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19 July 2006
A Colourful Character
As the father of the
theme resort, Jay Sarno brought family and fantasy to the
Las Vegas Strip with Caesars Palace and Circus
Circus.
Rome was not built in a
day, but it took Jay Sarno just two years to create it's
successor in the desert.
The first fantasy themed
resort in Las
Vegas, Caesars
Palace was built in 1964 at a cost of $24 million. Three
years later, Sarno sold the resort for $60
million.
"We hit lightening in a
bottle with Caesars," recalls Stanley Mallin, Sarno's long
time business partner, "It took right off. It was the nicest
thing in Las Vegas and maybe in the country."
But the man who brought
the fantasy and glamour to Las Vegas had grown up with very
little of either. Born in 1922, Jay Sarno came of age in
Depression era Missouri. After Serving in World War Two,
Sarno moved to Atlanta where he joined forces with Mallin to
build a series of Cabana hotels. It as at this time that
Sarno took a vacation to Las Vegas and came up with the idea
for Caesars Palace.
At a time when most hotels
in Las Vegas differed only in name, Caesars Palace offered
guests an escape into a world where every guest was a Roman
emperor or a Queen Cleopatra. From the time Caesars Palace
opened in 1966, the most successful new gambling resorts
would be those that, like Caesars Palace, used an escapist
theme.
But as successful as
Caesars Palace was, Sarno was soon working on his next
project, Circus Circus. Built in the shape of a tent, Circus
Circus featured trapeze artists performing while a pink
elephant flew through the air above the casino. With Circus
Circus, Sarno once again revolutionized Vegas-this time with
a family orientated venue.
Sarno's last and grandest
vision, a 6000 room hotel to be called Grandissimo, never
became a reality. Failing to find the investors he needed,
Sarno took to spending too much of his time at Caesars
Palace. It was here, in the hotel he built, that Jay Sarno
died in 1984.
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