LAS VEGAS – TRUE OR FALSE
TRUE OR FALSE: Prostitution is legal in Las Vegas.
FALSE. Although advertisements along the Strip make good on their promise to deliver hot naked girls to your hotel room 24/7, prostitution (wink wink) is illegal in Las Vegas. Legal brothels, however, flourish less than an hour limo ride away in Nye County.
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TRUE OR FALSE: The Flamingo was the first hotel built on the Las Vegas Strip.
FALSE. Thomas Hull opened his El Rancho Vegas on the corner of Highway 91 (now Las Vegas Blvd.) and San Francisco (now Sahara Avenue) in 1941, with rooms starting at $4 a night. The hotel burned to the ground in 1960, and the site remains vacant to this day.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Las Vegas is not in Las Vegas.
TRUE. The entire Las Vegas Strip is located outside the city of Las Vegas, in unincorporated Clark County.
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TRUE OR FALSE: The Beatles played at the Sahara Hotel in 1964.
FALSE. Though the Beatles stayed at the Sahara, the sponsoring hotel, their two show gig took place down the street at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Princess Fatima was the Caesars Palace staff prostitute in the 1970s.
TRUE. It was a code name for available prostitutes. When a Caesars pit boss required sex for a high roller, he picked up a house phone and quickly an operator’s voice could be heard throughout the casino, “Paging Princess Fatima. Princess Fatima, please”.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Dean Martin was the owner of the Sands when the Rat Pack ruled the Copa Room.
TRUE. Sort of. The hotel had almost two dozen owners of record in the early 1960s, with Dino owning one percent.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Walt Disney was the creative genius behind Circus Circus.
FALSE. Jay Sarno was the first person to realize that fantasy attracted tourists even more than gambling and, backed by mob money, the ultimate showman opened Caesars Palace in 1966. He sold out and built the then casino-only Circus Circus two years later.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Gangster Bugsy Siegel built the Flamingo Hotel & Casino.
FALSE. The Flamingo was the vision of Hollywood Reporter and Los Angeles nightclub owner Billy Wilkerson, a compulsive gambler who ran out of money with construction of his hotel half finished. Out of necessity he partnered with mobster Bugsy Siegel, only to later be strong-armed away from the project. Although Siegel did all he could to make himself the sole public face of the Flamingo, Wilkerson’s name was on the matchbooks when the casino opened on Christmas Eve 1946.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Elvis Presley’s first Las Vegas performance was at the Riviera in 1958.
FALSE. Though Elvis bombed in his debut at the New Frontier in 1956, his comeback at the International in 1969 is legendary. The International was sold and renamed the Las Vegas Hilton soon after.
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TRUE OR FALSE: Frank Sinatra was the first headliner at Caesars Palace.
FALSE. The Lennon Sisters supported headliner Andy Williams when the iconic casino first opened its doors in 1966.