Dunes (hotel and casino)
| Dunes Hotel and Casino | |
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The Dunes Hotel and Oasis Casino in 1983, seen from Flamingo Road
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| Location | Paradise, Nevada |
| Address | 3600 Las Vegas Boulevard South |
| Opening date | May 23, 1955 |
| Closing date | January 26, 1993 |
| Theme | Desert |
| No. of rooms | 1,300 |
| Signature attractions | Dunes Golf Course |
| Casino type | Land-based |
| Owner | Masao Nangaku (1987–1992) Mirage Resorts (1992–1993) |
| Architect | Maxwell Starkman |
| Renovated in | 1961 (tower) 1964 1971 1979 (tower) |
| Coordinates | 36°06′47″N 115°10′35″W / 36.11306°N 115.17639°WCoordinates: 36°06′47″N 115°10′35″W / 36.11306°N 115.17639°W |
The Dunes Hotel was a hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, that operated from May 23, 1955 to January 26, 1993. Designed by architect Maxwell Starkman, it was the tenth resort to open on the Strip. Bellagio now stands on the former grounds. The Dunes golf course is now occupied by parts of Monte Carlo, New York-New York, CityCenter, and Cosmopolitan, and T-Mobile Arena.
The Dunes opened on May 23, 1955, as a low-rise resort with Hollywood star Vera-Ellen providing the entertainment in the Magic Carpet Review.
On January 10, 1957, in a desperate move to keep the resort afloat, the Dunes became the first hotel/casino in Nevada to offer a topless show, called Minsky's Follies - the first of which was "Minsky Goes to Paris." The State Legislature was "in an uproar", but the show set a record for attendance in a single week at 16,000.
In 1961, a 24 story northern tower, called Diamond of the Dunes, was built, bringing the number of rooms up to 450. At the time, it was one of the finest and largest hotels on the Strip. The hotel was built in part with financing from movie mogul Al Gottesman and the Teamsters Pension Fund. The major investors were Joseph Sullivan, Alfred Gottesman and Bob Rice. (It was later believed that Raymond Patriarca, the head of a Providence, Rhode Island crime family was the source of Sullivan's investment.) It was designed by architect Maxwell Starkman. The resort soon ran into financial difficulties and the casino closed after a year. The resort was purchased in 1956 by two businessmen, Major A. Riddle and Jake Gottlieb, who had dealings with the Chicago Outfit. The resort boasted an 18-hole golf course, a rooftop health spa and a 90 ft (27 m) long pool. The Hotel's Slogan was "The Miracle in the Desert".
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Wikipedia