About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 6: Taking a Risk and Sports

It's not just gamblers taking risks in Vegas.  The Strip has been a global capital of extreme sports ever since December 1967, when a little-known stunt artist named Evel Knieval tried to jump the fountains of the newly opened Caesars Palace, coming up short and crashing to the tune of several broken bones and a 29-day coma.

The city is also recognized as the undisputed home of boxing since the iconic slugfest between George Foreman and Ron Lyle at Caesars Palace in 1976.

In more recent thrills, last November the eyes of millions were fixed on the city for the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix Formula 1's first ever after-dark race in Sin City turned the area into a high velocity street circuit with the Strip naturally taking center stage as the blistering home stretch.

Ever seductive, the Strip continues to temp visitors with its unusual indulgences:  Win a fortune on black, fall in love by the fountains of the Bellagio, get married by Elvis-- or snag a quickie divorce.

Tastes may change, but its the thrill of the ephemeral that makes Vegas Vegas.

--DaCoot

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 5: Bigger and Grander

In the 1990s, Vegas developers began thinking even bigger, and the arrival of the great pyramid of the Luxur Hotel and Casino in 1993 began an ostentatious decade of international icons arriving in reduced size along the Strip as new casinos sought to become the next big thing.

Where else can you find the Eiffel Tower, Venetian canals and New York skyscrapers all within walking distance?

Yet perhaps nothing catches the eye quite like the show-stopping, cutting-edge tech of the Sphere, the largest spherical structure on the planet, which opened as a concert venue in Vegas last year.  Such grandeur, often with a touch of gaudiness, defines the Strip. 

--DaCoot

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 4: About That Residency

Toward the end of World War II, piano sensation Liberace pioneered the concept of a residency, where venues dedicate their stages exclusively to individual superstars, often for years at a time.

In their own subsequent residencies at the Copa Room at the Sands, Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack helped establish the swanky, after-dark revelry for which Vegas has been become notorious.

Starting in the late 1960s, Elvis Presley was a Vegas fixture.  And, of course, Wayne Newton.

With round-the-clock musicians, magicians, comedians, blue men and white Bengal tigers, the Strip became the premier global destination not just for indecorous gambling, but also for family-friendly entertainment.

(In case you're wondering who the members of the Rat Pack were:  Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop.)

--DaCoot

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 3: The Coming of the Las Vegas Strip

The characteristically American mix of grit, graft and speculation turned a dusty desert road into the entertainment capital of the world, a 4.2-mile stretch that would eventually become known as the Las Vegas Strip.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Strip attracted shady characters right from the start.  In 1939, a cop named Guy McAfee arrived in Vegas after fleeing Los Angeles under accusations of corruption.  He quickly put down roots, buying and developing the Pair O' Dice Club and several others.  Inspired by his Los Angeles' Sunset Strip, he also bestowed the name upon Vegas' main drag.

Soon after, in 1941, California businessman Thomas Hull founded the area's first luxury resort, El Rancho Vegas, with blossoming gardens and a capacious swimming pool.  

The new adult playground caught the attention of the New York mob, who saw opportunities in both legal gambling and in less-legal money skimming.  In 1945, the infamous gangster Bugsy Siegel bullied his way into the development of the luxury Flamingo resort, creating a template for the super-casinos to come.  Until then, Vegas casinos typically sported Wild West themes, but Siegel ushered in an era of unbridled opulence.

--Cooter

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 2: Gambling and Quickie Divorces

Continued from June 13.

At the turn of the 20th century, the oasis town became a rest area for wagons and a stop on the new railroad connecting Los Angeles and Salt Lake City.

This railroad was completed in 1905, and in 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a U.S. city.  Though gambling was prohibited at first, clandestine casinos opened for business.  Then, in 1931, everything changes when Nevada became the first state to legalize gambling, as well as the first to offer quickie divorces.

From then on, the Silver State was synonymous with American excess.

Around the same time, construction began on the Hoover Dam, which would supply water and power to the valley.  This monumental project brought in an influx of construction workers to the city of Las Vegas, and local entrepreneurs wasted no time in opening casinos to relieve these men of their spare cash.

--DaCoot

About That Las Vegas Town-- Part 1: 'The Meadows'

From the March 2024, Smithsonian Magazine ""American Icon."

In 1829, a group of explorers led by Spanish merchant Antonio Armijo moved west toward Alta California through the arid Mojave Desert-- the ancestral lands of the Southern Paiute people.  

A young scout named Rafael Rivera discovered a particularly verdant area full of grassland irrigated by a natural spring: this lushness inspired the place's name: "The Meadows," or "Las Vegas." 

Though a couple dozen Mormon missionaries arrived here in 1855-- largely failing to convert the Paiute population-- the oasis remained something of a secret until four years later, when prospectors came to the valley.  They found gold and silver, and the ensuing rush sparked a population boom, with miners arriving in droves to dig by day before chancing new fortunes away in the saloons and bordellos at night.

--DaCoot

October Anniversaries: Peanuts, Circus Circus and Legos

From the October AARP Bulletin.

OCTOBER 2, 1950--  The first "Peanuts" comic strip was published.  I am glad the Chicago Tribune continues to reprint them daily.  Gotta love that WWI Flying Ace and, if there was a Major League Baseball team that could have been Good Ol' Charlie Brown's, it would have had to have been the Chicago Cubs.

OCTOBER 18, 1968--  Circus Circus Casino resort opened in Las Vegas on The Strip.  Last I heard, it was still there, but probably not for much longer.  My favorite casino on the Strip is Slots of Fun back when they had the $1 Blackjack tables and 75 Cent bottles of Heinekin and Corona as well as the huge quarterpounder beef hot dogs.

OCTOBER 24, 1961--  The patent was approved for toy building blocks that became known as Legos.  I was ten, but never got into Legos.  They seem to be doing pretty well now.  But, I was pretty-well hooked on the Lincoln Logs and Erector Sets (and what was the one with the spindles and wooden round things?).

I Built Many a Great Fort With Those Logs.  --Cooter

Deaths: Designed Famous Las Vegas Welcome Sign

From the April 22, 2015, Champaign (Ill) News

BETTY WILLIS, 91 Died April 19, 2015.

The womn who designed the famed neon sign that has welcomes millions to "Fabulous Las Vegas" since 1959 has died.  Her daughter described her as "a wonderful woman" and very proud of her design of the iconic sign but she never grew fond of how "fabulous" appeared, the single-word adjective not quite as flowing a script as she had envisioned.

Her often copied (I have several items at home with the sign on it) sits in the middle of a median on the town's Las Vegas Boulevard south of the Strip.

Ms. Willis put quite a bit of thought into the sign's design, including putting the letters for "welcome:" inside seven silver dollars, both a lucky number and the currency of choice at the casinos before chips.

That is a favorite Sign of Mine.

Goodbye 99 Cent Shrimp Cocktails

We all weep a tear as a long-standing Las Vegas tradition bites the tail. The 99 cent shrimp cocktail has gone the way of gas, and broken new records.

The last hold-out for this favorite of cheapskates like me, the Golden Gate Hotel and Casino (I believe downtown) raised the price to $1.99, the first increase in 17 years.

The cheap shrimp was the brainchild of this place in 1959 when it cost 50 cents, and since then, they have served up lots of the cold-water shrimp, usually around a ton a week.

Sad to see this aspect of the old Vegas that I so loved go. I noticed that the last time we were at Slots-of-Fun in 2006, the price was $1.49. Vegas, in large, has gotten TOO expensive for me.

No More Cheap Shrimp for Me!!! --Old Coot