Wednesday, Dec. 4, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
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IMPLODE THE HOTEL buildings. Leave Las Vegas the memories.
There is one certainty about progress. It moves on no matter how much some would wish differently. With the recent implosion of the Sands Hotel and the closing of the Hacienda in preparation for its New Year's Eve departure, many Las Vegans and tourists have been swapping stories about the "good old days," whether they were 40 years ago or just five.
The "Gamble in the Desert" special that aired earlier this week on cable's A&E Network brought back exciting memories of the bygone days when Las Vegas was young and not the "darling" of both Wall and Main streets like it is today. Those were the days when our city was left to grow up on its own, a challenge under any circumstances but a near impossibility considering the folks who gave us life. But grow we did, beyond most people's wildest dreams.
No one wanted to see the Sands go down. Or, for that matter the Dunes or the soon-to-die Hacienda. Even the beleaguered Landmark did not go quietly into the rubble of night without a few tears shed by those who remembered. But that's the price we pay for progress and, so far, I can't find anyone in opposition.
So as we march inexorably toward the next century and the next half-century of Las Vegas' modern life, it helps to take a few memories with us lest we forget how and why we got here.
On Nov. 15, 1987, the SUN's late publisher, Hank Greenspun, wrote a "Where I Stand" anniversary tribute to the Sands on her 35th birthday. No one foresaw her demise nine years later. With the remains of the Sands Hotel almost gone from the site where it graced our city for 44 years, we are left only with the memories.
Some of them follow:
By Hank Greenspun
The resort that made Las Vegas famous. Happy 35th anniversary to the Sands Hotel. There are other hotel-casinos along the famed Strip that could lay claim to being the resort that put Las Vegas on the map of the entertainment world.
The Flamingo was the first of the posh hotels, but its fame was not in the elegance of its appearance, which ranked with the Taj Mahal for beauty, but more in the unexpected and sudden demise of its owner. Everyone came to Las Vegas in 1947 to see the place that Bugsy Siegel built.
Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn was the second outstanding resort that brought Las Vegas to world attention because of its hospitality and the international trips that Wilbur made to make Europe aware of what Las Vegas had to offer. Both predecessors to the Sands introduced world-famous entertainers to start the image of our town as the entertainment capital of the United States.
When the Sands opened in December 1952, the fame widened from the entertainment capital of our country to the entertainment capital of the world.
When Jakie Friedman rode into Las Vegas from the hot, dusty Houston, Texas, plains to build himself a hotel, no one could believe that it could measure up to the reputation of the Flamingo or Desert Inn, but with the installation of Jack Entratter as president of the resort, the entertainment fame was enhanced to where the world came to sit in breathless awe as all the celebrated names of stage and screen cavorted and conspired to bring song and laughter to a nation sadly in need of merriment and relaxation.
It was the ultimate in entertainment with Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford all on stage, while Danny Thomas would do a drop-in to create festivities unknown before in the annals of show business.
With Dave Burton entertaining in the lounge, the whole pack would drop in on Dave and take over the lounge to the delight of all the high-rollers who always flocked to Las Vegas to be part of the celebration.
It was not smooth sailing for the Sands before the opening of the hotel when Jakie Friedman came up for licensing.
The hearing took place in Carson City when Friedman and his attorney, Harry Claiborne, showed up for questioning. One of the members of the tax commission, which was the licensing body at that time, hated gambling and all who would participate in it. He was from Northern Nevada and was giving Jakie an extremely bad time. When it appeared that the license would be denied, Jakie came to Lake Tahoe where I was taking a few days of rest and insisted that I appear with him the next morning.
I showed up as a newspaper observer and when the tax commissioner accused Jakie of lying to the commission, Jakie banged his hand down on the table in front of his accuser and yelled, "Jakie Friedman don't lie!"
I suggested to Gov. Charlie Russell to recess the meeting temporarily, and we walked out into the hall. I told the governor that a prominent lawyer in the state had visited Friedman in Houston and told him that he would never get a license with Claiborne as his attorney. He recommended that he appear with Jakie and all would go well.
Russell asked if this information could be disclosed to the commission, and I turned to Claiborne and asked him to make it public. Harry said he wasn't present in Houston when Jakie was propositioned, and he would not accuse a fellow lawyer of such chicanery in public.
After the recess, I spoke to the commission and explained that the Sands was ready to open with big ads in the newspapers and hundreds of people on the payroll, and any further delays would jeopardize the ability of the hotel to ever open.
A vote was taken after Russell, who was the chairman, stated that improper overtures had been made which could cast a cloud over Nevada's licensing procedures. Jakie was approved 4-1.
The Sands opened to the most glittering, celebrated audience in the history of Las Vegas, and it soon became the top money-grossing casino in the state's history.
Carl Cohen, a mainstay of Nevada gaming, was vice president in charge of the casino. Executives like Sid Wyman, Eddie Levinson, Charley Turner, Aaron Weisberg, Ed Torres and Ed Levy, to name a few, brought in high-rollers from Texas and other parts of the country that kept the Sands and the town rolling and booming.
The Sands played host to Presidents Jack Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson and innumerable international celebrities. When former President Harry Truman came to Las Vegas to address a convention of Legionnaires, he played the piano at a luncheon while Jimmy Durante and I, with arms around each other's shoulders, sang to Truman's accompaniment.
I still have the pictures which are a source of pride because Truman and Durante were my idols, each in their respective spheres.
I won a rather large bet on the 1948 elections when Truman, a heavy underdog, beat Tom Dewey in a stunning upset that had the nation talking for years.
No one, from top executives to porters, ever worked for the Sands. They married into the family. That was its reputation from its very beginnings and continued for all the years until it was purchased by Howard Hughes on July 23, 1967, for about three times its original cost.
The 17-story tower was the first high-rise and set the pattern for future high-rises.
The Copa Room stage played host to all the big stars of the entertainment firmament. And the Sands' crowning achievement was its first stage show starring Danny Thomas, one of the greatest names in show business from that time to the present.
Whenever the song "Danny Boy" is played anywhere, it recalls the Sands opening when its strains brought Danny Thomas on the Sands stage for the first time.
My son Danny, who was born a year after the opening, was named after Danny Thomas.
Any wonder why the Sands has always been close to my heart? Happy celebration on the 35th anniversary. May it continue to grow and prosper with Las Vegas because it is a vital part of the town's roots.
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