The 1950s and Las Vegas are part of our collective memory. Too often though, the myth of those times takes precedent over the real history of that fabulous decade that saw the Las Vegas Strip grow in size and in tourists. One of the stories that often gets lost in the myth-making, is the story of the Royal Nevada, the eighth resort built on the Las Vegas Strip.

1955 was a big year for the Strip. Three major hotels would open throughout the year and there was talk that the Strip was being over built and and would not be able to sustain itself with the number of tourists visiting. What is that old adage, if you build it they will come? Well, that worked for the other two hotels that opened that year, the Riviera and the Dunes but the Royal Nevada seemed jinxed almost from the beginning.

Frank Fishman, a California hotel operator, began building his new resort, tentatively called "Nevada Royal" on December 1 ,1953. The cost was pegged at $5 million and the resort would feature an Olympic sized pool.

Architect Paul Revere Williams, one of the most renown African-American architects working in that era, was in charge of the design of the resort.

Above ground atomic testing had become a part of Southern Nevada living since the first test at the Nevada Test Site in 1951. Since then the resorts, especially the Sands, and the Las Vegas News Bureau had sought ways to publicize the town and the bombs.

Though Frank Fishman owned the resort, he quickly ran into financial troubles and started looking around for buyers.  Before the resort even opened, he sold his interests in the hotel ot A.B. Moll, Syd Wyman and Barnett Rosenthal.  The gaming license was issued to a woman, Roberta May Simon who owned a 10% interest in the hotel.

On the night before the official opening, the Royal Nevada had a pre-opening party for the Atomic Soldiers at the Nevada Test Site.  The soldiers were bussed into town and given the run of the hotel and casino.   

Photo courtesy of the Las Vegas News Bureau 

The hotel officially opened on April 19th, 1955.  It was located just north of the New Frontier on the west side of the Highway.   In the showroom, called appropriately enough the Crown Room, Helen Traubel, a well-known Opera star was showcased and the Dukes of Dixieland were headlining the Lounge.

Many reporters were in town for the opening of both the Royal Nevada and the Riviera (which opened a day after the Royal Nevada).  With the spotlight on two resort hotels opening, the media coverage favored the Riviera which had the distinction of being the first high-rise (at nine stories) on the Las Vegas Strip.

At the time of its opening, the Royal Nevada had the largest gift shop of any of the hotels.  It was run by Bud Harris. 

The Royal Nevada opened as Showplace of Showtown, USA. Befitting its royal name, a crown set atop the pylon beckoning all who entered.

Sometime in the summer of 1955, a temporary lease on the resort was signed with Jake Kozloff.  Kozloff had a number of interests in various hotels up and down the Strip.

Things get a little murky in trying to sort out, but by the fall of 1955, some say that Bill Miller did so much to turn the Sahara  into an Nightclub Paradise as their Entertainment Director, jumped ship and bought (from the looks of things) the Royal Nevada.   On October 8, 1955, Bill Miller took ownership of the property.  Later that month, it was announced that a group of Southwest businessmen had invested $1 million in Royal Nevada.

The entertainment at the Royal Nevada, even with Bill Miller at the helm, never reached the heights of the Sahara, Sands or even the El Rancho Vegas and New Frontier.   It's headliners included Anna Maria Alberghetti and a host of second tier entertainers including Marilyn Maxwell, Robert Alda and Vivian Blaine.

The Royal Nevada was shuttered, briefly, on January 1st, 1956 due to money owed, some say as much as $25,000 in back wages, to Culinary Union employees.  Which  makes it very odd if Bill Miller owned the Royal Nevada.  He had owned his own club, the Riviera (not to be confused with the Las Vegas hotel of the same name) back in New Jersey.  He was an experienced hand at owning and running a night club.  He had transformed the entertainment scene at the Sahara Hotel, ushering in the age of the lounge, by hiring Louis Prima and  Keely Smith.

But close it did.  According to local lawyer Ralph Denton, he received a late-night phone call about 11 pm.  It was a call from Joe McDonald, another lawyer who represented the owners of the Royal Nevada.  According to Denton, the hotel was closing because they couldn't pay their licensing fee and they had to have it in order to remain open in the New Year.  Needless to say, all the New Year's Day dinners had been pre-prepared so that they would only need re-heating.  With the hotel closing, that meant all that food was going to go to waste.  Instead of that happening, Denton and McDonald loaded up their station wagons and delivered turkey dinners to all their friends and all the charitable organizations in town, including the local hospitals.  And there was still,  Denton remembers fondly, enough left over for the McDonald and Denton families to enjoy as well.

In March of 1956, the Royal Nevada re-opened.  By the summer, it had new owners.  The Nevada Tax Board (forerunner of the Gaming Commission) deferred action on an application for a license by the new owners.   One of those owners was T. W. "Rich" Richardson, owner of the Broadwater Beach Hotel in Biloxi, Mississippi.  Bucky Harris, the owner of the famed North Shore Club in Lake Tahoe was named General Manager.

But by 1958, the hotel was shuttered for good.  Stan Irwin, of the Sahara, talked CBS into doing a live TV Show promoting the Sahara Hotel.  It was to be filmed in Las Vegas but Stan didn't want to disrupt the customers at the Sahara so he made arrangements for the interiors and Entertainment segments to be filmed at the Royal Nevada.

The mid-1950s were a rough patch for the hotels on the Strip.  It was the only time that the number of rooms exceeded the number of tourists.  The Riviera and the Dunes would hang-on thanks largely in part to the Entertainment choices.  Liberace became a staple at the Riviera playing to sold-out crowds and the Dunes hired Minksy's Burlesque for their showroom and they brought topless dancers to the Las Vegas Strip. 

The Royal Nevada never did re-open.   In 1959, the Stardust bought the property and it became the Stardust Auditorium with a giant neon S and A replacing the crown on the pylon.  The garden-style motel rooms and the Olympic-size pool became part of the Stardust Hotel.  The rumpled crown from the pylon rests in the Neon Museum's Boneyard.

The Royal Nevada garden style motel rooms in 2004.

Special thanks, as always, to RoadsidePictures for letting us use these images.   Special thanks to Dr. Michael Green as well as the Las Vegas News Bureau.

UP NEXT:

The history of the first hotel highrise on the Strip

and home to Liberace:

The Riviera