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It all began with a railroad.
William Clark and E.H. Harriman, both railroad magnates, put Las Vegas on the map in 1905.
Politician Ed Clark promoted Las Vegas in the early days.
Secretary Herbert Hoover, Administrator Elwood Mead, and engineer Frank Crowe, dammed the
Colorado River and blessed the town in 1931.
Casino pioneers like Guy McGaffey and Tony Canaro set the stage for Bugsy Siegel and
others who moved in with money, muscle, and management.
Las Vegas is like a giant kaleidoscope, constantly changing and growing.
There's always something to do, always something to see.
Welcome to Las Vegas, yesterday and today.
Coming up, Las Vegas, how it looked then and how it looks today.
The landmark Hotel Casino was built between 1959 and 1963.
It opened in July of 1969, right across from the Hilton Hotel.
The landmark used to stand right behind me, but in November of 1995, it met the same fate
as the Dunes Hotel and came tumbling down.
What was once the tallest building in Las Vegas has been reduced to a giant parking
lot.
Also across from the landmark site is the Las Vegas Convention Center, where the Beatles
performed in 1964 at $4 a ticket.
The Sands opened December 15, 1952, with Danny Thomas as the opening act.
This was the home for many years of the famous Rat Pack.
His motto, where the fun never sets.
The Desert Inn had its grand opening April 24, 1950.
The grand event featured performers Edgar Bergen with Charlie McCarthy, Vivian Blaine,
and the Don Arden dancers.
On a return trip to Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Eve in 1966, Howard Hughes began a self-imposed
isolation at his penthouse at the Desert Inn.
His isolation would span four years.
The Hacienda was the 11th Las Vegas Strip Hotel.
It opened May of 1956.
It sat alone for many years, right across from McCarran Airport.
In 1975, the Marina Hotel held its grand opening on the Strip, just north of Tropicana Avenue.
Kirk Kikorian purchased a 700-room, 14-story hotel in 1990 and closed it shortly thereafter
when construction of the new mega MGM Grand completely took it over.
The MGM Grand is the world's largest hotel, with 5,005 rooms.
The Castaways opened as the Sans Souci in August of 1955.
Legendary Liberace's brother, George Liberace, was the musical director.
The Sans Souci went bankrupt and closed in 1958.
It opened up again as the Castaways in 1963.
Howard Hughes purchased the property in 1967.
The Silver Slipper originally began as the Golden Slipper in 1950, as part of the Last
Frontier Village.
The name was changed to the Silver Slipper a year later.
Frank Sinatra and Hank Henry performed together.
The Silver Slipper featured sexy reviews, with the likes of Sally Rand, Candy Barr,
and Christine Jorgensen.
Buster Keaton was another regular performer.
Years ago, the 40-foot Sheik of Baghdad statue looked down on the Strip.
The Sheik was part of the Dunes Hotel, which opened in 1955, at the center of the Strip.
It was built at a cost of $4 million and started with 200 rooms on an 85-acre site.
The Dunes V-shaped swimming pool was the longest in the country at the time.
The Dunes North Tower and famous neon sign were imploded October 27, 1993, amidst music
and fireworks.
The Dunes North Tower and famous neon sign were imploded October 27, 1993, amidst music
and fireworks.
The Royal Nevada opened April 19, 1955.
It also closed later in 1955.
It was during the 1950s that many people wondered if Las Vegas had a future.
But Lady Luck smiled on Las Vegas.
The Stardust gobbled up the Royal Nevada, and then some, when it opened July 1958.
Lido opened the same day as the hotel, and played there for 33 years, a Las Vegas record.
Over 25 million people saw Lido at the Stardust.
When Lido went dark for good, the sexy musical revue, Enter the Night, began.
When it opened, the Stardust claimed the largest casino in Nevada, and a landmark electric
sign largest in the world.
The Riviera opened in April of 1955.
Liberace opened the hotel and was paid $50,000 a week, the most ever paid Las Vegas entertainer.
The T-shaped rib rose nine stories from the desert floor and cost nearly $10 million,
about $4 million more than investors were able to pay.
Across from the Riviera, Circus Circus opened in 1968.
In the beginning, Circus Circus was a casino without a hotel, but today it has a 15-story
tower and 29-story sky-rise tower.
The casino features several amusements, including trapeze and high-wire performers.
Ranslam Canyon, part of Circus Circus, and directly behind the hotel is where you can
ride the only indoor double-loop corkscrew rollercoaster.
On
April 4, 1955, the last Frontier was replaced with the new Frontier, and decorated with
an extravagant Italian and French interior.
In 1967, the Frontier opened complete with a 200-foot neon sign, tallest in the world
at that time.
There wasn't much surrounding the Tropicana when it began in April of 1957.
