Las Vegas has hosted the Helldorado Days festival (almost) every year since 1935, celebrating the city’s Wild West history. Woman on horseback in Helldorado Days Parade in front of Las Vegas Club Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries/Corbis via Getty Images Helldorado Days The Hotel Flamingo, owned by famous mobster Bugsy Siegel, was another early establishment known for its Miami beach vibes and glamorous atmosphere. The rest, as they say, is history.Įxterior view of Hotel Flamingo patio and pool.Īfter El Rancho Vegas, it didn’t take long for other hotels and casinos to pop up along the proto-Las Vegas Strip. These hotels then needed performers, like Liberace and the Rat Pack (Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Peter Lawford, and Joey Bishop), to entertain guests when they tired of the roulette tables and slot machines. Desperate to launder their money, powerful criminals opened luxurious resorts and casinos along a stretch of Route 91 (later the Las Vegas Strip) that attracted visitors from around the world. While the railroad was the first step in legitimizing Las Vegas, it was the arrival of the mob-and all of its money-in the 1940s that made the city the glamorous destination we know today. When the railroad arrived in 1905, the small settlement quickly went from a dusty outpost to the gambling capital of the world. Unlike New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles (which were all booming metropolises well before the Civil War), Las Vegas wasn’t officially founded until the 20th century. As far as major American cities go, Las Vegas is by far the newest.

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