Blog - The History of the Las Vegas Strip

Post-WWII Las Vegas must have looked very inviting. Men with vision were coming into town to build hotels to cater to Americans hungry to travel after the rationing and sacrifices of the War. In less than ten years, there were five hotels, the El Rancho Vegas, Hotel Last Frontier, the Fabulous Flamingo, the Thunderbird and Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn built on the two-lane highway that led to Fremont Street.

Though some locals wondered where all the people would come from to fill the new resorts, the men with vision kept assuring everyone they would come.

Fred Schivo was a long-time gamer who had the idea for the Club Bingo, a 300-seat bingo parlor. He had to find investors that would be willing to take the financial plunge. He lucked out when he met Milton Prell from Butte, Montana. Prell had operated the "30 Club" in Butte but like many other gambling visionaries of the day he relocated to the friendly climes of Las Vegas in the 1940s. Though not as well known today as others such as Wilbur Clark and Del Webb, Prell nonetheless, made an impact on Las Vegas.

Club Bingo opened on a rainy day, July 24th, 1947. In addition to the bingo parlor there were a few other games of chance but the Club Bingo had a reputation for fine food in its Bonanza Room. There were no hotel rooms, the Club Bingo was just a club for gambling, fine dining and they had a small showroom that showcased the talented Dorothy Dandridge, comedian Stan Irwin and the Treniers.

Milton Prell soon realized that the future of the Las Vegas Strip was in having a resort hotel that catered to the tourists swarming in from Southern California. That meant financing the building of a major hotel

Located on the east side of the Highway and directly across from the El Rancho Vegas, the Club Bingo had a prime location. In the years ahead, Prell would also build the Lucky Strike and the Mint Hotel on Fremont Street but it was the construction of the Sahara that led to the creation of the Sahara-Nevada Corporation which he would ultimately sell to Del Webb.

Prell approached Dallas financial wizard A. Pollard Simon with plans for 276 two-story units. Simon agreed to go ahead with the Sahara project despite the fact he was also helping finance Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn. Local air-conditioning contractor Al Wild introduced Prell to Del Webb. Webb had just finished working on the Fabulous Flamingo. Wild had known Webb since 1935. Ultimately, according to Wild, Webb, Prell and Simon agreed to a "cost plus" arrangement that included a percentage of stock (20% it was later learned) in the new hotel be given to Webb as partial payment for his services.

The architect was Max Maltzmann and the designer was Albert Parvin. Maltzmann had been working in Los Angeles since the 1920s. Architecturally, according to Alan Hess, "the Sahara followed the basic partner of the Desert Inn and the Thunderbird. It featured a tall brick pylon at the entry which anchored the low wings that spun outward from its center like a pinwheel." The motif was similar to the Arizona Biltmore in Phoenix by Frank Lloyd Wright. There the sculptural elements of the textile block provided ornament. At the Sahara, the signage became the ornament.

The theme was North Africa. Statues of plastic camels and Arabs dotted the facade. Inside there was the Congo Room (the showroom), the Casbah Lounge and the Caravan Room. All that seemed to be missing was the Cafe Americain from Casablanca. Life-size models of African warriors, spears held high, flanked the Congo Room entrance. A nomadic caravan including camels was placed out front on the lawn.

The Caravan Room looked out over the pool terrace. Like all the other hotels back then, the Sahara was basically a motel in form. It had a low main building with a lobby and a casino in the front and the rooms to the sides. The glassy restaurants such as the Caravan Room looked out not only on the pool area but the well manicured and landscaped lawns. Lucius Beebe gushed "its twenty acres of landscaped ground with rare blossoms and shrubs to make even Boston's Public Gardens look to its tulips.".

On September 18, 1952 the Nevada Gaming Commission granted a gaming license to Milton Prell, Al Winter and Barney Morris.

Originally set to open in the summer of 1952, the Sahara officially opened on October 7, 1952. Construction delays were the cause for pushing back the date. The headliner for the opening was Ray Bolger who had starred as the Scarecrow in the "Wizard of Oz".

