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Film transparency of the Flamingo Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada, January 7, 1955

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Download pho017891.tif (image/tiff; 19.23 MB)

Information

Date

1955-01-07

Description

The Flamingo Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, as seen through a snow-laden bush. The Marquee is visible in the background, advertising Tony Martin, The Goofers, The interludes, Ron Fletcher, Salmas Brothers, Bobby Page, and others. Benjamin "Busgsy" Siegel, opened The Flamingo Hotel & Casino at a total cost of $6 million on December 26, 1946 to poor reception and soon closed. It reopened in March 1947 with a finished hotel. Three months later, on June 20, 1947, Siegel was shot dead at the Beverly Hills home of his girlfriend, Virginia Hill. Billed as "The West's Greatest Resort Hotel," the 105-room property and first luxury hotel on the Strip, was built 4 miles (6.4 km) from Downtown Las Vegas, with a large sign built in front of the construction site announcing it was a William R. Wilkerson project, with Del Webb Construction as the prime contractor and Richard R. Stadelman (who later made renovations to the El Rancho Vegas) the architect. Lore has it that Siegel named the resort after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, who loved to gamble and whose nickname was "Flamingo," a nickname Siegel gave her due to her long, skinny legs. Organized crime king Lucky Luciano wrote in his memoir that Siegel once owned an interest in the Hialeah Park Race Track and viewed the flamingos who populated nearby as a good omen. In fact, the "Flamingo" name was given to the project at its inception by Wilkerson.

Digital ID

pho017891

Physical Identifier

0245_0077
    Details

    Citation

    pho017891. Anita Freeman Photograph Collection on Southern Nevada. PH-00245. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada. http://n2t.net/ark:/62930/d11z41x1b.

    Rights

    This material is made available to facilitate private study, scholarship, or research. It may be protected by copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity rights, or other interests not owned by UNLV. Users are responsible for determining whether permissions are necessary from rights owners for any intended use and for obtaining all required permissions. Acknowledgement of the UNLV University Libraries is requested. For more information, please see the UNLV Special Collections policies on reproduction and use (https://www.library.unlv.edu/speccol/research_and_services/reproductions) or contact us at special.collections@unlv.edu.

    Standardized Rights Statement

    Digital Provenance

    Digitized materials: physical originals can be viewed in Special Collections and Archives reading room

    Extent

    2913 x 2307 pixels
    4.855 x 3.845 inches
    20,161,753 bytes

    Language

    English

    Publisher

    University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Libraries

    Format

    image/tiff