Fifteen to twenty years ago a buddy and I played doubles tennis with the owner of this casino at the Flamingo.
So, I was doing some major apartment cleaning and found some pics from my first visit to Vegas in 1998 (I think). It was May of 98 because the Bellagio was not open yet and the City Center area still looked a lot like the area between MGM and Paris on the other side of the street. In fact, the first place I ever ate in Vegas was at the buffet at the old Boardwalk hotel/casino. What a dump that place was. Anyway, these are not great pics but the thing I totally forgot about was that 20 years ago, there was still a parking lot in front of Caesars right off LVB. And, yes, Earth Wind and Fire was playing at Caesars and Brend Lee (!!!) was playing at the Flamingo, I think.
The family at The International, now Westgate, in 1969 waiting to see Elvis. I’m in back on the left, yep that’s all 12 years of me back then.
I had no idea where to put this, but didn't want to start a new thread for it, so this works. We've talked a few times about the early days of the Luxor when they had the Nile River ride, the tomb tour and the talking camels. classiclasvegas posted a photo of the Nile River ride... But the real find was from GeneNash who found a SoundCloud recording of Jody and Elias, the camels that used to be in the atrium, then moved over to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur before being removed from the property. This brought back some memories. https://soundcloud.com/hookmusic-1/luxor-camels-spot3
March 31st, 1996 - First trip to Las Vegas with my dad when I was only about 13. Heading back tomorrow with my dad for our 4th trip!
I know it was gone by my first visit in 2003. They removed it because a lot of asian gamblers thought it was bad luck to walk through the mouth of a lion
I would guess it was removed somewhere in 98-99. I never thought of it as walking into the lion's mouth as much as under his chin.
I *think* it was there when I was there in May 1998 but I am not 100% sure. I barely recall things that happened a year ago and I was sober - which I wasn't for much of the trip in 1998. And yeah, his mouth is clearly closed.
Not saying it makes any sense. I just read that from a few different sources over the years. FWIW, you can see the Griswalds walk right through that entrance near the end of Vegas Vacation
I found this cool pic on Reddit. Described as follows "Las Vegas Blvd, 1970. Morning hours, looking south towards Sahara. To the right, Dee's Hamburgers at Boston Ave, today's Stratosphere ." ETA: The Holiday Motel on the left is actually still there and taking reservations. This would be considered a "shady" area, then and now.
Seems like everything is bad luck to Asian gamblers...and every casino/hotel operator placates them. We need to start spreading the rumor that resort fees and paid parking are considered bad luck to Asian gamblers.