On the evening of April 18, 1955, the Royal Nevada hosted a pre-opening party for soldiers from the Nevada atomic testing grounds with a special dinner. On April 19, 1955, the Royal Nevada formally opened for business, with 250 rooms. The soldiers were in evidence again, this time assisting in one of the opening ceremonies...a showgirl dropped the key to the Hotel’s door down the barrel of a cannon, and the soldiers set the cannon off, shooting the key into the desert sky.

We have a menu from the pre-opening dinner mentioned above. Here's what was served to the soldiers

Several resorts opened around the same time the Royal Nevada did, and not all of them thrived. The Royal Nevada made it about four years before they closed down. In 1959, the crown came down from the building and the Stardust took over the property. The casino and most of the showroom became the Stardust’s convention center. The motel wing became the pool wing for the Stardust. The wing was usually used for high rollers and showgirls. The pool was more secluded than the Stardust’s Big Dipper pool, so it was the pool of choice for the showgirls who liked to swim in the nude to avoid tan lines. On June 1, 2006, the Royal Nevada wing of the Stardust closed for good, and now it’s gone.

The Royal Nevada was the property on the left of the Stardust postcard that's below.