Flamingo Las Vegas
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| Number of rooms | 3,626 | |
|---|---|---|
| Theme | Caribbean | |
| Gaming space | 77,000 ft² (7,153.5 m²) | |
| Permanent show(s) | The Second City George Wallace Toni Braxton Society of Seven | |
| Signature attraction(s) | Wildlife Habitat | |
| Notable restaurant(s) | Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville | |
| Owner | Harrah's Entertainment | |
| Date opened | December 26, 1946 | |
| Casino type | Land-Based | |
| Major renovation(s) | 2004 | |
| Previous name(s) | The Flamingo (1950-1952) The Fabulous Flamingo (1952-1974) Flamingo Hilton (1974-1999) | |
| Casino website | Flamingo Las Vegas | |
The Flamingo Las Vegas is a hotel casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is owned and operated by Harrah's Entertainment. The property offers a 77,000 ft² (7,200 m²) casino along with 3,626 hotel rooms. The hotel is sometimes referred to as the pink hotel due to the structure's neon pink color. The 15 ac (61,000 m²) site is landscaped in a Caribbean theme, with the central area housing an exhibit of flamingos as part of a wildlife habitat. It was the home of penguins, but they have since been moved to a Dallas zoo.
The Flamingo has a Las Vegas Monorail station at the rear of the property.
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[edit] History
What is not well-known is that Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel did not come up with the idea of building what would later become the Flamingo, nor was it his imagination that dreamed up the idea of creating a gambling mecca on what would later become known as The Strip. He has often mistakenly been given the credit for both. There were already two hotel-casinos on the Strip before the Flamingo was ever conceived. The El Rancho Vegas opened in the spring of 1941, and The Frontier opened about 18 months later, in the fall of 1942. This hotel, with a different name, was originally planned by William "Billy" Wilkerson, when he bought the land in 1945. He hoped to build something much fancier than the sawdust joints to be found in downtown Las Vegas.
When he ran out of money, that gave the New York mob (Bugsy Siegel, Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and friends) the chance to elbow their way in. They bought a majority share of the project, and Bugsy took over management of the construction, and gave the hotel its new name. Wilkerson was soon forced out, and the mob had complete control. Bugsy Siegel has unfairly been given credit for creating both the Flamingo and the Las Vegas Strip, but in reality, he created neither of them. What he did was take over a floundering project, bring in mob money, and finish building the project. The rest is history.
Originally known as The Pink Flamingo Hotel & Casino, the Flamingo was built at a cost of $6 million dollars. It opened its doors on December 26, 1946 and was billed as the world's most luxurious hotel. The 105 room property was built seven miles from Downtown Las Vegas on U.S. Route 91.
The resort was named after Siegel's girlfriend Virginia Hill, who loved to gamble in the United States and Mexico. Siegel's nickname for Hill was The Flamingo, for her skill at fellatio.
When it was discovered that Siegel had been skimming money from the building funds, his death was ordered, and management of the casino changed hands. Casino management changed the hotel name to The Fabulous Flamingo on March 1, 1947.
The Flamingo hotel boasted lavish shows and glorious accommodations for its day. The casino became well known for its comfortable, air conditioned rooms, beautiful gardens and fabulous swimming pools. The Flamingo helped popularize the concept of offering a "complete experience" as opposed to simple gambling. When the property opened, every employee from dealers to custodial staff wore tuxedos.
In 1950 the Champagne Tower opened.
Kirk Kerkorian acquired the property in 1967.
The hotel was acquired by the Hilton Corporation in 1972 and became the Flamingo Hilton in 1974. The last of the original Flamingo Hotel structure was torn down on December 14, 1993 and the hotel's garden was built on the site, complete with a plaque to Bugsy Siegel.
In the 1998 spin off of Hilton's gaming operations ownership was changed to Park Place Entertainment which was renamed to Caesars Entertainment in 2004.
In September 1999 the Flamingo Hilton and its sister property in Laughlin ended their long standing relationship with Hilton Hotels. The Hilton name was removed and the property was renamed Flamingo Las Vegas. Longtime Las Vegans still refer to the casino by its former name, however.
To enhance the hotel's Caribbean theme, a Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant was opened in 2004.
In 2005 Harrah's Entertainment purchased Caesars Entertainment and the property became part of Harrah's Entertainment company.
Toni Braxton replaced Wayne Newton as the Flamingo’s new headlining act on August 3, 2006. The show, Toni Braxton: Revealed, will run through March 2007 [1]. In November 2006, the Flamingo announced Braxton’s show will be extended through August 2007 [2].
[edit] Film history
The 1960 version of Ocean's Eleven was filmed here.
[edit] Fiction references
The original Flamingo hotel and casino figures prominently in the Tim Powers novel Last Call. In the novel, the famed myth of Siegel's creation of the Flamingo was utilized as a basis for the overall supernatural plot of the novel (rather than the true historic account of his acquiring it from the original founder). The Flamingo is supposedly founded on Siegel's mythical/mystical paranoia of being pursued and killed for his Archetypical position as the "King of the West," also known mythologically as Fisher King. Supposedly the Flamingo itself was meant to be a real-life personification of the "Tower" card amongst the Major Arcana of the Tarot deck, literally "the King's Castle in the Wasteland." It is also fabled to be where Siegel kept his copy of a deck of the Lombardy Zeroth Tarot deck, a fictional deck of psychically-empowered Tarot cards also prominent to the plot of Powers' novel. Category 6: Day of Destruction, a shot of the casino can be seen along with Circus Circus, and Stardust. Siegel's penthouse and office floor did, as referenced in the novel, in fact have a secret escape-hatch complete with ladder down to a service floor where supposedly a car was always in ready to effect his getaway in the event of his being attacked in his chambers (the escape preparations of course were ultimately moot; Siegel was killed in Los Angeles at the home of his girlfriend Virginia Hill). All other references to the Flamingo in any supernatural context in the novel are not based on any known or recorded facts/events.
The Flamingo has also been referenced in animated cartoons - an episode of The Jetsons, in 1962, dealt with a trip to Las Venus and the Flamoong casino.[3] More recently, an episode of Kim Possible (Ron the Man) was set in Las Vegas, and while there was no direct reference to the Flamingo, the casino the characters went to was drawn to resemble the original Flamingo design. [4]
[edit] External links
- Flamingo Las Vegas website
- Caesars Entertainment website
- Harrah's Entertainment website
- Toni Braxton to Headline Vegas Flamingo
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