[DavieJ89]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

Okay you smarty pantses. What was the Aladdin before it was the Aladdin, and why didn't the previous whatever it was survive?

what Dynimage said, it was the Tally Ho, before changing its name to the King's Crown in 1964, before becoming the Aladdin in 1966

The old Aladdin closed in December 1997 and was imploded in 1998

The "new" Aladdin opened in 2000, by 2003 due to financial troubles it sold to Planet Hollywood and Starwood Hotels

It was reopened as "Planet Hollywood" in 2007

[Buzz123]

MM, you are right on with most of that. I did think that O'Shea's was already there and then the Flamingo bought it and built out to it. But I may be thinking of the Tam O'Shanter.

The Flamingo, as did all the hotels, sat back from the road and you could drive right up and park in front. For many years nobody walked on the Strip. When they started getting actual pedestrians on the Strip who didn't seem to realize it was too hot to walk, the hotels started building right out to where the people were to make easy access to their casinos from (gasp) walkers.

Where NYNY is now, I think you're right about small businesses like a gas station, etc. It may have been the gas station that offered free aspirin. I believe that's where the Tower of Pizza stood also (as seen in the movie "Casino". Behind it all was the Emerald Green (Dunes Hotel's) golf course.

The Tropicana was about as far as anybody wanted to go. The Hacienda was where Mandalay Bay or Luxor is now, and it was hard to get anybody (locals) to drive that far out of town, so they bought their own airplane and invented the free Las Vegas junket. Just half a block off LV Blvd on the NE corner of Tropicana Ave was the Tropicana Golf Club and a motel. You didn't dare drive too far down Tropicana, two lane road, because if you broke down you'd be stuck "way out" in the desert.

Decatur was the last main N-S road to the west, and when I first saw it, it was just being paved from Charleston toward Vegas Dr. I went out to Wonder World (remember Wonder World, and Vegas Village?) to look for a job the week I got here after seeing the depressing state of the local television stations.

We would go a little ways out Charleston past Decatur to ride off road and shoot cans and bottles...and the occasional jack rabbit...without fear of hitting anything important.

[sheriff]

The Tam O'Shanter was a motel, where the Pallazzo now sits.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by DavieJ89

what Dynimage said, it was the Tally Ho, before changing its name to the King's Crown in 1964, before becoming the Aladdin in 1966

The old Aladdin closed in December 1997 and was imploded in 1998

The "new" Aladdin opened in 2000, by 2003 due to financial troubles it sold to Planet Hollywood and Starwood Hotels

It was reopened as "Planet Hollywood" in 2007

No fair GΘΘgling.

Like Dyn said, the owners thought they'd be different and open the first hotel on the Strip that didn't have a casino. Dumb...very dumb.

Speaking of that. In the 60's, before he passed away, I directed a TV show on Ch-3 for Wild Bill Elliott, the cowboy movie star. Even though I was still wet behind the ears, and embarrassed myself by telling him how excited I was the time he came to my home town when I was a "little boy", I was still able to become friends with he and his family. My family and his would get together now and then for dinner or something.

Bill was married to the daughter of Ed Herbst, Sr., the original "Terrible" Herbst. We were having dinner one night and Ed told me about how he and his wife lost their shirts in the casino business. It was in Jackpot, Nevada. He said they didn't know much of anything about running a casino so the employees stole them blind. He said he'd never go into that business again; and, he didn't. Terrible Herbst is now run by Ed senior's grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I remember that he also told me how sorry he was (this was in the mid 60's) that he didn't buy up a lot of land on the Strip back when it was dirt cheap. That's something I've heard a lot of people say over the years, including myself.

MM mentioned the Silver City. Since I've been here I've heard the story of a guy in my little old home town in West by-god Virginia, who once owned the land across the street from the Stardust where that casino was located. There was nothing there until the late 1970's. The guy from my home town owned a very small used car lot back there, and like the typical small towner he must have thought small too. Before anything was built there, he apparently decided that piece of land in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip would never be worth anything, so he sold it ...for $50,000.

