Vegas Q&A: Which Hotel Would You Resurrect?
Updated: 11:54 a.m. EDT October 6, 2003
Question: If you could somehow put back any old casino that has been torn down, which one would it be, and why?
Martin in Seattle
Answer: What a great question! Thanks, Martin.
Las Vegas history buffs like myself have a tendency to romanticize those long-gone and mostly forgotten hotels and casinos of yore. Places like the Dunes, the Hacienda and the Sands, to name a few, may have been glittering playgrounds in their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, but by the time they met the wrecking ball they had fallen into such decline that no one was as sad to see them go, as they probably should have been.
For instance, I stayed at the Dunes not long before they shut the joint down in preparation for demolition and the eventual construction of the Bellagio. Although it wasn't a flophouse it certainly wasn't nice, and the $19 I paid for a room facing the Strip didn't feel like as much of a bargain as it probably should have.
But there was one hotel that defied that trend, remaining grand and glorious until the end -- the Desert Inn. When it opened in 1950 it almost immediately became the playground for the rich and famous. In the '60s it was one of the haunts of the Rat Pack. In the '70s and '80s it was the epitome of what I've chosen to call the Dan Tanna Era.
In the '90s, as rooms and room inventory got bigger, the action moved south, and everyone tried to outdo everyone for the title of most extravagant, the Desert Inn was reborn again as an upscale golf and spa resort. It was beige and filled with marble long before half of the hotels on the Strip were committed to drafting paper.
Throughout its history, people looked to the Desert Inn to set the standards and the trends. It performed better, longer and more consistently than just about any hotel on the Strip. If it hadn't been for the too-valuable-to-pass-up piece of real estate the place rested upon it would still be there, looking stately as the Grande Dame of the Strip.
Don't get me wrong -- I'm practically salivating over what mad genius Steve Wynn has up his sleeve for Wynn Las Vegas, the $2 billion resort going up where the Desert Inn once stood. But if I had to pick one hotel to resurrect it would have to be The D.I.
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