Steve Wynn had a vision of what Las Vegas was to become. He brought to life several new innovations when he willed the Mirage into existence. His architects designed a never before seen layout for the hotel building consisting of three gigantic wings all accessible from the same bank of elevators, shortening the maximum walking distance from the elevator to your room. The casino was practically void of neon. He brought natural light into the casino with a towering dome shaped glass atrium. He filled the hotel with live plants ranging from palms to orchids. He added live animals from the shark tank behind the front desk to the white tigers and dolphins on display. And he built the famous volcano in front of the casino to attract passersby.
The Mirage wasn't merely large or stylish or head-turning; it was all of these things. Steve Wynn had transformed a patch of desert ground into a tropical oasis and had made it impossible for anyone walking past the Mirage to avoid coming inside, even with no cheap buffet. He had more than one-upped the competition. He had blown them away in every conceivable way, except one – value. The Mirage was always too expensive for my brother and I to enjoy as guests. Still, it created an inescapable draw for us. Though we couldn't afford to take advantage of its amenities, it drew us back to Las Vegas again and again, if only to smell the scented air of its casino. It also paved the way for a building boom that few cities on earth have seen.
Circus Circus had always been a gaudy spectacle. A walk through its casino often left me feeling a strong need to wash my hands. As one visiting friend remarked, "It smells like kindergarten." When I pressed my friend to expand on her assessment of the place, she said, "Well, you know when little school children go outside at recess to play on a hot day? And the way they all smell when they come back inside? And how they insist on rubbing against you? It smells like that." I have never been able to describe the place any better than she did.
Nevertheless, it was a cash cow that had catered to gamblers of modest means for decades with its R.V park out back and all-you-can-eat buffet consisting mostly of fried foods and gelatin desserts. The company that owned Circus Circus also changed the desert landscape forever by building their "Mirage" – Excalibur.
At its opening, Excalibur was the largest hotel in the world with over 4,000 rooms. At two people per room, the hotel could have housed 2% of the entire population of the metropolitan Las Vegas area on any given night. The hotel was twice the size of the Mirage, yet it cost less than half as much to build. Its construction was paid for entirely in cash – no construction loan required. Knowing the reputation of the company that owned Circus Circus, our expectations were low. My brother and I knew that the place would fail miserably. How could they possibly fill all those hotel rooms? Surely the place would go bust quickly. We had to see this monstrosity for ourselves.
Our first inspection of the hotel's exterior was exactly what we had expected to see. It appeared to be built from cinder block and it was topped with what looked like turrets made of plastic. It looked more like it belonged on a miniature golf course for giants than on the Las Vegas Strip.
Once inside the cinder block walls, we quickly figured out what had happened to all the neon lighting that the Mirage designers had decided not to purchase. It was everywhere here, spinning and flashing and making us wince. Most of all, I remember my brother's look of astonishment and his comment as he gazed upon the acres of grotesque casino carpet being trod upon by hundreds of gamblers. "There's a butt for every seat!" Little did I know how prophetic those words were. A simple joke uttered inside the Excalibur turned out to be the city's mantra for years to come.
Shortly after that trip, my brother moved to Northern California where he met his wife. I stayed behind in Southern California where I met Paul. My brother and I never got to take another trip that I can remember – just the two of us. Things were changing quickly in my life. And Las Vegas was about to evolve into something else for me besides a getaway destination. It was about to become my home.
To be continued…
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2 comments:
I don't know what blogs are for, but this one sent me to a picture box where I was certain that I had a shot taken under one of those magnificent handcrafted floral chandliers in the Bellagio; and I will never forget being introduced to Andrea Bocelli and his recording of "Time to say Goodbye" accompanying the marvelous outdoor dancing water production. While the rest of the world knew him already, I did not.
And adding to Steve Wynn's credit, I was introduced to the downtown of Las Vegas while staying at his Golden Nugget. I began to realize that real people lived and worked there. Fancy that!
I don't know what blogs are for, but this one sent me to a picture box where I was certain that I had a shot taken under one of those magnificent handcrafted floral chandliers in the Bellagio; and I will never forget being introduced to Andrea Bocelli and his recording of "Time to say Goodbye" accompanying the marvelous outdoor dancing water production. While the rest of the world knew him already, I did not.
And adding to Steve Wynn's credit, I was introduced to the downtown of Las Vegas while staying at his Golden Nugget. I began to realize that real people lived and worked there. Fancy that!
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