Golden Age of Las Vegas
Fall 2024
The city comes into its own in an era of gaming and celebrity headliners.
BY MEGG MUELLER
“The town has been converted to an opulent playground
to satisfy the entertainment whims of any visitor.”
—Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas on the
1946 opening night of the Flamingo Hotel.
The Golden Age of Las Vegas—roughly 1930-1960—was a time when the city sluffed off its Wild West origins and burgeoned into the glitz and glam era it’s still known for today. The transformation began amid the Great Depression, when the construction of the Hoover Dam brought a surge of workers. The population of Vegas was around 5,000 in 1931, but after the dam was announced, it grew to about 25,000 with people coming in droves for the promise of work.
Coincidentally, Nevada passed two laws in 1931 that would forever change the way the state would attract visitors: legalized gambling and six-week divorces.
In 1932—the first full year of dam construction—more than 200,000 people visited Las Vegas. Two years later, that number was a quarter of a million people. It was a sign of things to come.
Cashing In
Along with the influx of visitors were entrepreneurs who recognized the economic opportunities that came with tourists and new, mostly male residents. The men who came for work were in need of respite and entertainment after their grueling jobs. Most lived in the company town of Boulder City—built for the laborers and their families—which had strict no gambling and no drinking laws. Some 30 miles away, however, Las Vegas loomed in the desert as a haven for fun.
In the early days, makeshift casinos and speakeasies sprouted like wildflowers. However, the rise of the hotel casino was on its way. The city’s original downtown, Fremont Street, was home to the Northern Club, which had received the county’s first gambling license. Other small casinos popped up along the newly paved road—the city’s first. In 1941, the El Cortez Hotel was built along Fremont. It was the first major resort in the city, armed with both gambling and liquor licenses.
Mobs to the Flame
Downtown’s Golden Nugget followed in 1946, along with the Flamingo, which was situated on what is now the Las Vegas Strip. All three would become synonymous with the opulence and extravagance of vintage Vegas. Behind the scenes, shadowy mobsters had their fingers intertwined with the city’s fortunes.
Among them was Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel, a charismatic yet ruthless figure whose vision transformed the desert into a playground for the rich and famous. It was Siegel who dreamt of a resort that would rival the grandeur of any in the world. And so, in 1946, the Flamingo Hotel and Casino debuted, its pink façade a beacon of luxury in the desert night.
Perhaps lesser known today, Guy McAfee’s Golden Nugget opened months before Siegel’s property and was, at the time, the world’s largest casino. The police officer-turned-mobster spent a reported $1 million on the property.
The rush to take part in the city’s growth continued into the 1950s, with the Desert Inn, Binion’s Horseshoe, Sahara, and Sands—among many others—sprouting up in the vast landscape.
It’s Showtime
Entertainment was always the name of the game, as was the goal of luring people to stay in town longer and spend more. Famous headliners were needed to draw crowds, and casino showroom owners vied for top talent. The king of the residency, as long-term performance schedules are now called, was none other than Liberace. He played his first show at the Hotel Last Frontier in 1944 when he was 25 and continued to play Las Vegas showrooms until his death in 1987. Bandleader Xavier Cugat and singer Nat King Cole were two other big names who played in the 1940s.
In the ‘50s, the showrooms became as much of a draw as the table games and slot machines. Marlene Dietrich, not-yet-president Ronald Reagan, Paul Anka, and Ginger Rogers were among the celebrity performers. The undisputed king of Las Vegas during the 1950s and 1960s, however, was Frank Sinatra and the Rat Pack.
Sinatra’s first gig was in 1951 at the Desert Inn, and by 1953, he was doing two shows a night at the Sands. His shows at the latter casino often included his Hollywood cronies Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., and Peter Lawford. The performances were immensely popular and cemented Sinatra as a showbusiness legend. He played his last Las Vegas showroom in 1994.
Despite the legendary names that came before him, the title of Mr. Las Vegas belongs to Wayne Newton. His first show was at the tender age of 16 in 1959, and when his hit “Danke Schoen” came out in 1961, he was doing three shows a night. On his 60th anniversary of playing shows, it was estimated he’d performed 30,000 times on The Strip.
The coming years saw The Beatles and Elvis take the stage, and the 1980s brought about the mega-resorts like the Wynn, Excalibur, and Bellagio. Vintage Vegas faded against the era of gaudy excess and “bigger means better,” the city’s skyline punctuated by ever more extravagant resorts and casinos. The mobsters are gone, and massive stadiums have overtaken intimate showrooms, but entertainment is still the name of the game.
