Abstract
The Jay Sarno Photograph Collection (1947-1983) contains photographs from hotel and casino developer Jay Sarno. The photographs primarily depict Sarno and his family. The photographs also depict some of Sarno's development projects, including Circus Circus, Caesars Palace, and the Grandissimo. The photographs depict construction of the hotels, events, and famous figures.
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Jay Sarno Photograph Collection (1947-1983) contains photographs from hotel and casino developer Jay Sarno. The photographs primarily depict Sarno and his family. The photographs also depict some of Sarno's development projects, including Circus Circus, Caesars Palace, and the Grandissimo. The photographs depict construction of the hotels, events, and famous figures.
Access Note
The collection is open for research.
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 remain in original order.
Biographical / Historical Note
Jay Sarno (1921-1984) was a hotel and casino developer whose innovations had a major impact on the Las Vegas, Nevada casino hotel industry. In 1966, Sarno opened Caesars Palace, the first truly themed resort on the Las Vegas Strip. Two years later, he opened Circus Circus, the first family-themed casino. 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 Grandissimo, which would have been a 6,000-room hotel casino near the Las Vegas Strip. Although Grandissimo was never fully completed, Sarno began the trend of themed mega-resorts on the Las Vegas Strip, and several opened within a decade of his death.
Born in St. Joseph, Missouri, Sarno served in the armed forces in World War II and earned a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Missouri, where he met lifelong friend and business partner Stanley Mallin. After the war Mallin and Sarno worked together as tile contractors in Miami, Florida, and house builders in Atlanta, Georgia. However, they did not find success until 1958 when they opened the Atlanta Cabana Hotel with the financial help of Jimmy Hoffa, Allen Dorfman, and Doris Day. Sarno built two more Cabanas with Mallin in Palo Alto, California, and Dallas, Texas, before they decided to try their luck in Las Vegas.
Jay Sarno was married to Joyce Sarno Keys, whom he divorced in 1974. He had four children: Jay C. Sarno Jr., September, Heidi, and Freddie.
Source: Schwartz, David G. Grandissimo: The First Emperor of Las Vegas: How Jay Sarno Won a Casino Empire, Lost It, and Inspired Modern Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada: Winchester Books, 2013.
Preferred Citation
Jay Sarno Photograph Collection, 1947-1983. PH-00347. Special Collections, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
Permalink
Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2008 by Jay Sarno; accession number 2009-003.
Processing Note
Materials were processed by Joyce Moore in 2009. In 2015, as part of a legacy finding aid conversion project, Lindsay Oden and Emily Lapworth wrote the collection description in compliance with current professional standards. At an undetermined time, photographs were physically scanned and stored on optical disks. In 2019, Karla Irwin processed digital files on optical disks and updated the finding aid.