It has come a long way since December 26, 1946, when Mafia enforcer Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel opened his "real class joint," The Flamingo. At a cost of $6 million and billed then as the world's most luxurious hotel, people believed Bugsy was crazy for building a hotel "in the middle of nowhere," seven-miles out of downtown Las Vegas on then Highway 91, which was to eventually become the famed Las Vegas Strip. But -- tongue in cheek here because of the twist of words -- he silenced his critics, creating a one-of-a-kind never seen before resort in the southern Nevada desert.

Today, Harrah's/Flamingo President Don Marrandino rules over the pink kingdom where he's added singer Toni Braxton and comedian George Wallace to the Flamingo lineup He told me: "I think 60 years ago the magic of Vegas started here. They came here with a dream and built the first luxury place. It has been the best address for the past 60 years. Pretty interesting that they picked that spot and right now judging what it just cost us to get the Barbary Coast, it is pretty valuable real estate. We are trying to make it the luxury place it was 60 years ago, great room product now, on top of the technology that it is Las Vegas hotel rooms, bigger entertainment. We have four shows up and running. Toni Braxton has been very sexy, doing great numbers. We just recently extended her and we are looking forward to see what we are going to do with the place, better restaurant products and we are moving along pretty quickly. I think everybody who saw the movie got the 'Bugsy' vibe about how cool he was. And everybody likes that old school whatever those guys were called that ran the place for Bugsy. It is kind of sexy even though it is frowned upon today and I still think that when you look at the statue in the backyard, people flock to that thing, so Bugsy is still alive. It is a shame that he tore down that old part of the building with the escape tunnel. He had a tunnel and a carport. It would have been fun to see that before he ripped it out."

"The Flamingo was #1 in its day, but it's a hard thing to grab that title now," Marrandino continued. "There are hotels that do 400 million dollars and we are nowhere near that mark, but we are the oldest largest hotel in the world and it is great because of its great address and 3600 rooms. We are just trying to move it along as a young, hip, niche kind of place. We are working on the casino and we have a lot of great programs going. The name is 60-years old but our hotel towers are young; 35 years old as they were built in the 70's and the only thing left from the original is the concrete. Today, to do something like that it would probably be a 2 billion dollar project. We think we can do all the rooms for significantly less and bring them up to standards, so we are doing that. All the old structure from the beginning is all gone so we have a 35-year-old hotel and we bringing it back as a star all over again. If you look at our room design, we have incorporated architecture design that they had in the 40's. It is a little bit retro, but cool. So we are embracing the past and adding today's cutting edge technology to put it on top again.

When the Flamingo first opened, every employee from dealers to janitors wore

tuxedos. Sterling silver place settings were on every table and the Flamingo was the first showroom to have VIP sections for special guests. In the early days, the entertainment stage was graced by such living legends as entertainers Jimmy Durante, Tommy Wonder, Eddie Jackson, Xavier Cugat and his band with singer Rose Marie opening the resort. Bugsy Siegel named his resort after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, who loved to gamble and the dealers nicknamed her "The Flamingo" because of her red hair and long legs.

The original building featured just 105 guest rooms, a casino, 9 gift shops, a health club, gym and steam rooms. There was also a 40-horse stable, a swimming pool, tennis courts, badminton, squash/handball courts, a 9-hole golf course and a trapshooting range. Unfortunately for Siegel, he never was able to see his dream succeed. Terrified his mob colleagues were planning to kill him because of $5 million in building cost overruns, he built trap-door escape routes and tunnels into his personal suite at the Flamingo, which has since been torn down for resort expansions.


His fears of being killed were justified. He was shot and killed by a sniper while at his girlfriend's Beverly Hills home on June 20, 1947, just 6 months after the opening. After the death of Siegel, Gus Greenbaum took control of the hotel and many people came to see the "House that Bugsy Built." In 1955, Greenbaum's health problems forced him to turn control over to former El Rancho owner Tommy Hull. In 1960, Miami hotel men Morris Lansburgh and Sam Cohen purchased the hotel. In 1966, the Flamingo was involved in a battle between the Nevada State Legislature and the Clark County Gaming Commission regarding the licensing of foreign investors. In 1967, the Sheraton Corporation attempted to purchase the hotel, but failed to obtain a gaming license due to a law prohibiting foreign ownership. The next day, the hotel was sold to Kirk Kerkorian for $13 million, who then made the historic sale to Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1970. The resort was renamed the Flamingo Hilton.

The Hilton Corporation developed a master plan for the Flamingo in the early 1970s that included three towers with a total of 2,250 rooms. It has far surpassed that original vision and those plans. The Flamingo underwent its 1st tower expansion in 1976, making the room total 1,250 with a 28-story tower and the construction of the world-famous marquee on The Strip. In 1980, the Flamingo completed a second expansion project, a 500-room tower that brought the room count to 1,750. Another 500-room tower was added in 1983, bringing the total to 2,250 rooms, finally completing the original master plan. The demand for more rooms forced Hilton executives to build yet another tower with 800 rooms, bringing the 1986 room count for the Flamingo to 2,920.


In 1989, the Flamingo Las Vegas sold more than 1,000,000 room nights, a standard met by few in the hotel industry. In 1990, the Flamingo Hilton's 5th tower was completed, bringing the total to 3,530 rooms. And with that, it became the second largest hotel in the world. In 1993, the final phase of construction began, with the razing of 489 low-rise garden rooms in order to build a lavish new pool and garden area. 1994 brought a 6th tower with 612 rooms, along with a 201-suite timeshare building for vacation ownership.

The room count now is 3,545, not including the rooms of the Hilton Grand Vacations Club, the first timeshare in Las Vegas to adjoin a hotel or casino. In 1998, Hilton Hotels Corporation spun off its gaming division and formed Park Place Entertainment, which decided to rename the resort with its current moniker, the Flamingo Las Vegas. In 2004, Park Place Entertainment became Caesars Entertainment. In 2005, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. purchased the Flamingo and now as 2006 ended Apollo Management bought out Harrah's!

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