The Sahara Hotel & Casino, which dates to the days of Frank Sinatra's "Rat Pack" and has featured the likes of Mae West and Marlene Dietrich in its showrooms, will close May 16.I took all of the pictures you see with the article. That shot of the NASCAR Cafe' was taken on July 5, 2008, when we ate dinner there while watching the Pepsi 400 live on the Cafe's TV screens. That was fun.
Hotel officials said ownership was considering its options on whether to re-brand the hotel or redevelop the aging property.
The hotel, at the far northern end of "The Strip," has struggled in recent years with changing ownership and a location surrounded by the empty Fountainebleau and Echelon, two hotel projects that stalled in the recent financial downturn.
For almost 60 years, the Sahara has been a name synonymous with the Strip, its place enshrined with the boulevard running east-west next to the property bearing its name.
Fans loved the Sahara because of its smaller size and the fact that despite many makeovers, it still had the general lines of the hotel that was a hot spot in the 1950s. But it was that lack of expansion that doomed the property.
"The continued operation of the aging Sahara was no longer economically viable," CEO Sam Nazarian of owner SBE Entertainment Group told the Associated Press.
The Sahara was one of the top casinos when it opened in 1952 and its showroom featured movie star Marlene Dietrich, who made the transition from Hollywood star to Sin City chanteuse. Mae West had a 1954 nightclub act featuring several bodybuilders, earning her a reported $25,000 per week.
The hotel was the setting of the original 1960 version of "Ocean's Eleven," the story of a gang that robs a casino. In the original version, the group were buddies from World War II and the line-up included Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Joey Bishop, Peter Lawford, Sammy Davis, Jr. and other members of Sinatra's "Rat Pack." The film was considered a hyper-casual excuse for a Rat Pack party-on-film until its rediscovery after a 21st century remake with George Clooney in the lead and the Bellagio taking the place of the Sahara.
In recent years the Sahara has dropped its urbane heritage and remade itself as a middle-market casino best known for an indoor-outdoor roller coaster and a NASCAR themed cafe.
The Sahara is one of the last of the classic early generation Strip casinos, a list that once included the Desert Inn, Aladdin, Hacienda and Sands. Names still around from the Strip's first heyday include the Flamingo, Riviera and Tropicana.
The Sahara always felt old and rundown when we stopped in there. It was well away from the rest of the nice Strip hotels, and one night last year my wife and I decided to walk from the Sahara all the way back to the Flamingo where we were staying. It was after dark and frankly that area of the Strip is a little scary at night. I wouldn't do that again.
Closing the Sahara will complicate things a bit for the Las Vegas Monorail system. The Sahara was the last stop on the north end and it's where the trains are transferred to the southbound track. I guess they'll still have to go up there, pause in the empty station, and then start the trip back south in order to get on the correct track.
Once the Sahara is gone I wonder how long until Circus Circus and The Riviera are shut down. They're also at the north end of The Strip and are getting pretty old and tired.
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