By the 1980s, Las Vegas had changed dramatically. The Strip had become the city’s postcard, stretching like a neon river to the south, while downtown was learning a new lesson in survival. Casinos like Bally’s, The Mirage, and Caesars Palace drew visitors with fountains, themed hotels, and spectacle. Fremont Street had to find its own voice in the shadow of that growth. Jackie Gaughan, already … Continue reading Chapter 5 – Renovation and Resilience
By the 1970s, Fremont Street had developed a rhythm of its own — a cadence between past and future, where the ghosts of The Mob lingered beside the hum of neon. The El Cortez remained a steadfast anchor, while around it, downtown pulsed with the tentative energy of reinvention. The street was narrower than the Strip, but it had personality in abundance. Signs blinked in … Continue reading Downtown in the Seventies
Chapter 4 of our El Cortez Spotlight series When Jackie Gaughan arrived in Las Vegas in the early 1960s, Fremont Street was a street caught between memory and ambition. The Strip was rising fast to the south, promising fountains, fountains, and even more fountains, but downtown remained the beating heart of the city’s older rhythm. The El Cortez, already decades old, was quietly waiting for … Continue reading Jackie’s Kingdom
By 1947, Fremont Street was beginning to hum with a different kind of electricity. The mob’s fingerprints were everywhere, but the town itself was still small enough that everyone knew the bartender’s name — and probably what he owed in poker losses. The desert wind carried the smell of dust, diesel, and perfume. From above, the street must have looked like a glowing fuse, inching … Continue reading El Cortez – Fremont’s Flicker
The Imperial Palace was originally opened as the Flamingo Capri in 1959 as a 180-room motel. Ralph Engelstad purchased the property in 1971, added a casino in 1972, and renamed it the Imperial Palace in 1979 when a new casino facility opened. Engelstad expanded the resort with additional hotel towers from 1982 to 1987, making it one of the largest hotels in the world with … Continue reading The Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas
Chapter 3 of our El Cortez Spotlight series By the mid-1940s, El Cortez had become a tidy little cash machine on Fremont Street, attracting both curious travelers and the kind of men who didn’t like to explain where their money came from. The war had ended, soldiers were returning home, and Las Vegas was poised for a kind of rebirth -one that would shimmer under … Continue reading El Cortez: The Mob Arrives
On January 1, 1992, the property was reborn as Casino Royale, under the ownership of the Elardi family (who also owned the Frontier at the time). They bought the former Nob Hill and adjacent hotel for about US$17 million. Continue reading Casino Royale Hotel & Casino
(from The House of Caesars: Power, Glamour, and the Empire of Las Vegas) Chapter 1 in our Caesars Palace spotlight series Las Vegas was still small enough in 1966 that a man could stand in the desert at night and hear nothing but his own pulse. The lights of the Strip stopped abruptly then—ending not in sprawl but in silence. And at the edge of … Continue reading Caesars Palace – The Mirage Before the Mirage
Part 2 of our El Cortez Spotlight series In the spring of 1945, the desert heat arrived early, pressing down on Fremont Street like a secret. The El Cortez had been open barely four years, and already it was changing hands. The war was nearly over, soldiers were trickling back west, and Las Vegas-still small enough that everyone knew the sheriff by name—-about to inherit … Continue reading Bugsy’s Brief Inheritance
Once rebranded, the property embarked on an expansion spree. Between 1982 and 1987, Engelstad added multiple hotel towers and additional casino space, boosting room count to about 2,637.
Its theme was unusual at the time, capturing visitors with value-oriented room rates and a unique look compared to the mega-resorts. The resort also introduced interesting attractions — notably the large car museum known as “The Auto Collections”, which opened in 1981.
Vegas and Paradise 
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