Tuesday, Nov. 19, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.
Future Jeopardy answer: Dunes, Landmark, Sands, Hacienda.
The question: What Las Vegas resorts were imploded?
The Dunes and Landmark are but memories, the closed Sands is slated to come down next week and it was announced Monday that the Hacienda will be reduced to rubble on New Year's Eve.
Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. said it will implode the 11-story Hacienda hotel-casino about 9 p.m. -- that's midnight Eastern time -- and that the demolition will be accompanied by a fireworks extravaganza.
The 39-year-old resort was purchased by the company in 1995 to allow Circus Circus to expand southward on the Strip from its Luxor and Excalibur properties.
The combination of these properties, the Hacienda site and the adjacent undeveloped land owned by the company will comprise what the company calls its "master-plan mile," which extends from Tropicana Avenue to Russell Road.
Plans are under way for a mega-resort on the Hacienda site. The company has announced that the project will feature about 3,600 rooms -- more than triple what is there now -- that will connect to a 400-room Four Seasons hotel.
Imploding smaller historic casinos to make room for mega-resorts -- or, in one case, a parking lot -- has become popular in the 1990s.
Before a massive throng, the Dunes bit the dust in October 1993. A made-for-TV movie was produced, using footage of its destruction to make way for the now-under-construction Bellagio.
The Landmark, closed for several years prior to its implosion in November 1995, was cleared to make room for additional parking for the tourism and convention industry.
The Sands, a 1950s haven for high-rollers and entertainment's Rat Pack, including Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr., will be imploded at 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Opened in 1957, the Hacienda, at 3950 Las Vegas Blvd. South, never really had a heyday like the Sands and Dunes, but did enjoy popularity because of its proximity to McCarran International Airport -- it's just two miles from the bustling facility.
The resort was noted for its Spanish-style lobby with a loud waterfall that greeted guests entering the front door or en route to the convention facilities.
Within walking distance of the Luxor, MGM Grand and Excalibur, the Hacienda expanded from 740 to 1,140 rooms in 1991 to accommodate a growing demand that would be enhanced by the opening of the more elaborate neighboring resorts that were then on the drawing board or under construction.
The Hacienda, including 10 buildings on 48 acres, also was home to one of Las Vegas' oldest wedding chapels, the Little Church of the West, on the southeast end of the property. That landmark will be spared from the bulldozers and moved.
Also saved from destruction was the Hacienda's old 40-foot sign featuring a neon cowboy atop a horse. That piece of memorabilia, which many years ago stood in front of the resort, earlier this month became the first piece in the neon museum at the Fremont Street Experience.
The Hacienda's showroom was the launching pad for one young magician and the final stage for an aging comedian.
Magician Lance Burton, now the headliner at the Monte Carlo on the Strip, got his break at the Hacienda, headlining there for several years.
The late Redd Foxx, star of the 1970s hit television sitcom "Sanford and Son," also had a show at the Hacienda for many years.
In the late 1980s, Foxx performed there while fighting off the Internal Revenue Service, which raided his Las Vegas home and seized items, alleging he owed more than $900,000 in back taxes.
Then, Foxx turned his career around with a co-starring role in a hit movie, "Harlem Nights," before announcing he was leaving the Hacienda for Hollywood to star in a television sitcom, "The Royal Family" -- but not before getting married at the Little Church of the West in July 1991.
Foxx had said he planned to one day return to the Hacienda showroom, but, as his star status once again was rising, he suffered a fatal heart attack on the set of his show in October 1991.
In the 1980s, the Hacienda, then owned by Paul Lowden, added the 21,000-square-foot Matador Arena, which became home to monthly televised professional boxing cards. It also was for many years the site of smaller conventions, including gem, coin and stamp shows.
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