high rollers.

The Riviera quickly experienced difficulties, mainly
due to the fact that the Miami-based Riviera Hotel Company was not well-versed
in managing gaming establishments, and as a result, the Riviera went bankrupt
by July of 1955. The Riviera was then overtaken by its landlord, and stayed in
good financial standing afterwards. As the years progressed, the Riviera gained
numerous additions, such as Dino’s Den, a section which was named after Dean
Martin after he bought ten percent of the casino’s shares, as well as the
construction of the Monte Carlo Tower in 1975. Though the Riviera suffered financial
losses in years soon after and filed for bankruptcy again in 1984, it got back
on its feet with a new president, and remained moderately successful and
popular in the following decades. However, as the Riviera began to fall in its
relevance on the Las Vegas Strip, it was purchased by the Las Vegas Convention
and Visitors Authority in February of 2015, and was closed soon after in May of
the same year. The Riviera is slated to be imploded in order to make way for
the Las Vegas Global Business District.

The Riviera was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip originally conceived by mobster William Bischoff, though he ultimately left the project in the hands of others. Established in 1955, the Riviera was known largely for its architecture, which deviated from the set Vegas Strip Style, and instead seemed better suited to Miami Beach. The Riviera remained open until May 4, 2015, after it was bought by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, and it is slated to be imploded by the end of 2015.

The Riviera

In the late 1950s, M. K. Doumani desired to build a
hotel that would stand out in comparison to the many hotels and casinos scattered
across the city of Las Vegas. In order to realize this ideal, Doumani called on
the architect Paul Revere Williams, who was widely respected for his
architectural work. Williams agreed to the proposal, and in 1961, he had a
design for a stylish hotel which would stand out from the rest of the glitzy
hotels on the Strip. The La Concha opened later that year, and though it was
not nearly as large as other motels in the area, sporting only 100 rooms, it
was immensely popular, and it was highly regarded for its architectural design.

Although the La Concha Motel was beloved by patrons
for several decades, it ultimately could not keep up with its competitors. The
Motel closed down in 2003, and it was announced that it was to be slated for
demolition. Conservationists quickly came to the La Concha’s aid, however, and
worked with the owners to find a new home for the Motel, rather than demolish
it. In response to this, citizens, as well as the Historic Preservation
Commission of the City of Las Vegas, the Preservation Association of Clark
County, and the NV State Historic Preservation Office all collaborated to find
a home, ultimately settling on the Neon Museum, who wanted the building to act
as their visitor’s center. Due to difficulties moving the structure, it was cut
into eight separate parts and transported to the Neon Museum, where it was
reassembled.&nbsp;

The La Concha Motel was once a Las Vegas motel modeled after “Googie” style architecture. Opened in 1961, the motel remained open for several decades until its closure in 2003. Though the Motel was threatened with the prospect of demolition, it now stands as the visitor’s center for the Neon Museum.

La Concha Motel

Built in 1950, the Desert Inn, or
DI, as it was known by locals, was an icon of the Las Vegas entertainment scene
for decades.&nbsp; The property was only the
fifth resort on the Strip and boasted the Sky Room restaurant, which at that
time offered the highest vantage point overlooking the city.&nbsp; The DI opened with a two-day gala event that
attracted reporters from across the country and featured performers such as
Edgar Bergen and Abbott and Costello.&nbsp;

The resort was designed by Hugh
Taylor and featured interior design by Jac Lessman.&nbsp; In its heyday, the Desert Inn was regarded as
one of the most opulent properties in Las Vegas with any number of luxury
touches. The resort’s chef was formerly the chef at the Ritz Paris and the
property was the first in the city to feature a fountain at the entrance. Among
the many celebrities who were guests of the Inn at some point were Winston Churchill,
John Kennedy, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. Frank Sinatra was a regular
performer at the Inn after making his Las Vegas debut there in 1951.&nbsp;

The inn’s most famous guest was
arguably the reclusive businessman Howard Hughes. Hughes checked in on
Thanksgiving of 1966, reserving the hotel’s top two floors. Hughes initially
booked a 10-day stay, but when hotel staff asked him to leave in December so
that the top floors could be used to accommodate VIPs who were coming in for
New Year’s Eve, Hughes began making plans to buy the property. The sale was
complete in March of the following year. Hughes would go on to buy other Las
Vegas resorts, and continued to live in his penthouse at the Desert Inn for the
next four years without ever having seen hotel staff.&nbsp;