Stan Irwin was offered the job of Entertainment Director. Tired of being a comedian on the road, Irwin decided to take the offer. He had wanted Bolger (who had quite a success on Broadway with "Charley's Aunt") to open the hotel. However, when he called Bolger's agent to inquire he was told that Bolger did not "do nightclubs". Irwin asked who had the most influence over Bolger and was told it was Mrs. Bolger. Irwin called Mrs. Bolger and explained that the Congo Room was not a nightclub but a showroom where Ray would be able to showcase his many talents. Ray Bolger agreed to open the Sahara.

Called the "Jewel of the Desert" by Milton Prell, opening night was so successful that according to writer George Stamos, "the money had to be rushed straight from the cash boxes underneath the tables to the casino cage at a frantic pace so that guests could continue to cash in their winnings". Despite all the good fortune for its guests, the Sahara soon found itself in the same precarious situation that the Cliff Jones and Marion Hicks had encountered when they opened the Thunderbird. The house was losing money and the guests were in danger of owning the property. Luckily, according to Stan Irwin, Milton Prell had planned for the occasion. He had called the other investors and given them a heads up that they might need to wire money to keep the hotel solvent, just in case. Prell was prepared to put $5,000 of his own money. The other investors agreed to do the same. Prell called them at the appointed time and the money was wired. Within the week the Sahara was making a profit and Prell returned each investor his "emergency money".

Stan Irwin proved himself adept at booking the best in entertainment. Until the Sands opened and Jack Entratter began booking the Copa Room, Irwin was holding his own against the other Entertainment Directors in town. However, "Smilin' Jack" Entratter had started out back in New York City and had booked the famed "Copacabana" for a number of years. He knew many of the stars of the day personally and that made him a formidable booking opponent.

Milton Prell decided to hire Bill Miller. Miller, like Entratter, had his roots back East. He had owned and operated the Riviera nightclub in Fort Lee, New Jersey. He had booked acts like Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, The Will Mastin Trio and others for years. In addition, Miller was an agent for crooners such as Tony Martin. But, a highway was going to be built that would go right through Bill Miller's beloved club. About that time, he got a phone call from Las Vegas.

"We'd love for you to come out and take a piece of this place, and be part of our group," Miller remembered Prell telling him. Miller bought a 10% interest in the property and was named Entertainment Director in 1953.

Miller talked Mae West into headlining the Congo Room. He found a group of spectacularly buff young men who looked good in swim trunks and hired them to accompany West onstage. With her quick wit and sharp sense of timing, she was an immediate hit. Miller hired Marlene Dietrich and people flocked to see a living legend in person, especially in the peek-a-boo dress that under the lights looked like Marlene was almost bare above the waist.

But Miller wanted to reshape Lounge Entertainment. He believed there was a way to make a lounge not only profitable but if there was good entertainment late at night it might help bring more gamblers into the casino. The Mary Kaye Trio and the Treniers were anchoring the lounge at the El Rancho Vegas but that was about it for lounge entertainment in those early days. "It was basically a guy with a violin. The lounges were a joke." Miller told the author A.D. Hopkins during an interview.

Miller had been the agent for a bandleader/singer out of New Orleans named Louis Prima. In 1954, Prima called Miller looking for work. "How would you like a seven year deal?" Miller asked. Prima thought it was a good idea and so he and his wife, Keely Smith moved to Las Vegas just before Christmas. After a few nights of playing the Casbah Lounge, Prima knew their act wasn't working. Traditionally, the week between Christmas and New Years was a slow time but Prima was afraid that the hotel might cancel their contract if things didn't improve. He called an old friend and saxophone player in New Orleans.

"He called me on Dec. 24th and said 'Sam, you want to come to Vegas?' and I said when and he said tomorrow. I told him it was Christmas and I got my kids and I can't leave on Christmas but I could be there on the 26th. He said good, see you then." Sam Butera told me in an interview in 2003. "I brought along my drummer and my piano player."

The drummer and piano player barely had time to meet Prima and Smith before going on stage that night. Louis Prima introduced Keely Smith, Sam Butera and the Witnesses. The audience liked the name and it stuck. The lounge entertainers performed sets between midnight and 6:00 am, every night. They rotated generally with a comedian so that there was always entertainment in the lounge.

