Parvin-Dohrmann's ownership of the Aladdin Hotel was short-lived.  On December 30th, 1971 a new group of investors, led by local business man, Sam Diamond bought the hotel.  The other investors in the group included Charles Goldfarb of Detroit, Peter and Sorkis Webbe and Richard L. Daly of St. Louis.  Goldfarb, Webbe and Daly encountered some licensing problems before the sale was sanctioned by the Gaming Commission.

According to writer George Stamos, "the difficulties centered around alleged associates of Goldfarb, a Detroit bails bondsman and his brother Irwin Goldfarb and another businessman George J. George also from Detroit."  The Gaming Commission asserted that "they had been involved at certain times with 'unsavory characters'.  The Goldfarbs invested $400,000 into the hotel and received 27% ownership.  George invested $200,000 for 15% ownership.  The Nevada Gaming Commission made a condition of the sale that those monies be returned to the Aladdin Hotel Corporation before a license of the remaining owners would be granted.

Gaming Commissioner Phil Hannifin handed down the ruling and remarked "There is no inference that the Goldfarbs or George are hoodlums." But he added, it was the Commission's responsibility to keep "any possible taint" of impropriety out of Nevada gaming. 

Diamond and the Webbes took over the hotel on January 1st, 1972.  They had acquired the property for $5 million according to reports.  They quickly brought some innovations to the casino including the first to institute double odds on craps and the first to introduce bingo on the Strip (the Landmark was still considered off-Strip). 

In addition, they underwent a $60 million renovation which included a new high-rise 19-story tower designed by Lee Linton and a new 7,500 seat special events theater that would be known as the Aladdin Theater for the Performing Arts Center.  The Performing Arts Center would replace the golf course.  The Center had rounded bays on each end and was crowned with Moorish Arches that were over-scaled for the property. 

While the tower was only 19-stories tall, according to George Stamos, the owners publicized it as 29 floors.  They started numbering the floors at 11 instead of 1 to get the desired 29 floors. 

They built a new porte-cochere fabricated by the designers at Yesco.  They also added a new 140-foot blockbuster sign, that according to our friend Alan Hess, had little neon and was mainly huge attraction panels with none of the arabesque quality of the original. 

The renovations would take a few years to complete.

In 1972, the Minsky's Burlesque at the Aladdin counted among its featured cast Tommy Moe Raft and "Curly" Joe DeRita of "The Three Stooges" fame. 

In February, 1976 it was announced that Ash Resnick would join the management team.  Resnick was a local businessman with ties to Dunes, Thunderbird, Tropicana and Caesars Palace.  He had briefly owned the little El Morocco.  He was good friends with sports figures such as Ali and many others. 

On July 2nd, amid a big grand re-opening, the Theater for the Performing Arts opened.  Neil Diamond was the headliner.  It would seat 7,500 people and added a new dimension by offering a quality showcase for the top acts in contemporary music.  While Sinatra, Martin, Davis and many of the old-guard entertainers still graced the various showrooms up and down the Strip, the new performers were having a difficult time finding a stage in town that could accommodate their sound.  The Beatles, Iron Butterfly and Led Zeppelin had all played the old Convention Center Rotunda.  Jim Morrison and the Doors had played the Ice Capades Chalet in Commercial Center.  Neither place was conducive to good sound.

The Performing Arts Theater solved that problem.  Now, there was a place on the Strip that catered to both crowds. For those of us of a certain age, the Theater was heaven.  Finally, we had a place where we could hear our music.  Acts from ELO to Willie Nelson to Jimmy Buffet to Bob Seger to Yes to heavy metal groups played the Theater.  In addition, the theater booked Broadway plays, ballets and even symphony orchestras and people attended.  The old Rotunda would be torn down in a few years and the Convention Center would become a real convention center.  The Judy Bailey Theater at UNLV, which prior to the Aladdin Theater, had been the home base of ballets and plays, could not seat as many as the Aladdin.

The casino had been remodeled and enlarged.  There were new restaurants, a new lounge where those lined up to go to the Theater could listen to the lounge performers while waiting for the doors to the Theater to open.  A shopping concourse connected the Theater with the rest  of the hotel.  And a new 20-story high-rise tower topped it off. 

The lounge featured some great entertainment.  The Irish Showband came over from the Stardust and brought its following.  Sam Butera and the Witnesses kept the place jumping now that Louis Prima was in a coma in New Orleans.  Freddie Bell was also featured in the lounge.  The Vagabonds with impressionist extraordinary Babe Pier kept the laughs coming. 

But despite all the good times, dark clouds gathered over the hotel.  The Performing Arts Center had been built with loans from the Teamster's Union and investigations were swirling at many major hotels up and down the famed Strip.  

The Goldfarbs and George were under investigation in Detroit and the Nevada Gaming Commission was watching the outcome of the trial.  In August 1979, Charles Goldfarb, casino boss Edward Monazym and general manager James Abraham were all convicted on charges of conspiring to allow "hidden ownership" to exert control over the resort.  The Nevada Gaming Commission ordered the hotel closed on August 6, 1979.  However, US District Judge Harry Claiborne ordered the hotel to reopen an hour later.