The Desert Inn changed owners
numerous times over the years. The property celebrated its fiftieth anniversary
in April of 2000, just days before being purchased by developer Steve Wynn.
Wynn closed the famed resort later that year.&nbsp;

In 2001, the Desert Inn was
demolished. The resort had hosted some of the most legendary performers in Las
Vegas history, as well as political figures and other luminaries, and had been
featured in numerous movies and television shows. For many in Las Vegas, the
Desert Inn was emblematic of the original Strip, and its demolition marked the
end of an era. On the site where the famed resort and casino stood visitors can
now see the Wynn Las Vegas and the Encore.&nbsp;

The Desert Inn was, for many years, one of the most storied locations in Las Vegas. It was only the fifth resort to open on the Strip and quickly developed a reputation as one of the most lavish spots in the city. The property’s casino was one of the largest in the state of Nevada at the time. In its heyday, the Desert Inn hosted any number of celebrities, but its most famous guest was arguably Howard Hughes, who took up residence there and eventually bought the property.

Desert Inn (site of current Wynn and Encore properties)

In the 1940s, Jake Freedman, an oil baron from Texas,
wanted to open a resort on the Las Vegas Strip that would attract high rollers
and other glamorous patrons. In order to bring about this vision, Freedman
hired Wayne McAllister, who had also designed the El Rancho Vegas, to design
it. One of the most distinctive features of the Sands was its road sign, which
boasted a more modern design and font instead of a more traditional Las Vegas
neon sign. Construction on the Sands began out of the building for a certain
restaurant, the La Rue, and it opened in 1952. The Sands brought in performers
such as Frank Sinatra and the members of what would become the Rat Pack just
before the opening of the resort, and with them came the high rollers and
Hollywood types that Freedman had desired to bring in. 

Several notable events occurred in the Sands during
the late 1950s and the early 1960s, such as the filming of Ocean’s 11, but
arguably more important was that the Sands was the first casino to have an
African American gamble in it. John F. Kennedy would also occasionally visit
Frank Sinatra at the resort. Renovations and additions were made in the
mid-1960s, and it remained popular well into the late 1980s. The Sands could
not keep pace with the competing resorts on the Strip, however, and it closed
in June of 1996. Soon after, the Sands was imploded in late November of 1996.

The Sands Hotel was the seventh resort to open its doors in the Las Vegas Strip. Opened in 1952, the Sands hosted many popular entertainers of the time, from the Rat Pack to Nat King Cole, and was massively popular for decades. The Sands closed in 1996, however, and its location is now home to the Venetian.

The Sands Hotel and Casino

Around the mid-1900s, artist Betty Willis had begun
making a name for herself in designing and drawing showgirls for advertisements
in newspapers, but eventually switched to designing neon signs. As her
portfolio of work continued to grow, Willis was commissioned by salesman Ted
Rogich in 1952 to create a sign welcoming visitors to the city of Las Vegas.
Willis agreed, and soon began working on the design for the sign. The sign was
designed with the state of Nevada in mind, specifically with the silver dollars
that act as the backdrop for the “WELCOME” portion of the sign. The sign itself
was completed in 1959 and was sold to Clark County, who erected the sign at the
very southern tip of the Las Vegas Strip.

The sign has stayed in place ever since it was placed
in 1959. Since the sign was never copyrighted, its design was incorporated into
multiple other souvenirs and designs around the city of Las Vegas, serving its
purpose of being a gift to the city. Beginning in the early 2000s, several
replicas of the sign have been made and placed around the city, such as the “Welcome
to Fabulous Downtown Las Vegas” sign within the Las Vegas city limits made in
2002, or the sign erected on Boulder Highway in 2007. It was not until 2009
that the sign was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and in
late 2013, it was added to the State Register of Historic Places.

The Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Sign is an iconic neon sign located just outside of the Las Vegas city limits in Paradise, Nevada. Despite the fact that the sign resides in Paradise, Nevada, this is mostly disregarded, and it is most often regarded as being a part of Las Vegas proper. The sign was erected in 1959, and has since then stood to welcome visitors heading into the actual city of Las Vegas. The design of the sign itself, interestingly enough, was never copyrighted, as sign designer Betty Ross wanted the sign to be a gift to the city and its residents.

Classic Las Vegas History Driving Tour

Golden Gate Casino

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information