![]() ![]() The hope that a life-changing miracle is just one slot spin or one poker hand away attracts millions of people to Las Vegas every year. This gambling metropolis offers people hope that their life will change the second they step on the Las Vegas Strip. But from then on, for then next 20 years, almost all the new Strip developments were financed or operated with the mob’s backing.Built in the middle of the desert, Las Vegas has always been an epitome of glamour mixed with easy money and lots of shady business. Of course, when the property lost money initially due to Bugsy’s extravagances, his backers had him murdered and took over operations themselves. It also offered first-class entertainment in its massive showroom, such as Jimmy Durante, George Jessel and Xavier Cougat. ![]() When completed in December 1946, the new resort featured a golf course, riding stables, a four-story hotel, a three-tier waterfall, palm trees and a European-style casino. He convinced his bosses back East to put up $1 million to buy an extravagant but stalled project on The Strip-the Flamingo Hotel & Casino. ![]() But just as soon as World War II began drawing to a close, a mob-connected guest of the El Rancho named Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel decided to get in on the action. The Post-War BoomĪ shortage of construction materials during wartime brought to growth of The Strip to a temporary halt. Highway like a mirage beckoning visitors. This became to site of a Western-themed resort the Lastįrontier, which opened on October 30, 1942-a low-rise hotel with high ceilings,Ī huge fireplace and a swimming pool out front where it could be see from the Of the El Rancho, he decided to purchase McAfee’s 91 Club, paying $35,000 for Was also scouting locations for a new hotel. The woman he bought the land from believed it was “worthless,”īut on April 3, 1941, the Strip’s first true resort-casino opened there, with 40Ĭottages for lodging guests and a gambling hall for craps, blackjack andĪbout that same time, a Texas cinema-magnate named R. Hull purchased 133 acres at the corner of Highway 91 and San Francisco Street (now Sahara Avenue) for Were lower and water rights were not under dispute. ![]() Local businessmen Bob Griffith and James “Big Jim” Cashman convinced him theīest location would be outside the city limits, where land was cheap, taxes Nevada looking for a place to build his next El Rancho Resort, and Then, in 1940, California hotel developer Thomas Hull visited Southern Red Rooster, a smaller watering hole located a mile south on the highway and theįirst club that motorists coming into town would see. Initially, the only competition on “The Strip” came from the Highway leading into Las Vegas has been known as “ The Strip” ever since. The label stuck, and the seven-mile stretch of the L.A. He bought them out, renovated the club to make gambling its top priority and renamed it the “91 Club.” Jokingly, he would compare the lone desert highway that ran past his door to Hollywood’s famous Sunset Strip. Thus begins the unique and sorted tale of… The History of the Las Vegas Stripįor eight years, Frank and Angela did quite well with their Pair-O-Dice Club-so well that in 1938, Guy McAfee, a former vice squad officer from Los Angeles, took an interest in the property. And to make sure they spent their money before reaching the entertainment quarter downtown, there would be illegal gambling and bootleg booze, too. With his wife Angela, he would buy vacant land just north of what’s now the Fashion Show Mall and build a private nightclub called the Pair-O-Dice.įeaturing a homey atmosphere, the club would offer Italian meals and live music to attract visitors coming up to see Boulder Dam via U.S. In 1930, long before there was ever a road named Las Vegas Boulevard or an interstate highway connecting Southern Nevada to Los Angeles, local entrepreneur Frank Detra had a visionary idea. How a lone desert highway became the Las Vegas Strip. ![]()
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