[DavieJ89]

actually buzz i used wikipedia, i was curious so i decided to look it up and post it here

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by DavieJ89

actually buzz i used wikipedia, i was curious so i decided to look it up and post it here

No fair Wiki-ing then.

[MomMom]

Originally Posted by Buzz123

No fair GΘΘgling.

Like Dyn said, the owners thought they'd be different and open the first hotel on the Strip that didn't have a casino. Dumb...very dumb.

Speaking of that. In the 60's, before he passed away, I directed a TV show on Ch-3 for Wild Bill Elliott, the cowboy movie star. Even though I was still wet behind the ears, and embarrassed myself by telling him how excited I was the time he came to my home town when I was a "little boy", I was still able to become friends with he and his family. My family and his would get together now and then for dinner or something.

Bill was married to the daughter of Ed Herbst, Sr., the original "Terrible" Herbst. We were having dinner one night and Ed told me about how he and his wife lost their shirts in the casino business. It was in Jackpot, Nevada. He said they didn't know much of anything about running a casino so the employees stole them blind. He said he'd never go into that business again; and, he didn't. Terrible Herbst is now run by Ed senior's grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

I remember that he also told me how sorry he was (this was in the mid 60's) that he didn't buy up a lot of land on the Strip back when it was dirt cheap. That's something I've heard a lot of people say over the years, including myself.

MM mentioned the Silver City. Since I've been here I've heard the story of a guy in my little old home town in West by-god Virginia, who once owned the land across the street from the Stardust where that casino was located. There was nothing there until the late 1970's. The guy from my home town owned a very small used car lot back there, and like the typical small towner he must have thought small too. Before anything was built there, he apparently decided that piece of land in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip would never be worth anything, so he sold it ...for $50,000.

Oye vay, good story! I've heard of a few "near misses" as well, people who shoulda, woulda, coulda and didn't buy property on the Strip back in the old days. Nobody ever thought it would be worth anything.

After all, it was Casino Center (or "downtown") that was the hubbub of Las Vegas. My elderly friend is still alive and I often recall the stories he's told me of his growing up here in Las Vegas, while the Boulder Dam (renamed Hoover Dam) was being built. I think the story that got me the most was when he said that trips into town were a treat and he remembers there used to horses tied to hitching posts on Fremont Street outside the hotels.

He also told me stories about how people would flock to the Moulin Rouge, and that the new "Strip" hotels had nothing on it, it WAS the place to be and be seen back in it's heyday. People of all colors flocked there and come 2:00 in the morning the show would start and there would be no available seats anywhere. Anyone who was anyone was at the Moulin Rouge.

Now even the remnants of it are gone Would have been a great museum of sorts.

Wasn't the Leaning Tower of Pizza near the Aladdin? Why am I recalling that?

[kimba01]

Timeline of Las Vegas Resorts


I had this in my favorites. It is a timeline of the hotels...pretty interesting to see which ones are still standing and when they were built. Also to see which ones were imploded and when.

[Buzz123]

Originally Posted by MomMom

Wasn't the Leaning Tower of Pizza near the Aladdin? Why am I recalling that?

Across the street and I'm thinking a little further south, but it's hard to remember with all the changes.

[Buzz123]

This is good. I hope it hasn't already been posted.

Classic Las Vegas Sites That Aren't There Anymore - Blog

For anyone who hasn't seen "Casino", you should rent it. It's pretty hard to condense several years of things down to less than 2 hours, but they did a good job with it. For instance, the scene with Lefty giving Harry "Mr. Clean" Reid trouble at a Nevada Gaming Commission hearing was almost exactly the way it happened. If you can get ahold of Channel 's documentary on the Mob in Las Vegas, it shows news footage of that, and a lot of other actual events that were used in the film.

The book "Casino" is not quite the same as the film, but is worth a read.

Another book that you have to take with a grain of salt is Green Felt Jungle, but at least you'll see who all the players were in those days, and there is some truth to it; maybe more than the people it talks about want you to know.