This
is Las Vegas
Nevada, the entertainment capital of the world, and it's becoming the most impressive
implosion capital of the world, where over 30 million tourists visit every year.
The word implosion is defined by Webster's Dictionary as a bursting inward.
The explosive used for this bursting inward has made the Las Vegas to burst outward, because
every time a smaller, outdated hotel casino is imploded, a much larger and more luxurious
hotel casino takes its place.
In a span of just four years, Las Vegas has blasted four well-known hotel casinos.
The Dunes was a first to bite the dust, followed by the landmark, the Sands, and the Hacienda.
The wrecking ball method would take months to demolish any of these hotels.
The explosive implosion method takes seconds to reduce these buildings to a pile of rubble.
But after the dust has settled and the smoke has cleared, Las Vegas remains as the brightest
neon city in the world.
The Dunes was a third major hotel casino to open in the spring of 1955.
In 1965, at the beginning of the Hughes-era expansion boom, the Dunes added the 24-story
Diamond of the Dunes, breaking the 1,000-room plateau.
A new 180-foot neon sign was also added and became the largest in the world at the time.
The Dunes changed hands several times until it met its final fate October 27, 1993.
Over 200,000 people crowded the strip for the big event.
After the event, Lafayette's
It was the pirate at Treasure Island who started the blast with a cannon shot at the dunes.
It was the pirate who started the blast with a cannon shot at the dunes.
It was the pirate who started the blast with a cannon shot.
The Castaways opened as the Sansu Sea in August of 1955.
Howard Hughes purchased the property in 1967 and is the present site of the Mirage.
Explosives were not needed to demolish the Castaways.
The structure was merely bulldozed to make way for the Mirage Hotel Casino, which opened in 1989.
But four years later, the owner of the Mirage would use explosives to bring down the newly acquired dunes.
The 3,000-room Mirage in Cademarch Volcano is situated at the center of the Las Vegas script.
The Mirage Volcano shoots flames 40 feet into the air and spews out flowing lava every 15 minutes after sundown.
The volcano is surrounded by Polynesian-type waterfalls, lagoons, and grottos.
Illusionists Siegfried and Roy are one of the most popular attractions in Las Vegas.
The royal white tigers can be viewed through glass inside the Mirage as they frolic in an open-air environment.
The species of snow white tiger originates in the Himalayas and is extinct in the wild.
These beautiful animals perform with Siegfried and Roy.
You'll flip over the dolphins at the Mirage.
These bald-nosed dolphins reside in a unique marine facility consisting of over one million gallons of man-made seawater.
Next to the Mirage, the pirates and the British take to the water in a full-scale battle.
That'll teach the cheeky muggers.
Ha ha ha ha! Pass this one to his royal highness!
We've taken a hit on the gun yet!
In the summer of 1969, two hotels opened on Paradise Road.
Howard Hughes' landmark on one side, Kirk Kikorian's International, now the Hilton, on the other.
One building would survive, the other would not.
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.
Next to the Hilton Hotel, there's the Hilton Hotel.
The Hilton Hotel is the tallest building in Las Vegas.
Three, two, one.
The Holiday Inn Boardwalk Casino is one of the smaller places on the strip and is dwarfed by the Monte Carlo, the same area that was home to the tiny Desert Rose Motel.
The Monte Carlo has over 3,000 rooms and is decorated in a European style.
Start spreading the news. New York, New York opened on what was a vacant lot on Tropicana and the strip.
This smaller scale version of New York City had its grand opening January 3, 1997. It has it all from Central Park to the Statue of Liberty.
New York, New York opened on what was a vacant lot on Tropicana and the strip.
The Luxor, one block south of Tropicana on the strip, features 2,500 rooms.
This Egyptian pyramid was named after the religious center of an ancient Nile-based civilization.
From the air, the light on top of the Luxor can be seen from Los Angeles.
The Luxor presents King Tut's Tomb, statues and artworks that take you back to the time of the pyramids.
We now take a ride back in time as we cruise up the strip heading north to downtown.
This is the Fremont Street area as it looked in the 1940s with hotels like the Golden Gate, Pioneer Club, Golden Nugget, Four Queens and Vegas Club.
The lights of Glitter Gulch became brighter and brighter over the next four and a half decades.
There were no implosions on downtown Fremont Street.
Four of the most photographed blocks in the world are on Fremont Street but have to be photographed on foot. Fremont Street was blocked off to vehicle traffic in December 1995.
The lights of Glitter Gulch are so bright that you can't tell day from night.
Now get ready for the latest downtown attraction, the Fremont Street Experience.
On December 14, 1995, the Fremont Street Experience debuted with a dome of nearly 2.1 million lights and 40 high-tech speakers per block.
Watch. Listen. Experience.
The Hacienda was 40 years old.
A 150-foot in diameter fireball erupted from the top when the Hacienda came down. It was 11 stories high with 900 rooms and sat at the south end of the Las Vegas Strip.
What will be here next? Project Paradise. It'll be 42 stories with 3,600 rooms. It'll be a South Sea Island experience.
The Hacienda was 11, Las Vegas Strip Hotel. It opened May of 1956. It sat alone for many years right across from McCarran Airport.
The Little Church of the West opened in 1942 at the Last Frontier Village. In the early 1980s, the chapel was moved next to the Hacienda.
It was then moved to safety just months before the Hacienda implosion. Or you could say the Little Church of the West and the Hacienda were separated.
When you hit record, you don't always go hold as steady as possible. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
That was quite some New Year's Eve party. The Hacienda Hotel here in Las Vegas came down in a mere 40 seconds. New York City dropped the ball. Las Vegas dropped the hotel amid fireworks and fanfare. It was quite something else.
Happy New Year!