Siegel was there to see the dismal opening, Lennon writes. “Of the guests who turned up, most couldn’t get a room since the hotel wasn’t actually finished, so they went elsewhere to gamble,” writes Troy Lennon for The Daily Telegraph. Unfortunately, it rained, grounding many A-list guests and putting a damper on the proceedings.

It was supposed to be the show of the year, and attract money to complete the unprecedented hotel and casino development. So he planned a grand opening, complete with appearances from A-list Hollywood actors and a show by singer and comedian Jimmy Durante with the backing of a Big Band outfit led by Xavier Cugat. But Wilkerson's idea took some time to come to fruition: t he hotel had already cost $4 million in 1946, and it still wasn’t finished on opening night, writes the encyclopedia. Both Viva Las Vegas and the 1960 version of Ocean’s 11 have scenes shot in the hotel.īefore the Flamingo, casinos in Las Vegas were small, Wild West-themed joints, with nothing like the glitz and style that the Strip would come to be associated with. It was also a setting for some of the films that helped to shape the public perception of the Las Vegas strip. The Flamingo set the vision for the big casino-hotels that shaped the Strip’s big years. 'Guests would not be able to go anywhere without passing through the games,' writes Bob Pajich for Card Player.

Siegel preferred to attract wealthy clients who dressed with 'class' in formal attire while in the casino.'Īt the center of it all was a casino that had no clocks and no windows. The desert town 'had never seen such opulence before,' writes Online Nevada Encyclopedia: 'The Flamingo featured a trapshooting range, nine-hole golf course, tennis, squash, badminton and handball courts, as well as extensive landscaping with imported Oriental date palm and Spanish cork trees. With mobster Bugsy Siegel as a silent backer, he built a casino and hotel that would suck gamblers in and retain them, setting the stage for Las Vegas's midcentury casino boom. Wilkerson's idea was an unprecedented development that helped to shape Las Vegas and the model that modern casinos operate under. So he picked the Flamingo, naming his improbable postwar venture after a gaudy bird that doesn't spend time in the Nevada desert.

Billy Wilkerson, founder of the Hollywood Reporter and gambling addict, knew his audience.

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