Another of the many strip hotels, it was located on what was known as Bond Road, and is now
called Tropicana Avenue, or TROP for short.
The $15 million 300-room Y-shaped Tropicana hotel became known as Tiffany of the Strip.
Today the Tropicana presents the famous Parisian floor show, Follies Brugere.
Ramada Corporation acquired the TROP in 1979, and immediately redesigned the casino in Art
Nouveau style, adding the breathtaking $1 million 4,000-square-foot lead glass dome
and 28-color carpeting.
Grand opening for the El Rancho of Vegas was held on April 3, 1941.
The 65-room Low-Rise Motor Inn on the corner of Highway 91, now the Strip, and San Francisco
Avenue, now Sahara Avenue, came complete with casino, steakhouse, shops, swimming pool,
palm trees, and lawn.
Harry James and Betty Grable were the last attractions before a fire destroyed the property.
I'm standing on the site of the old El Rancho Vegas Hotel.
This hotel attracted visitors from Southern California and those who wanted a change of
pace from downtown.
The hotel burnt down in 1960.
The Thunderbird Hotel opened September 2, 1948, and the name was changed to the Silverbird
in 1977.
The $3 million Thunderbird was named for a mythological Navajo creature.
The hotel was built by Marion Hicks, a local contractor, and Clifford Jones, then Lieutenant
Governor of Nevada.
As Lieutenant Governor Jones had the juice, the Thunderbird became the hangout of many
prominent politicians.
You may remember the old television series from the 1960s called Vegas with Dan Tanna.
Well, Dan Tanna's apartment complex in that series used to stand right behind me.
Now it's a Guinness World of Records.
Los Angeles syndicate boss Benjamin Bugsy Siegel first came to Las Vegas in 1941, and
he came with a dream.
The fabulous Flamingo opened in 1946, with two 80-foot neon highball glasses fizzing
with pink champagne.
Siegel put up a hotel casino such as Las Vegas had never seen.
Of all the hotels in the world, Las Vegas' Caesar's Palace could be considered as one
of the most famous.
The $25 million hotel opened in August 1966, with 680 rooms and a crescent-shaped 14-story
tower.
Eighteen huge fountains border the front entrance, and ported Italian cypress line the property,
and statues are everywhere.
Before the MGM made its debut, Dexcalibur was the largest hotel in the world, with 4,000
rooms.
Dexcalibur opened in 1990, with turrets, spires, and a 260-foot tall bell tower fronting four
1,000-room tower walls.
The King Arthur theme includes music, dance, jousting, magic, and fire-eating.
Speaking of eating, two dinner shows in the arena feature banquets where you can eat with
your hands.
Just a couple years after Dexcalibur was completed, along came the Luxor, right next door.
The 2,500-room Egyptian pyramid, named after the religious center of an ancient Nile-based
civilization, is a marvel of engineering.
The beam of light from the top of the Luxor can be seen from as far away as Los Angeles
from the air.
Beams of light cast from the eyes of the Sphinx into a misty fountain produce some spectacular
holograms.
The mirage at the center of the strip is a center of attention.
The giant volcano shoots 40-foot flames into the nighttime air.
The mirage has one of the largest aquariums you'll find at 20,000 gallons.
The royal white taggers are quite a sight as they frolic in an open-air environment.
This species of tagger comes from the Himalayas and is extinct in the wild.
Illusionists Siegfried and Roy feature these beautiful animals in their show at the mirage.
Six bottlenose dolphins have also taken up residence in a unique environment at the mirage.
The dolphins reside in a marine facility of over one million gallons of man-made seawater,
two artificial coral reefs, and state-of-the-art environmental controls.
The mirage dolphins, they're beautiful, exciting, and educational.
A walk through the mirage atrium and a short walk down the sidewalk and the plank is a
place called Treasure Island.
A walk through the mirage atrium and a short walk down the sidewalk and the plank is a
That'll teach the cheeky buggers.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, pass this one to his royal highness.
Captain, we've taken a hit on the gun yet.
Bob Stupak's Vegas World came online in 1979 with 100 rooms and an outer space theme at the north end of the strip.
The Stratosphere Tower Hotel and Casino has replaced Vegas World.
The 135-story tower is the tallest building west of the Mississippi and the tallest observation tower in the U.S.
Two rides are featured, the High Roller, the world's highest roller coaster, and the Space Shot on top of the tower.
The Stratosphere Tower offers a large casino, shopping mall, revolving restaurant, and three wedding chapels.
Bally's Hotel was originally built as the MGM Grand in 1973.
The Hotel Casino became known as Bally's in 1986 and retained the Hollywood motif.
