'The City of Celebration' Celebrating 100 Years of Pioneer Spirit

The Evolution of Casino Culture in Las Vegas, Nevada The Meadows Casino - 1931 The first car oriented resort-complex in Las Vegas with a combined 'casino-restaurant-nightclub-showroom-hotel' The Meadows opened (in 1931) on Boulder Highway at Fremont & Charleston, near the old, barnlike Black Cat and Red Windmill Roadhouse casinos. It stood midway between downtown and the highway to Boulder Dam. Built by Tony Cornero the year gambling was legalized in Nevada and Boulder Dam was starting to be being built, it closed in 1936, just one year after the dam workers finished and left in 1935. Cornero later dreamed-up the Stadust Casino (on the Strip) in 1958, but had a heart attack playing dice at the Desert Inn, just a few months before Stardust's opening.
The Thunderbird - Opened 1948 -seen here in the mid-fifties. The 1948 Thunderbird was the fourth casino built on the Las Vegas Strip and first to have an observation tower. The Flamingo - The 1953 Re-Modeling. Created, in 1945, by Billy Wilkerson (founder and editor of the Hollywood Reporter and owner of the popular Sunset Strip nightclubs; Ciro's, Trocadero and Club La Rue). The Flamingo was re-modeled in 1953 and added its 'champagne tower' (seen above).
The Desert Inn - 1950
The pool at the 1950 Desert Inn was the first, in Las Vegas, to use the new rounded style of the fifties; unlike the square-shaped pools at the 1940's-styled El Rancho, Last Frontier, Flamingo and the Thunderbird. The DI epitomized the relaxed Las Vegas beach cabana/motel experience of the 1950's, where your car was within 100 yards of your room and you played where you stayed,
in a glamorously modern, self-contained desert oasis resort, with easy entertainment everywhere. DI's large control tower observation deck was the second ever built on the Strip offering everchanging views of miles of surrounding desert and mountains and the four other Strip casinos. The 1942 Frontier was within walking distance across the street, as was the newly opened 1950 Silver Slipper show-hall. The '46 Flamingo was a drive away on the south, just as the '48 Thunderbird and 1941 El Rancho were to the north. The Desert Inn was the Architectural Prototype for Southwest suburban living, providing a Sunset magazine level of design and hospitality 24/7-365. The DI influenece on backyard architecture can be seen today in neighborhoods from San Diego to Sacramento to Flagstaff. The Sands and The Sahara would open two years later, in 1952.

The Riviera - Opened 1955 The nine story Riviera was the Strip's first high-rise hotel, opening one month before downtown's 15 story Fremont Hotel.