Online Nevada Encyclopedia

Jeff Burbank

Castaways Hotel

The Castaways Hotel opened on the west side of the Las Vegas Strip across from the Sands Hotel in 1963, became one of the casinos billionaire Howard Hughes bought in the late 1960s and survived into the 1980s, when it was demolished to make way for Steve Wynn's The Mirage in 1989.

Caesars Palace

Jay Sarno, owner of the Cabana Motel chain, stopped in Las Vegas in the early 1960s while on a trip to scout a new location for one of his motels in Northern California. Sarno, who wanted to build a large resort hotel someday, liked the cheap land and potential he saw on the Las Vegas Strip.

Bugsy Siegel and the Flamingo Hotel

Flamingo Hotel owner Billy Wilkerson and mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel had been friendly since the mid-1930s, when Siegel was a regular at Wilkerson's famous Los Angeles nightclub, Ciro's on the Sunset Strip. By 1946, the long-time member of organized crime in New York and Los Angeles was receiving hefty monthly fees from bookmakers for a wire service that transmitted horse racing results.

Bob Stupak

Bob (Robert) Stupak (1942–2009) was one of the most flamboyant and controversial casino operators in Las Vegas, a risk-taker and self-promoter whose quirky Vegas World evolved into the 115-story Stratosphere Tower, the nation's tallest observation platform, with thrill rides and a revolving restaurant.

Billy Wilkerson

William R. "Billy" Wilkerson was the original developer of the Flamingo Hotel, considered by historians the most important and influential resort to open on the fledgling Las Vegas Strip in the 1940s. The importance of his role, however, is often overshadowed in popular history by a partner in the project, the gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

William A. Clark

William Andrews Clark, a one-time United States senator and railroad magnate, is the namesake for Clark County in recognition of the rail line he owned and built that extended through the Las Vegas Valley, and the 1905 land auction that is considered the birth of Las Vegas.

Aladdin Hotel

The Aladdin Hotel was the first major casino to open on the Las Vegas Strip in the 1960s, eight years after the area's 1950s boom period ended with the Stardust's debut in 1958.

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