![]() This self-contained casino and resort offers everything an adventurous vacationer could want, including dining, entertainment, a Wildlife Habitat and a 15-acre Caribbean-style water playground.įlamingo Las Vegas features 3,460 total guest rooms and suites, including 3,288 standard rooms and 172 suites. Las Vegas’ famed Strip resort would eventually sit on the renowned “Four Corners,” along with Caesars Palace, Bellagio and Bally’s.īugsy Siegel’s desert dream, Flamingo Las Vegas has anchored the Las Vegas Strip since the city started rolling dice in 1946. The Flamingo Hotel flourished, even though Bugsy was never around to see it (he met his demise at girlfriend Virginia Hill’s Beverly Hills home, six months after the opening). Surviving a series of name and ownership changes, the hotel is known today as The Flamingo Las Vegas.The mystique of the Flamingo Hotel Las Vegas dates back to 1946 when Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opened his “real class joint” seven miles south of downtown Las Vegas on Highway 91 (now known as the Strip). Hill was in Paris, having flown the coop after a fight with Siegel 10 days prior. Siegel forced Wilkerson out in April, and by May, the resort reported a profit, but it wasn’t enough to save Siegel.Ĭonvinced that Siegel wasn’t giving them a “square count,” it is widely believed that his partners in organized crime had him killed while he was reading the paper June 20, 1947, at Hill’s Beverly Hills mansion. It re-opened March 1, 1947, as The Fabulous Flamingo. Two weeks after the grand opening, the Flamingo closed down. Siegel took over the project and supervised the building, naming it after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, whose nickname was “The Flamingo” because of her red hair and long legs. Siegel and his organized crime buddies used the profits to influence Wilkerson to accept new partners. He purchased The El Cortez hotel for $600,000 and later sold it for a $166,000 profit. Siegel, who held a largest interest in the racing publication Trans America Wire, was drawn to Las Vegas in 1945 by his interest in legalized gambling and off-track betting. But he soon ran out of money due to the high cost of materials immediately after the war. Wilkerson had wanted to recreate the Sunset Strip in Las Vegas, with a European style hotel with luxuious rooms, a spa, health club, showroom, golf course, nightclub and upscale restaurant. Siegel and his New York “partners” had invested $1 million in a property already under construction by Billy Wilkerson, owner of the Hollywood Reporter as well as some very popular nightclubs in the Sunset Strip. The casino lost $300,000 in the first week of operation. And because gamblers had no rooms at the hotel, they took their winnings and gambled elsewhere. Bad weather kept many other Hollywood guests from arriving. The grand opening of the Flamingo Hotel, however, was a flop. Some of infamous gangster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel’s Hollywood friends, including actors George Raft, George Sanders, Sonny Tufts and George Jessel were in attendance. Well-known singer and comedian Jimmy Durante headlined the night's entertainment, with music by Cuban band leader Xavier Cugat. Mobster Bugsy Siegel opens the glitzy Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 26, 1946.
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