Abstract
The Riviera Hotel & Casino Publicity Collection and Architectural Records (1950s-2015) are comprised of entertainment, publicity and marketing files, and architectural drawings from the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The records include publicity photographs and videotapes, press kits, and information about various entertainers who appeared at the Riviera,publicity, promotional material, and newspaper clippings about events, and publicity photographs of restaurant and club venues within the hotel. Also included is information about the Riviera's longest running shows,
Finding Aid PDF
Date
Extent
Related People/Corporations
Scope and Contents Note
The Riviera Hotel & Casino Publicity Collection and Architectural Records (1950s-2015) are comprised of entertainment, publicity, and marketing materials from the Riviera Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada from the 1950s to 2015, with the bulk of the material dated between 1980 and 1999. The records focus on entertainers who performed at the Riviera, as well as the Riviera's theatrical productions,
The material about performers and comedians consists of photographs both posed and candid, fliers, publicity, newspaper clippings, and marketing materials collected by the Riviera. The publicity and promotions material consists of newspaper clippings and press releases created by the Riviera. The records offer historical documentation into one of the Strip's longest operating casinos and provide information about the type of entertainment offered to visitors at Las Vegas casinos in the latter decades of the twentieth century.
Access Note
Collection is open for research, with the exception of materials that are restricted to protect personally identifiable information. Restrictions are noted at the file level of this inventory and will be open for research use January 1, 2074. Collection is open for research. If use copies of the recordings do not exist, reformatting/production of use copies is required before access will be granted; this may delay research requests. Advanced notice is required.
Publication Rights
Materials in this collection may be protected by copyrights and other rights. See Reproductions and Use on the UNLV Special Collections and Archives website for more information about reproductions and permissions to publish.
Arrangement
These records are organized into three series:
Series I. Performers and hotel employees, 1950s-2003;
Series II. Publicity, advertising, press releases, promotions, and events, 1955-2015;
Series III. Architectural drawings, 1959-2015.
Biographical / Historical Note
The Riviera Hotel & Casino originally opened as the Casa Blanca Hotel in 1952. The Casa Blanca was owned by William Bischoff, who built the resort for $3.5 million dollars. Granted a gaming license in 1952, Bischoff withdrew his application the following year and turned over operations to Miami investor Samuel Cohen. By early 1955, Cohen had also withdrawn from the project, leaving other investors, including Harpo and Gummo Marx, to open the hotel as the Riviera in April of 1955. Within three months of opening, the hotel was bankrupt, and control went to managers of the Flamingo, including Gus Greenbaum. Greenbaum ran the Riviera for three years, until he and his wife were murdered in their Scottsdale, Arizona home.
After the Greenbaums' deaths, the vice-president of the Riviera, Ben Goffstein, took over as president. The Riviera was sold multiple times and filed for bankruptcy in 1983, 1991, and 2010. In 2015, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) purchased the Riviera with plans to use the property as an extension of the Las Vegas Convention Center. The hotel and casino officially closed May 3, 2015 after sixty years of operation, and was imploded in August of 2016.
Source:
"The Riviera Hotel, Las Vegas." Accessed December 14, 2018. https://www.rivierahotel.com/
Preferred Citation
Riviera Hotel & Casino Publicity Collection and Architectural Records, 1950s-2015. MS-00647. Special Collections and Archives, University Libraries, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Las Vegas, Nevada.
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Acquisition Note
Materials were donated in 2015 by the Las Vegas Convention Center and Visitors Authority; accession number 2015-094.
Processing Note
A rough inventory of the accession was created by Lindsey Oden, Hannah Robinson, Tyler Stanger, and Maggie Bukowski in 2016 and 2017. To prepare the inventory, the described materials were reviewed to create a content list, estimate dates, and identify material types. In 2017, the architectural drawings were arranged and described by Tyler Stanger. In 2019, as part of an archival backlog elimination project, Melise Leech rehoused and arranged the material, revised the inventory, and completed the finding aid in ArchivesSpace.