"And there was no one, ever, in the history of show business, that did the business that this man did from midnight until 6 in the morning. You could not get into that club. That was really one of the biggest things that happened in Vegas," says Miller. "It created people like Shecky Green. All the lounge acts started with Louis Prima."

Prima, Smith, Butera and the Witnesses kept the joint jumping all night long.

"We were the hottest act in the world." remembers Butera.

"People like Frank Sinatra, Sophie Tucker would be there, 5:00 in the morning, just to watch this act." remembers Carme, a venerable performer from those by-gone days.

Performing five shows a night, three half hour shows and two forty five shows, Prima brought his raucous New Orleans style of entertainment to Las Vegas and it made not only them famous but the Sahara became the late-night place to be.

To replace Miller, Prell hired Herb McDonald as the hotel's Executive Director of Advertising, Publicity and Promotion. McDonald and Stan Irwin were good friends both having arrived in Las Vegas about the same time. Though Miller had been the senior Entertainment Director, when he left for the Dunes, Irwin retained the title again.

Irwin, working with McDonald and his assistant, Harvey Diederich, arranged for an acrobat named Karl Carsony to do a one-arm handstand on a cane on top of the 50 foot tower pylon sign. They insured the acrobat with Lloyds of London for $100,000 and invited photographers everywhere to come and take a look. The stunt cost the hotel $400 and was worth thousands in publicity.

Also, they rented a billboard at the corner of Sunset Blvd and Doheny on the famed Sunset Strip and had a miniature of the Sahara's Garden of Allah pool recreated. It wasn't enough that the billboard swimming pool was filled with water and lights highlighted the name of the hotel and who was appearing in the Congo Showroom, but Irwin eight hired young ladies to lounge by the pool during daylight hours. The stunt cost $30,000 bur resulted in a million dollars worth of publicity according to authors Katherine Best and Katherine Hillyer.

Like the other properties, the Sahara had trailers for their African-American performers. The performers were not allowed in those days to stay at the hotel they were performing at. "They had to enter through the kitchen, do the show and then afterwards return to their trailer. At the end of the night, they went to one of the boarding houses on the Westside to stay. Yet, they were good enough to perform for a white audience." Steve Rossi related in a 2003 interview, still amazed all these years later.

In 1955, the Sahara opened its gourmet restaurant, The House of Lords. The motif was lots of wood, deep reds and everyone would be treated like royalty.

In 1957, Herb McDonald introduced the "Sahara Golf Invitational". The Sahara Golf Course was not located on the Sahara property. It was located off of Sunset Road and was called the Black Mountain Country Club. The purse for the tournament was $2,500.

In 1958 the first live TV show from Las Vegas was aired on CBS to promote the Sahara Hotel. Strangely, it was not filmed at the Sahara but at the shuttered Royal Nevada. The show featured acts that were performing at the Sahara.

Also, the Sahara became the first hotel and casino to obtain funding from a local bank. The Bank of Las Vegas, headed by Perry Thomas and Jerry Mack, loaned Prell $1 million to build an additional 200 rooms.

The expansion began in 1959. Designed by Los Angeles architect Martin Stern, Jr. the expansion included a convention hall on the Sahara's north side as well as a 127-foot vertical roadside sign designed by the artists at YESCO. The new 14-story high-rise tower sat on the far side of the pool and was patterned, according to Alan Hess, with windows, balconies and stair towers that imparted a dynamic, sculptural quality. Atop the sign was time and temperature board highlighted by semi-Arabic S on the very top.

Rounding out the year, Irwin managed a coup over Jack Entratter. Irwin was able to sign a brash young comic from back East to perform in the lounge, rotating with Prima, Smith and Butera. The contract was for three years and Don Rickles signed on the dotted line. Irwin constructed a contract that was well-used by performers. It contained a requirement for appearing at the Sahara for a minimum of 12 weeks a year with a stated salary. They could appear anywhere else the rest of the year using the Sahara salary as a basis to negotiate.

"I was playing the lounge there. Shecky Green and I were the rival comedians at the hotel and I followed Louis Prima, who was the biggest thing in Las Vegas at the time. Shecky and I would do shows at 2 and 5 in the morning."

Don Rickles, 1992 interview

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