History of the Las Vegas Strip

Historically, the expansion out of Las Vegas proper to the south along state route 91 began in 1931 when the “Pair-o-Dice Club” opened as a casino at the north end. In April of 1941, El Rancho Vegas went up as the first hotel, with 63 rooms, on the corner of Sahara Avenue and route 91, operating until a fire destroyed it in 1960. A second hotel, called “The Strip” went up further to the south in 1942, and was quickly renamed Hotel Last Frontier.

The third major construction on the Strip was the Flamingo, which opened officially on December 26, 1946, built with $5 or so of money from an east coast syndicate of the mob. Kirk Kerkorian, who later became the owner of MGM, bought the Flamingo in 1968. A year later, Kerkorian opened the International Hotel, now the Las Vegas Hilton, which was at the time the world’s largest hotel. Elvis Presley and Barbara Streisand were the hotel’s first entertainers. This hotel was followed by the MGM Grand in 1973 with 2,000 rooms, capturing the crown as world’s largest hotel for a while. A fire destroyed part of the Grand in 1980. To date, this has been Las Vegas’ biggest tragedy. The hotel was sold a few years later and became Bally’s. The new MGM Grand was rebuilt on a different location and opened in 1996.

During the 1950’s and 1960’s, Las Vegas became a center of entertainment, taking advan-tage of its proximity to Southern California. Elvis Presley and Liberace became almost synonymous with the Strip. Others, like Frank Sinatra and Barbara Streisand, made Las Vegas a frequent stop. The “Rat Pack” – Sinatra, Joey Bishop, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Peter Lawford -- entertained throughout the decade of the 1960’s all along the Strip. When Dean Martin died in 1995, the Strip dimmed its lights in respect.

Howard Hughes spent 4 years in Las Vegas in the late 1960’s, helping the Strip to make a transition from underworld figures to a more legitimate business image. He purchased or built several properties along the Strip. After his death, his corporation built the town of Summerlin, an upscale planned suburb to the west of Las Vegas.

Most Las Vegas commentators consider that the era opened by Bugsy Segal in 1946 with the Flamingo closed in 1989 with the opening of the Mirage. The hotels built in the 40-odd years since World War II were casinos and resorts, all right, and they offered fine dining and entertainment, but the Mirage changed the scale of ambitions by a power of ten. From that time forward, smaller hotels had trouble surviving, and only enormous resort projects were undertaken. This trend continues to the present day. Well known landmarks from the previous era -- like Desert Inn, Landmark, Sands, Dunes and Stardust -- faded and disap-peared into the historical archives, as large “mega-resorts” took over, such as Bellagio, the current MGM Grand, the CityCenter project and Echelon Place.

During the 1990´s the Strip tried to remake its image into a family-friendly place, with lots of amusement park features, including the famous White Tigers of Siegfried and Roy, the rides at the Stratosphere and the Wet ´n´ Wild Water Park. By the turn of the millennium, this trend had been abandoned for a more upscale, exclusive and luxurious feeling, though several “family-friendly” hotels still remain. Treasure Island changed its name to “TI” and Wynn Las Vegas opened with the ultimate in elegant offerings. This seems to follow the demographic of the “baby boomer” generation and then the rise of the affluent young urban professional.