On November 3rd 2016, singer and dancer Kay Starr passed away. An occasional performer at the Las Vegas Strip casinos, Kay also sang at Harry S. Truman’s presidential inauguration in 1945. She went on to achieve gold with her signature song ‘Wheel of Fortune’. Kay could tackle almost every genre of song, from pop to rock […]
On 18th October 1968 Circus Circus Las Vegas Hotel & Casino opened its doors. Although no longer part of the frontage, Circus Circus opened with an acre of water fountains in the front of the ‘Big Top’, which is still the largest permanent big top in the world at 90ft tall. Costing $15 million, it […]
On 10th October 1944, the Huntridge Theater opened near Circle Park on the east side of Las Vegas. Construction started in April that year for the building that was designed by acclaimed architect S. Charles Lee, who also designed the Academy Theatre and the Bruin Theatre in California (pictured below). It had the art deco […]
On September 17, 1930, hundreds of people gathered at Boulder Junction, Las Vegas (near the cross streets of Valley View and Russell today) to mark the start of construction of the 22 mile Union Pacific railroad track to link Las Vegas to Boulder City, as well as the beginning of the Boulder Dam project. The […]
On September 10th 1957, the first classes were held on the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) campus in a new 13,000-square-foot building; serving a growing post-war population in need of higher education services. The university started as an extension program from the University of Nevada Reno (UNR) back in 1951. It gained independence from […]
#OnThisDay in 1966 Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino opened with a lavish launch party that reportedly cost $1,000,000! At the time Caesars Palace was the largest hotel ever built as a single unified project in Nevada. It had 700 rooms across 14 crescent-shaped floors, although some were still being built when it first opened its […]
This Spring through a combination of the UNLV Regent’s Service Program, and the generous donation following the 2020 Fall silent auction by the Friends of NSMLV, the museum acquired a special record player and we embarked upon a new project – digitizing record albums! Our history collection contains many vinyl records (6”, singles, 12”, LPs, […]
On June 2nd 1966 the Four Queens Hotel & Casino opened on Fremont Street, downtown Las Vegas. The casino was named after the four daughters of the founder and president Ben Goffstein. In turn, they were named after a queen from a pack of cards: Michele (the eldest) was the Queen of Spades, Benita the […]
On 24 May 1955 the Moulin Rouge Hotel and Casino opened. It was located at at 900, Bonanza Road on the west side of Las Vegas; becoming what the promoters called “the nation’s first major interracial hotel”. Opening to standing-room only mixed crowds, the night stage show included the stage show an all African American […]
On 23 May 1955 the Dunes Hotel and Casino opened – the 10th resort on the Strip, and Las Vegas was booming! Two other casinos had opened in the previous month, the Riviera and Royal Nevada, and the off-Strip Moulin Rouge was planned for the following day. The Dunes was themed on the stories of […]
