Abstract
This collection is comprised of publicity and promotional materials documenting the Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino Resort and the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino Resort. Both resorts were a result of hotel and casino developer Jay Sarno. There is a small amount of material on Sarno in the collection such as newspaper clippings, a press release, and a copy of Sarno's FBI investigation file. The collection includes property records, magazine and newspaper clippings, informational brochures from the two properties, press kits, and a small amount of correspondence. It also includes a prospectus and stock offerings for Sarno's never-realized Grandissimo Hotel and Casino resort that would have been built on Interstate 15 to the west of the Las Vegas Strip.
Finding Aid PDF
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Scope and Contents Note
The Jay Sarno Papers (1965-2001) are comprised of publicity and promotional materials documenting the Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino Resort and the Circus Circus Hotel and Casino Resort. Both resorts were a result of hotel and casino developer Jay Sarno. There is a small amount of material on Sarno in the collection such as newspaper clippings, a press release, and a copy of Sarno's FBI investigation file. The collection includes property records, magazine and newspaper clippings, informational brochures from the two properties, press kits, and a small amount of correspondence. It also includes a rare prospectus and stock offerings on Sarno's never-realized Grandissimo Hotel and Casino resort that would have been built on Interstate 15 to the west of the Las Vegas Strip.
Access Note
Collection is open for research. Arrangements must be made in advance to access digital files; please contact UNLV Special Collections and Archives for additional information.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
Materials are arranged alphabetically according to property name and then by type of material.
Biographical / Historical Note
Hotel and casino developer Jay Sarno (1921-1984) is known for his innovations that had a major impact on the Las Vegas casino hotel industry. Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, he served in the armed forces in World War Two and earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University Missouri. Inspired by the hotels of Miami Beach, particularly the Fontainebleau, he began his career in 1958 by purchasing the Atlanta Cabana, a full-service convention hotel that, as he put it, "had the convenience of a motel." Cabana hotels in Dallas and Palo Alto followed in 1962; in these projects, his investors included actress/singer Doris Day. Though Sarno developed these three hotels, he did not manage them past the mid-1960s.
In 1966, Sarno opened Caesar's Palace, the first truly themed resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Two years later, he opened Circus Circus, another themed casino that opened without a hotel. In 1969, Sarno and his associates sold Caesars Palace to Lum's, a Florida-based restaurant company that subsequently renamed itself Caesars World. In 1974, while under indictment for allegedly offering a $75,000 bribe to an IRS agent, Sarno and his partners in Circus Circus leased the casino to Bill Bennett and Bill Pennington. Sarno, who was represented by attorney Oscar Goodman, was acquitted of the bribery charges in a 1975 trial. He then unsuccessfully attempted to develop the Grandissmo, which would have been a 6,000-room hotel casino near the Las Vegas Strip. Within a decade of his death several themed mega-resorts had opened in Las Vegas, vindicating Sarno's confidence in the Grandissimo.
Preferred Citation
Jay Sarno Papers, 1965-2001. MS-00548. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2008 and 2017 by Jay C. Sarno; accession numbers 2009-003, 2017-157.
Processing Note
Su Kim Chung, February 2009. In 2017 Joyce Moore edited and published the finding aid. In 2019, Tammi Kim processed an addition to the collection and updated the finding aid.
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Separated Materials
The photographs in were this acquisition were removed from the collection and placed in the Jay Sarno Photograph Collection. PH-0347. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.