Iconic Las Vegas Casino, Caesars Palace, Turns 50

An oral history of Vegas’ iconic hotel as it turns 50, told by its players who’ve seen it all – Evel Knievel’s crash, Sinatra’s gambling, Ali’s big defeat and the Hangover cast swimming in the fountain: ‘I’ll do what I think is fun, and everyone else will, too’

- Melinda Sheckells

ORIGINALLY IT WAS going to be called the Cabana Palace. Then it was the Desert Palace. But when the front doors opened Aug. 5, 1966, there was no mistaking who this gigantic columned temple belonged to: The greeters dressed as gladiators and waitresses in Cleopatra outfits made it clear this was Caesars Palace.

The idea to erect an ancient Rome-themed hotel and casino in the middle of the Nevada desert was the brainchild of Jay Jackson Sarno, an Atlanta motel mogul who – with partners Nate Jacobson and Stanley Mallin and buttressed by a $10.6 million loan from the Teamsters – built what would become the most historic Las Vegas property of them all. During the past 50 years, Caesars has been at the red-hot center of the town’s biggest sports and entertainment events. It’s where Evel Knievel crashed – and nearly died – while attempting history’s most famous motorcycle jump, where Muhammad Ali got clobbered by Larry Holmes in one of boxing’s most-watched bouts and where Frank Sinatra and countless others played the Circus Maximus showroom (until it was torn down and replaced by The Colosseum, where Celine Dion performed as Vegas’ first “resident artist”).

In other words, if it has happened in Vegas, chances are it has happened in one of Caesars’ nearly 4,000 rooms, as THR presents an oral history of a place where centurion guards still hold open the front door for guests and scantily clad Egyptian queens still deliver cocktails. “It has such an old-school, classic feel to it,” says Todd Phillips, director of The Hangover, the 2009 blockbuster comedy that introduced a whole new generation of millennials to the hotel. “It was always my favorite casino, even before we filmed there. Now it’s like a second home to me, as awful as that sounds.”