Downstairs, past the huge casino, is a shopping arcade, one of the largest with several art galleries, a Hollywood memorabilia shop, and many other delightful shops.
In 1972, Holiday Inn came to town in the form of the 1,000-room Holiday Hotel next to the Flamingo.
A 35-story, 734-room tower was completed in December 1988, making it the largest Holiday Inn in the world.
In 1990, a major facelift transformed the Holiday Inn into a 450-foot-long Mississippi Riverboat, as become known as the Ship on the Strip.
The Holiday's name was changed in 1992 to Harris.
The Las Vegas Hilton opened as the International Hotel on July 3, 1969, with Barbra Streisand appearing in the 2,000-seat theater.
In 1971, the International was renamed the Las Vegas Hilton when it changed ownership. Elvis Presley performed at the hotel exclusively until his death.
The Flamingo Capri Hotel became the Imperial Palace. A 19-story, 547-room tower was completed in 1988. The Imperial Palace boasts Las Vegas-only antique car collection.
This is Fremont Street as it looks today.
And this is Fremont Street as it looked in the 1940s with hotels like the Golden Gate, Pioneer Club, Golden Nugget, Four Queens, and Las Vegas Club.
In 1931, Nevada Republican Philip Tobin introduced a bill in the state legislature that provided for the licensing of gambling houses.
The El Cortez opened downtown in 1941. The Pioneer opened in 1942. And the Golden Nugget opened in 1946.
In 1971, Sam Boyd built downtown's largest hotel at the time, the 22-story Union Plaza, site of the 1905 railroad auction.
Although traffic was not overwhelming in the 1940s, the first traffic light was installed at 5th and Fremont Streets.
The Sundance opened in the 1970s and is now the site of Fitzgerald's.
The Mint Hotel began in 1957 and was gobbled up by Binion's Horseshoe in 1988.
The Golden Nugget went through its changes and the giant neon sign in the beginning, the more elegant look of today.
Four of the most photographed blocks in the world are in downtown Las Vegas on Fremont Street, later Gulch.
Beginning with the very birth of the city in 1905, Fremont Street has been the site of many milestones in the history of Las Vegas and gaming.
In 1931, the first gaming license was issued to the Northern Club at 15 East Fremont Street.
It changed at one point to become the Monte Carlo and is now the present site of the Coin Castle.
Now get ready for the latest downtown attraction, the Fremont Street Experience.
The lights of Glitter Gulch are still intact, but Fremont Street from Main Street to Las Vegas Boulevard is closed to vehicle traffic.
On December 14, 1995, the Fremont Street Experience debuted with a dome of nearly 2.1 million more lights and 40 high-tech sound speakers per block. Watch, listen, experience.
Just 45 miles northwest of Las Vegas, high above the cacti and Joshua trees, lies the alpine beauty of the Lee Canyon Ski Area.
Located in the Toy Bee National Forest at a base elevation of 8,500 feet, Lee Canyon has all you need to enjoy this white powder.
Lake Mead, formed by the Hoover Dam, has more than 550 miles of shoreline and is 115 miles long and is a major recreational attraction of the southwest.
Boating, swimming, water skiing and fishing are all possibilities on Lake Mead.
The peaceful majestic mountains of Red Rock Canyon are just 20 miles west of the excitement of the strip and makes for a perfect getaway.
In less than an hour, northeast of Las Vegas, you can find yourself surrounded by the beauty of the Valley of Fire.
Sapphire blue skies greet you as you explore this Indian territory.
The red Aztec sandstone, which gives the park its fiery character, was formed from windblown sand dunes deposited during the Jurassic period approximately 140 million years ago.
The petroglyphs, or carvings in rock, were made by the Anasazi people around 1150 AD. To this day, the meaning of these ancient symbols remains a mystery.
Just an hour drive east of Las Vegas is Hoover Dam.
In March of 1931, construction began on Boulder Dam as it was first known. Boulder City was home for 5,000 construction workers.
In June 1935, the dam structure stood complete, two and one-half years ahead of schedule.
In September of the same year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt dedicated Boulder Dam to the progress of the nation.
The Hoover Dam project was completed one and one-half million dollars under budget and proved to be a government project that paid for itself.
And the mighty Colorado River was under control for the first time in its history.
The National Finals Rodeo is held every December in Las Vegas. This premier event takes place at the Thomas and Max Center.
Yesterday and today can be experienced together with the reenactment of the Old West. This enchanting little place called Bonnie Springs Old Nevada is 30 miles west of Las Vegas and a trip back in time to be enjoyed by everyone.
There's food and drink, an old western town, gunfights and feuds of the Old West.
Thank you for viewing Las Vegas Yesterday and Today, a Tiffany Design Production. Las Vegas is always changing and growing, so this is not the end.
Thank you for watching.