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i entertainment entity has before. From its humble street-performer ori- gins in Montreal, Cirque has grown into an entertainment juggernaut with nearly $1 billion in yearly receipts. It has been esti- mated that on any given night, five percent of Vegas visitors attend a Cirque show. The production company's influence is so pervasive that visitors now plan trips to Vegas around Cirque, and the premiere of such a show draws a cavalcade of movie stars and other notablesf tl DEAN MARTIN AND JERRY LEWIS Some consider 1950s Las Vegas the city's heyday. Sin City was edgy and hip, glamorous and hedonistic, and populated by mobsters and starlets. It was on the stage of the legendary Copa Room at the Sands where the hottest acts of the day performed. Few acts can be said to be more Vegas than the musical comedy duo of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis. Vegas made Martin and Lewis, then it broke them. In 1989, after decades of animosity, the original dynamic duo of the Strip reunited during one of Martin's last run of shows. While other entertainers made more money, earned more fame, and had longer runs, Martin and Lewis can rightfully claim to be among Vegas' founding icons. ELVIS It is 1956, and 21-year-old Elvis Presley has just performed his first show on the Vegas Strip. Though it may be impossible to imagine today, Vegas pundits of the day dubbed the crooner a "bore." This kid from the South wouldn't return to Vegas for 13 years, and when he did, it wasn't to perform, but to film the hit movie, "Viva Las Vegas." The town that had snubbed him came to adore him as it adopted the film's theme song as its own. Vegas embraced Elvis, and he repaid that love with more than 800 straight performances at The International in the 1970s. Legend has it that when Elvis was in Las Vegas, half of the visitoSto the city took in his show. That makes Elvis Presley not only the King of Rock, but also the King of Vegas. FRANK SINATRA AND THE RAT PACK Call it the "swingers effect," but there is something about Frank Sinatra that transcends generations. Old Blue Eyes is as cool, suave, and hip today as he was in the 1960s when he was The Rat Pack'JM Chairman of the Board. All the rave when they descended on Las Vegas in 1960 to film "Oceans 11," The Rat Pack would grab a hold of Las Vegas and not let go for the better part of a decade. Comprised of Sinatra, Dean Martin?½ Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop, The Rat Pack was famous for impromptu guest appearances at each other's gigs. So beloved were these shows that fans would flock to Vegas, often sleep- ing in their cars, just to catch one of their performances. No act in the history of Vegas has been more responsible for popularizing the naughty nickname Sin City than "Les Folies Bergere." This infamous burlesque show, wherein dozens of beautiful, topless women pranced and preened onstage, may seem tame today, but in the late '50s, during the height of the Red Scare, it truly made the "better folk" of the country see crimson. Imported from Paris two years after the Tropicana opened its doors in 1957,?╟ ;rLes Folies BergerejLwas, until its sad demise in 2009, the longest continually running show in Vegas history. It titillated, embar- rassed, and opened the minds of millions. Bo trip to Vegas was complete without a visit with these high-stepping beauties. LIBERACE Glitz, glitter, and gaudy costumes have long been a staple of Las Vegas, but no entertainer in the city's history of flam- boyant excesses comes close to matching Liberace for sheer extravagance. Revered as Mr. Showmanship, Liberace 56 I NEVADA 7 ?√ßaWfBligy.L was the highest-paid entertainer in the world from 1950 to 1970. fes residencies at Riviera and later the Hilton set the bar for theicity's future performers. Despite critics harsh evaluations of his musical ability, fans adored the over-the- top performewle played for President Harry Truman, Queen Elizabeth II, and millions of fans worldwide all while dressed in costumes so garish as to make a matador blush. While the world seems to have moved on?╟÷Las Vegas' Liberace Museum closed in October, and Liberace impersonators have joined the endangered species list?╟÷ his indelible influence can be seen on stages across the world. MhHV bHlrrlN By the time Merv Griffin came to Las Vegas, first in the 1960s and permanently from 1970 into the 1980s, his singing and acting careers had become dim memo- ries. His mark on Vegas would be made in other ways. One of the first media moguls, Griffin's resume shames others who claim the title. Among his brainchildren were "Jeopardy,'1 "Wheel of Fortune," and "The Merv Griffin Show." At the height of his popularity, Griffin brought his talk show to Caesars Palace,?½ where a rotating stable of Vegas notables became frequent guests. These daily visits into the homes of millions created a fascination among Middle Americans for all things Vegas, and tourism to the city soared. Other entertainers may have dom- inated the box office, but without Griffin, their showrooms and wallets would have been a lot emptier. SIEGFRIED AND ROY Say the words entertainment and Las Vegas, and invariably images of Siegfried and Roy and their magnificent white tigers dominate the imagination. While other legends can lay claim to the nicknames the Chairman, The King, or Mr. Las Vegas, few can compete with this magician duo's longevity, popularity, and influence. Thgge German born emigres were an