Sorkis Webbe was indicted on kickback charges amounting to upwards of $1 million during the expansion of the hotel adn the building of the Performing Arts Center.

This time the Nevada Gaming Commission's ruling to close the hotel stuck.  800 casino employees and another 1,200 hotel employees had no job to report to. 

Myram Borders took a tour of the hotel after it was closed. "It was eerie to be there, even as a reporter. The tables were closed and the slots were taped.  The casino was eerily quiet." (Interview with Borders, 2003).

The hotel attracted a series of serious buyers including Las Vegas staple Wayne Newton.  Newton had teamed with former Riviera president Ed Torres to bid on the property.  Also bidding was famed late-night host, Johnny Carson.  Carson also had ties to Las Vegas in that he co-owned a local independent television station, KVVU, Channel 5.  The bidding got ugly with rumors of Newton being tied to the mob.  But Newton and Torres prevailed and bought the hotel for $85 million.

But Newton and Torres may have been good friends but they weren't good business partners and they fought constantly.  The entertainment policy shifted from the big-name acts to revues.  Newton argued against the new policy saying it would only hurt the hotel.  Torres finally had enough of the arguing and bought Newton out in 1982.

But Newton had been right.  The change in entertainment policy along with other problems had Torres and the property fighting off creditors, banks and unions.  Within a year, Torres was trying to sell the property back to Newton. 

In February 1984, the Teamsters called their loan.  Torres was unable to pay and sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  The resort was $3.5 million in debt.  Newton didnt have the financing to buy the property back.

The hotel remained open while the finances got worked out. Lola Falana and Gladys Knight and the Pips were major headliners and kept the showroom in the Bagdad Theater filled.

But the bad news just kept coming.  Charges of mob infiltration and skimming again closed the hotel.

Finally it looked like the hotel might finally get a much needed break.  A mysterious Japanese businessman, Ginji Yasuda, was interested in the hotel.  He bought the hotel in 1987 for $54 million.  The casino remained closed while Yasuda was investigated by the Gaming Commission prior to be granted a license.  The Gaming Commission granted the businessman a two-year conditional license.   He was the first international owner of a Las Vegas hotel.

Yasuda began a year-long remodel of the hotel that reportedly cost upwards of $20 million.  But like too many before him, Yasuda had no experience running a hotel.  He had hired some very competent people, including Dennis Gomes of the Las Vegas Hilton to oversee gaming operations.  But once he hired them, he would not give them the freedom to do their jobs.  He second guessed everything according to Gomes.  Gomes and the others were soon fired.

Rumors began to fly that Yasuda was living way beyond the income that the Aladdin was bringing in, he was using the corporate jet to fly his wife to New York for an afternoon shopping spree, he killed the excitement in the casino by dictating that everything be in neat rows.

But the big rumor was that he had borrowed some $6 million in cash from Japanese organized crime figures to keep the IRS from seizing the hotel.  The rumor got the ear of the Nevada Gaming Commission.

Before a meeting with the Nevada Gaming Commission in August 1989, Yasuda refused to tell commissioners where the money had come from.  They immediately pulled his license.  Less than four days later the hotel was back in bankruptcy court. 

Finally after many fits and starts, in 1992 casino executive Joe Burt took on a 12 year-year lease.  Burt started a $15 million renovation.  But while the hotel occupancy was high, no one seemed to be spending much time in the hotel gambling or eating.  The Mirage and Treasure Island had opened and Steve Wynn had announced big plans for the site of the old Dunes.  The Aladdin felt like a dinosaur.

It's only money-maker was the Performing Arts Center that booked acts like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Stone Temple Pilots, Heart and a host of good musicals.  It looked like the hotel might overcome the latest hurdle.   Unfortunately for all involved, Burt was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1993.

Jack Sommer and his family trust, Sigman Sommer, bought the hotel in 1994.  Through their company, Aladdin Gaming LLC, they paid $80 million for the resort.

Barry Manilow played the Performing Arts Center.  Country Tonite, which was an award-winning show, kept bringing in the audiences. 

Despite promises to the contrary, in 1997, a resort spokesman announced that the hotel would be demolished.  A new $1.2 million resort would rise in its place.  Spanning 35 acres it would include gaming, restaurants, shopping and more.  Sommer promised to keep the Arabian motif.  The new hotel would have 2,600 rooms, 462,000 feet of shopping/retail space and a casino facing the Strip.  The new Aladdin would be three times the size of the former hotel.  

On November 25th, 1997 the Aladdin closed its doors again.  On April 27, 1998 the hotel was imploded along with 1,100 rooms, three tennis courts, two swimming pools, a shopping arcade, beauty shop, restaurants, coffee shop and Buffet.

A crowd estimated at 20,000 watched the implosion.  Like the other hotels before her, she hesitated before pancaking down.   Festivities included an auction for the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

Only the Performing Arts Center remained. 

Th Aladdin in 1973

The new signage featuring Lola Falana, James Darren and in the Performing Arts Center:

Jethro Tull

Special thanks to RoadsidePictures 

and UNLV Special Collections for letting us use these images. 

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