It has become well known that if you don’t visit Las Vegas at least once a year you won’t recognize it on your next visit. The skyline of sin city changes quickly and what was new eventually becomes imploded. Not content to simply tear down buildings, Las Vegas puts on a show, complete with a fireworks presentation and countdown leading up to an implosion. As many as 200,000 people will stand and watch, as the implosion has become one of Vegas’ largest spectator events.
The Stardust Resort and Casino, all 32 stories of it, was imploded in March of 2007. Fireworks, in typical Vegas fashion, preceded the implosion and, as usual, it drew a huge crowd. Built in 1958, sitting on 63 acres of prime strip property, the Stardust was demolished to make way for Echelon Place. Ironically, construction on Echelon Place was halted in August 2008, due to the economic downturn, and won’t be continued until at least 2012. Pieces of Stardust rubble are being used to hold the soil in place in a seven-mile stretch of the Las Vegas Wash.
Once owned by Howard Hughes, the Sands Hotel and Casino opened its doors in late 1952. The Sands was the hip place for a celebrity to appear and hosted big names such as Judy Garland, Lena Horne, Jimmy Durante and Tallulah Bankhead. In 1960, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford performed together for the first time, and the Rat Pack was born. The Sands Hotel and Casino was imploded on November 26, 1996 to make way for the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino.
When you walk through the Wynn Resort in Las Vegas, you are walking on what used to be the grounds of the Desert Inn. While many Las Vegas casinos are featured in motion pictures, the Desert Inn was the backdrop for the original motion picture “Ocean’s Eleven,” as well as the location for the TV show “Vega$.” The Desert Inn opened its doors in 1950 and offered an 18-hole golf course as one of its amenities. Steve Wynn purchased the resort for $275 million and promptly had it imploded, in 1996.
It is difficult to believe that where Bellagio Las Vegas now sits was once considered “remote," and that a casino would struggle to do business in that location. The casino was called The Dunes, and it opened its doors in 1955. As the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures: the Dunes offered Nevada’s first topless revue and its popularity soared. Long rumored to be controlled by the Mafia, Steve Wynn purchased the aging property in 1992, closing the doors for good a few months later. Later that year it was imploded, making way for the mega-resort, Bellagio.
