I spent a couple of days in Las Vegas last week, it happened to coincide with SBE Entertainment and Stockbridge Real Estate’s decision to close the once Las Vegas landmark. According to SBE Entertainment CEO Sam Nazarian after buying the 1,720 hotel-casino(18 Acres) in 2007 and the real estate market collapse they quickly found out that the Sahara was “no longer economically viable” to operate.
Saraha Hotel Casino Las Vegas (entrance)
As other developments were moving south on the Strip, the Sahara was left behind. The halting of construction projects on the north end completely sealed the Sahara’s fate.
Opening in 1952, many of the Strip’s legendary performers in the 1960s and 1970s which included Johnny Carson, Don Rickles, Tina Turner and Dean Martin all performed there. The resort was the site of the annual Jerry Lewis Labor Day Telethon for many years and was the back drop to
Ocean’s 11 the 1960s version. Even my mentor, who passed away in 2008 used to talk about his drinking and gamblinge trips at the Sahara.
So during a Vegas trip where I had plenty of extra and alone time to hang out, I asked Francis A. and his girlfriend Jenny to take me to this space. Curiously, when I told him that it was closing down he thought that this would be an opportunity to break the bank one more time.
Go figure.
Sahara Poker Room, the night before it was scheduled to close.
When we got there, we waited for a valet that never showed up, and for an elevator that was no longer working. Foreshadowing to what we would see in the actual casino. All of the restaurants were closed even the famed ‘House of Lords’ which Mr. Z used to talk about had shut down. Mr. Z told me that he had won a case involving a defective electric blanket and he convinced Mrs. Z to take their convertible to Vegas to celebrate.
Guess where he went? The Sahara. I would imagine when they got there it looked like this. This was the picture that one would see when they would sit in the sports book area. A window into an era of what was. I wish I could have seen it in its hey day.
1960s woman getting out of her car at the Sahara.
It was a somber event, a place that was once decorated with celebrities and mobsters was now just a tower of black and white pictures, empty $1 blackjack rooms, and silent slot machines.
According to Nazarian, they plan on coming back — in a final statement to a generation of patrons he hand wrote a letter on hotel stationery and posted it on the door saying,” “Be back soon! Thank you for 59 years.”
My guess for their new development being that they also own two parcels next to the Sahara, would be some type of TimeShare/Resort living experience. It seems that many of the new developments have gone in that direction. Only time will tell - Farewell Sahara, and thanks for filling in the memories.
