Is there anyone on this site that stayed at some of the old places in Las Vegas?

Question

I really love the History of Las Vegas, is there anyone on this site that stayed at the old casinos like The Dunes, The Sands, Landmark, The Mint. How was the experience there? How long ago was it? Did you get to see some of the old performers like Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, etc. Was vegas really alot different back then.

Answer 1

Well I am over 50 now and so I remember the old Vegas. It was a grand place. My favorite place to stay was the old Hacienda Casino & Hotel. It was all Western and at the North end of the strip.
I also stayed at the Dunes, Sands and Sahara. All were great back then and less crowds, low cost food, and the best of the best in entertainement.
I saw Dean Martin (he was drunk who used to do his show while drunk) and Frank Sinatra. My husband even had dealings with his son JR and he was a real nasty arrogant person. Ordered people around and stuff. My husband worked at a Hotel.
I missed Elvis. My husband promises to take me to see him and then he died.
I was devistated.
I also saw Don Rickles and his comedy show was real raunchy. I hated that one.
We saw many of the Top names in entertainment back in the 70's. We only lived 4 hours from Vegas so we went every weekend. I really miss it the way it was, it was GRAND.

Answer 2

golden nugget and Plaza before moving onto the strip last time.

vegas is not even comparable now to that it was 5 years ago.
it keeps growing so fast.
So you can imagine the time periods from 1960-70's to now.
Some of the new hotels have over 6,000 rooms to stay in 1 biulding, and your whole trip can be spent at just one big place if your willing to pay bigger bucks to stay per night.
i like to stay on strip at older places where there are still hundreds to maybe 1,200 rooms and then walk all day long up and down the strip, but the walk is getting long.
one day i did half the strip walked over 10 miles to and from. in 104 degree heat, that was a cooler day. drink the great water, as you dry up inside your skin.


have fun

Answer 3

this is a great question. have you seen the videos on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNfPz1ai8IM it is in ten parts but i like this one especially as it shows nothing but gas stations, small stores and tiny motels between caesars and the frontier just 30 years ago .

Vegas is actually a good bit different since the first time i visited in 1998, then they were trying to attract more families and children, while today they have gone back to the adult theming again.

if i had a time machine the first place i would visit would be las vegas in the 1960s/early 70s.

Answer 4

hi paul, i was lucky, i stayed and performed in the very late 60s in lv... we had a group and it was a blast.. we did 3 shows a night..met many very cool people from buddy hackett to sammy D, saw the rat pack, elvis,, shecky greene, don rickles, loius prima, on and on and on, also we met some other people ,, lets say these men had friends allover!!!!our group was called the spiral starecase, we ended up recording for columbia and had a hell of alot of fun, when i go to lv now,,, boring, blaise, goodluck