Las Vegas the Grand: The Strip, the Casinos, the Mob, the Stars

Las Vegas really is unique in so many ways. One of them is that its history, which is short but intense, can be told through the birth and demise of the resorts that dot the Strip, the rise and fall of its casino industry titans. This brief history of the Las Vegas Strip presents every casino hotel built along Las Vegas Boulevard South, the most celebrated and most visited stretch of asphalt on Earth, starting in 1941 with the El Rancho Vegas. The names of the key players in the triumph of this oasis of fun in the middle of nowhere, the dreamers who made a town that's the stuff of dreams, are Jay Sarno, Howard Hughes, Kirk Kerkorian, Bill Bennett, Steve Wynn, Sheldon Adelson. They are the main characters of this story. Revised and updated in February 2021.