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.