Aerial view of the Flamingo Hotel, featuring the "Champagne Tower," on Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas, Nevada. The marquee advertises Juliet Prowse, Allan Drake, Bobby Winters, Billy Eckstine and Harry James. The marquee for the Sands Hotel, featuring Sammy Davis, Jr., and other hotels can be seen further north on Las Vegas Boulevard. (Damage to lower right corner of photograph noted.)
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.
A lightning storm lights up the summer sky and the the water flowing in the Flamingo Wash as seen from Lamb Boulevard, just south of East Sahara Avenue.
A lightning storm lights up the summer sky and the the water flowing in the Flamingo Wash as seen from Lamb Boulevard, just south of East Sahara Avenue.
A lightning storm lights up the summer sky and the the water flowing in the Flamingo Wash as seen from Lamb Boulevard, just south of East Sahara Avenue.
A lightning storm lights up the summer sky and the the water flowing in the Flamingo Wash as seen from Lamb Boulevard, just south of East Sahara Avenue.