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Perhaps chief among erroneously held beliefs about Vegas is that gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel was the progenitor of the modern-day Strip when he built the Flamingo, which opened Dec. 26, 1946. In truth, the Flamingo was the third casino on what's now known as the Strip -- it followed the trailblazing El Rancho Las Vegas, destroyed in a 1960 fire, and the Last Frontier, site of the current-day New Frontier hotel-casino. Still, there are plenty of curious tales about Vegas that sound like the stuff of urban legend -- but are absolutely true. Next time you're in town, amaze and delight your traveling companions with these factual tidbits of Sin City history and trivia. -- MANDALAY BAY. The towering statue of Vladimir Lenin standing in front of Red Square, the casino's tony vodka-and-caviar lounge-restaurant, is missing a head that was lost, then found in a thrift-shop warehouse. The head now sits in the restaurant's vodka freezer in an acrylic block that serves as a table. The head of the statue -- a replica of one in the real Red Square -- was removed shortly after it was erected because of complaints that it lionized the father of international communism -- and to mimic the fate of so many Lenin statues throughout Eastern Europe after the fall of communism. The head had been accidentally packed up with other items the casino was donating to the thrift shop; warehouse workers discovered it. -- MAIN STREET STATION. Another Cold War-connected curiosity can be found at the other end of the casino action. To the north in downtown Las Vegas, Main Street Station -- a budget-priced casino-hotel -- has something in common with CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Southern California: a chunk of the Berlin Wall. The casino has its piece of history in the men's restroom, where it anchors a line of urinals. -- CAESARS PALACE. Outside in the new Roman Plaza at this casino's south entrance is a seated four-headed figure surrounded by images of elephants. The Brahma Shrine, a revered icon of Thai Buddhism, is similar to one built for Bangkok's Erawan Hotel, which had been plagued by construction delays until the shrine was installed. At Caesars Palace, some visitors kneel in prayer and light incense at the good-luck shrine before taking on Dame Fortune. Even the name Caesars Palace has a quirky background. Jay Sarno, who built the casino, created the name with the intentional omission of an apostrophe. The simple plural form of Caesars was meant to signify that everyone who visited was an emperor. Sarno sold the place in 1969, but continued to return and died in one of the hotel's suites 15 years later. -- BALLY'S LAS VEGAS. Many know that when the current MGM Grand, at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Tropicana Avenue, opened in 1993 with more than 5,000 rooms, it was the largest hotel in the world. Less known is that the hotel now known as Bally's Las Vegas, farther north on the Strip, opened in 1973 as the MGM Grand and at the time, it held the distinction of being the world's largest hotel. After a fatal fire in 1980, the resort changed ownership and names. -- MGM GRAND. Debuting 12 years ago with an ill-conceived Wizard of Oz theme, the MGM Grand had statues of Judy Garland and the rest of the Yellow Brick Road coterie at the main entrance. It wasn't long before Toto was kidnapped -- with the hotel even receiving ransom notes. In time, the whole Oz crew was dumped. Also early on, the MGM Grand's entrance was noteworthy for a massive lion reclining on its paws that visitors passed beneath upon entering the building. The leonine entranceway turned out be another bad idea and was replaced with a gleaming bronze lion that now stands sentinel outside the front door. Among the reasons the original got the heave-ho was that some Asian gamblers felt that by passing under the lion, they were being symbolically devoured by the beast -- very bad luck. -- THE PALMS. Also in deference to some of its Asian visitors, the trendy hotel-casino on Flamingo Road has eliminated the numeral four from its floors; the number has the same connotation as No. 13 in other cultures. No. 4 is also absent among floors in the new Wynn Las Vegas resort. -- MONTE CARLO. With 3,002 rooms, the hotel-casino in Las Vegas has more guest rooms than the entirety of the real Monte Carlo in the principality of Monaco. -- MIRAGE. The debut of this Steve Wynn hotel is considered a seminal event in the evolution of modern Las Vegas, for good reason. When it opened in 1989, the Mirage was the first major resort constructed on the Strip in 16 years and its cost, $611 million, was more than the combined dollars used to build every casino-hotel that preceded it on Las Vegas Boulevard. In the 16 years since the Mirage went up, at least a dozen major casinos have followed on the Strip. -- BELLAGIO. While the Tuscan-inspired grand hotel is a familiar Vegas landmark these days, it was conceived as a much different place: as a blue glass tower on an island surrounded by a lake two to three times larger than the existing one. Visitors were to cross a bridge to get to the building. After the Bellagio opened in 1998, children under 18 were barred from the building unless they were guests of the hotel and accompanied by someone over 18, and strollers were banned outright. The prohibitions no longer exist. -- FLAMINGO. If not the actual fountainhead of the Las Vegas Strip, the Flamingo holds the distinction of being the longest continuously operated casino on the famous stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard. However, not one bit of Bugsy Siegel's original casino -- christened after the nickname of his actress-girlfriend Virginia Hill -- remains. ----- To see more of The Philadelphia Inquirer, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.philly.com. Copyright (c) 2005, The Philadelphia Inquirer Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail [email protected]. |