Tommy Hull opened the first hotel in Las Vegas in 1941. El Ranchero Las Vegas featured a neon windmill on the roof. A casino was added as an afterthought. This humble beginning would eventually lead to the creation of one of the most popular tourist destinations in America.
Hull decided to build a hotel when his car broke down in 1938. In the hot dessert climate, he wished there was a pool he could jump into. A few years later, El Ranchero Las Vegas opened its doors in the same spot his car broke down.
Los Angeles nightclub owner Billy Wilkerson wanted to re-create the Sunset Strip in Las Vegas. He partnered with gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel to open The Flamingo, the second hotel in Las Vegas, in 1946.
Many of Las Vegas' iconic hotels were built in the 1950s, including the Sands, the Dunes, the Tropicana and the Stardust.
Las Vegas has a long tradition of imploding buildings with great fanfare to make way for new ones.
The Venetian opened in 1999 on the former site of the Sands. The Bellagio opened in 1998 where the Dunes once stood.
Today Las Vegas boasts more than 150,000 hotel rooms, more than twice the number available in New York City.
