A day or two ago someone (Wes?) posted a picture of Las Vegas from 1959. He was asked for more pictures, but that was the only one he'd run across. I recognized the picture as being one from a CD that I bought on ebay (the seller has also posted them for sale on the chipboard a couple of times). I thought I'd post a few for your viewing pleasure.

As I was looking through the pictures, I realized that 1959 would have been a great time to visit Las Vegas...the first 13 casinos on the strip were all open that year. You lucky people who are going to the convention need to be sure to go to the educational seminar on the first 13 casinos on the strip...here's a teaser for you...

The first casino on the Strip was El Rancho Vegas; opened April 3, 1941 - destroyed by fire June 17, 1960.

The Fabulous Flamingo was the third strip hotel to open; December 26, 1946. While the Flamingo is still open, none of the original structures remain.

The fourth was the Thunderbird; opened September 2, 1948 - closed in 1974

Notice how everything is low rise...
Fifth was the Desert Inn; opened April 24, 1950 - closed in April of 2000, by Steve Wynn

The Sahara was the sixth; opened in October of 1952 - still open

The Sands was seventh; opened December 15, 1952 - closed in 1996 (I love the cars in this shot!)

Seventh was the Royal Nevada; opened April 19, 1955 - had a couple of rocky years, closing and reopening a couple of times. According to TGT, it closed in 1959.

The Riviera was the ninth to open; April 21, 1955. Still hanging in there, though it's not easy out there!

The Dunes rounded out the first ten, opening in May of 1955. The Royal Nevada, Riviera, Dunes and the Moulin Rouge (on the West Side) all opened within about 6 weeks of each other. It made for some rough beginnings. The Dunes closed in 1993.

The Stardust was the thirteenth resort hotel to open; July 2, 1958, the dream of gambler/entrepeneur (that's spelled wrong, isn't it?) Anthony Stralla, aka Tony Cornero, who died while shooting craps at the DI while the Stardust was still under construction - Closed November 1, 2006

You might have noticed that I skipped a few numbers...either our 1959 visitors missed a few places, or the pictures didn't turn out, or something. Just to be complete, here's scans of the missing places:

The second resort to open was the Last Frontier; October of 1942. Here's a picture from the same CD, but it's from 1977.

Hacienda was the eleventh, opening in May of 1956. Here's a couple of old postcards...

Tropicana was the twelfth; April of 1957. This picture was about two years ago...hope you enjoyed the virtual tour of the strip