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Sands Hotel
History
The hotel first began as just a casino with a few hundred rooms. The hotel was designed by architect Wayne McAllister. It was founded by Jakie Freedman of Houston, Texas, grandfather of Houston socialite Carolyn Farb. In the late 1950s, Senator John F. Kennedy was occasionally a guest of Frank Sinatra at the Sands.
Its most famous claim to fame was a three-week period in 1960 when, during the filming of Ocean's Eleven, they organized an event in the Copa Room called the "Summit at the Sands", where for the first time Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford performed on stage together. They would forever be known after that as the Rat Pack. Sinatra would also own a stake in the Sands for a time.
In the 1950s, (limited) integration came to heavily segregated Las Vegas when the Sands allowed Nat King Cole to stay at the hotel and gamble in the casino. In the 60s, Sammy Davis, Jr. convinced the Sands to hire more African-Americans, and to allow them into the casino.
When Howard Hughes purchased the hotel in the mid-1960s, a 500-room tower was added and the hotel became a Vegas landmark. Kirk Kerkorian (MGM) bought the hotel in 1988, and seven months later in 1989 it was purchased by the owners of The Interface Group - Sheldon Adelson, Richard Katzeff, Ted Cutler, Irwin Chafetz, and Jordan Shapiro. The circular tower was added in 1967 by architect Martin Stern, Jr.
In its final years, the Sands became a shadow of its former self throwback to the old days, and it ultimately could not compete with the newer and more exciting megaresorts that were being built on the Strip. The decision was eventually made by its final owner, Sheldon Adelson, to shut it down and to build a brand new resort. On November 26, 1996, it was imploded and demolished much to the dismay of longtime employees and sentimentalists. The Las Vegas scenes of Con Air were filmed at the Sands prior to its demolition.
With the Sands gone, its casino chips are now valuable collector's items due to the casino's legendary musical history, with the average $1.00 chip fetching around $30.00. Some rarer chips reach hundreds of dollars, and sometimes over $1,000.00.
Film history
The 1960 version of Ocean's Eleven was filmed here. Footage of the demolition also appeared in the closing credits of The Cooler. The climactic plane crash in 1997's Con Air wound up with the aircraft crashing into the soon-to-be-demolished Sands' lobby.
Musical legacy
Dean Martin ("Live At The Sands - An Evening of Music, Laughter and Hard Liquor") Frank Sinatra (Sinatra at the Sands), Sammy Davis, Jr. (The Sounds of '66, That's All!), Tommy Sands, Nat King Cole and Count Basie (a posthumous set, also recorded during the Sinatra at the Sands stand) were among those who recorded live albums at the Sands. The albums feature credits to many of the legendary musicians who performed on the albums and at the Copa and to band leader, producer, and musical conductor Antonio Morelli who appeared on hundreds of such albums by these artists throughout the 1950s and 60s.
Morrissey's b-side track, "At Amber" (1990) takes place at the Sands Hotel, and recounts its by-then aging and somewhat seedy atmosphere.
Legends of the Copa Room
The greatest names in the entertainment industry graced the Copa Room Stage (the showroom at the Sands, named after the famed Copacabana Club in New York City) including Judy Garland, Lena Horne, (she was billed at the Sands as "The Satin Doll") Jimmy Durante, Pat Cooper, Shirley MacLaine, Marlene Dietrich, Tallulah Bankhead, Bobby Darin, Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, along with "The Copa Girls". These were only a few of the legendary entertainers to not only perform at the Sands, but in all the showrooms along the Strip, from the late 1940s until the early 1990s. The public could sit ringside in a showroom holding no more than five hundred, paying as little as three dollars in the 1950s up to $25.50 in the early 90s for the likes of . Much of the musical success of the Copa Room is credited to the room's band leader and musical conductor Antonio Morelli. Morelli not only acted as the band leader and musical conductor for the Copa Room during the Hotel's Rat Pack heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, he also played that role on hundreds of recorded albums by those same entertainers who graced the stage of the Copa including Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Dean Martin, and many others. Often times the festivities would carry over after hours to Morrelli's home in Las Vegas, nicknamed "The Morelli House", which was eventually relocated and sanctioned an historical landmark by the State of Nevada.
References
^ "Contact Us". http://www.venetian.com/CONTACT.aspx. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
^ "Property History". http://www.venetian.com/HISTORY.aspx. Retrieved 2008-01-19.
^ [Goya, Lynn In a League of Their Own, Nevada Magazine. March 2009]
External links
Photo gallery of the last day of operation at the Sands Hotel - June 30th, 1996
The Sands Hotel on a post card in the fifties.
1967 Tower architect Martin Stern, Jr.
Video of Tower Implosion
Sands Hotel Macao
Coordinates: 360717 1151008 / 36.12139N 115.16889W / 36.12139; -115.16889
Categories: 1952 architecture | 1967 architecture | 1952 establishments | 1996 disestablishments | Defunct casinos in Las Vegas | Defunct hotels in Las Vegas | Skyscraper hotels in the Las Vegas metropolitan area | Demolished hotels in Clark County, Nevada | Las Vegas Strip | Buildings and structures in Paradise, Nevada | Resorts in the United States
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