Vegas Attractions

[freddy]

When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).

Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.

Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.

Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.

Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.

Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.

"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)

Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).

Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.

Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

[Korea UP, Reds DOWN]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.

When scene from the airport, the pyramid confirms that you are not in Salt Lake City.

[freddy]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

Continuing our odyssey up the Strip, surveying attractions and themes of yesteryear, we'll pause just briefly to make a tangential visit the Tropicana which, although it originally debuted in 1957 as the Tropicana Hotel & Country Club, with little in the way of "theming" beyond its concrete "tulip" fountain out front, in the mid-'90s perhaps decided to take its location in the township of "Paradise" Nevada to heart and jumped on the then-fashionable Polynesian-theming bandwagon. This involved the brief addition of two massive and somewhat incongruous replica moai statues out front, with slightly disconcerting color-changing eyes, and beach-style "plaza" area. While these perhaps served to complement 1986's Island Tower addition, if less so the Tiffany-esque leaded-glass ceiling above the casino floor, installed back in 1979, nor the classic-Vegas Folies Bergére can-canning showgirl production, which opened just a couple of years after the hotel-casino and endured until the eve of its 50th anniversary, in 2009).

Moving further north, January 1997 saw the debut of the ultra-themed New York-New York property, with an opening that Anthony Curtis described at the time as "the biggest in years," adding of the hype that, "In my experience, nothing has compared to this since the opening of the Mirage in 1989." Such were the crowds who thronged the new joint that some players were obliged to wait up to three hours to receive hand-paid jackpots on opening night.

So, was this diminutive replica of The Big Apple a triumph of the theming era? Wrote our normally upbeat publisher, "It didn't take long for me to form my own opinion of NY-NY. I hated it." He cited a casino that was "dank, dirty-looking, and claustrophobic" [Ed: So, at least authentic, judging by some New York 'hoods we've found ourselves in!] But things got better when he discovered the Bar at Times Square which "really did look and feel like a bar I'd been to" at the original location. "I stepped out the back of the bar and into an incredible cityscape; with its nine food outlets, it was no less than a restaurant district. I was no longer in a casino in Las Vegas. Rather, I was strolling the streets of the Big Apple. Amazing!" The place had a convert.

Aside from the compacted rendition of a 1940s-era New York City skyline and harbor, themed opening attractions included the Coney Island-style Manhattan Express roller coaster; dining transplants including Nathan's Famous hot dogs, Schrafft's ice cream, and Gallagher's Steakhouse; and the show MADhattan, featuring a cast comprising some genuine New York street performers and was described by the New York Times as having "about as much in common with a typical show on the Strip as Brooklyn's pigeons have with Siegfried and Roy's tigers." While the former has undergone a couple of name changes in the interim, it's still going strong, as are Nathan's and Gallagher's; the show, however, didn't last long and was replaced in '99 by Michael Flatley's Lord of the Dance.

Gone also is the 9/11 tribute which graced the front promenade area for more than a decade following the attack on the World Trade Center; it fell victim to bulldozers in 2013 in order to make way for new curbside attraction The Park, which when completed is intended to evoke Madison Square Park, although the tributes left are now in the hands of UNLV for safekeeping and will hopefully find a new permanent home sometime.

By the time the Monte Carlo opened, in June 1996, it had already undergone one identity change, having started life under the "Grand Victoria" concept, an evocation of Victorian-era London's architectural icons. At some point, this vision was dropped in favor of the southern European principality and its opulent casinos, but the homage was half-hearted to say the least and the resort opened before it was completed. As Las Vegas Leisure Guide put it at the time, "We were not overly impressed with the general ambiance. It was as if most of the old world flavor and hype was checked at the front door. Contrasted with the large-scale, beautiful architecture on the front of the hotel, the inside pales in comparison. There is a lot of empty space and large flat walls. The few fancy accouterments ... were few and far between. Of all, we'd have to say the shopping area alone made us feel the most like we were strolling the streets of France." So, so much for that, and it's of little surprise that recent murmurings have this resort pegged for a major rebranding and new identity (which shouldn't be half as difficult to achieve as, say, the de-theming of Luxor or Excalibur, given that there's so little "theme" to remove).

[freddy]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

Question of the Day May 30, 2015

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Q:
Planet Hollywood, Paris, and Bally's: The History of Las Vegas Resort-Casino Opening Attractions, Part IV
A:
Prior to its pretty generic modern/party/music-centric vibe, Planet Hollywood had not one, but two previous incarnations as the Aladdin, with successive attempts at an "Arabian Nights" theme. In the first instance, which was debuted by Sahara-owning Milton Prell in 1966 as the Strip's first major resort, the Aladdin opened with amenities including a by-then de riguer nine-hole golf course, while the former English Tudor style of its Tally Ho/King's Crown predecessors was substituted for a flat-roofed serrated-canopy over the casino area.

A $750,000 15-foot-tall "Aladdin's Lamp" sign, designed by YESCO and sitting atop the new marquee, emphasized the same mysterious theme borrowed from the Sahara via its exotic "eastern" script and jeweled embellishments. However, this original version of the property long pre-dated the era of immersive resort branding, hence the Aladdin's early Persian identity didn't extend much beyond some fixtures and fittings and gimmicky names like the 500-seat "Baghdad Theater" and the "Sinbad Lounge," the latter which was treated to a $750,000 makeover in 1969, when it became enclosed and leveled above the casino floor and introduced a more pronounced "Arabian" motif.

With some pioneering "only-in-Vegas" chronology-flouting defiance, the Arabian Nights theme was long juxtaposed with the original Tudor-look hotel wings to the rear of the property (similar to the Tropicana's foray into random Polynesian accents, highlighted in yesterday's QoD, or as seen in recent times at the modern-look former Quad, where anachronistic pagoda accents endured at the back of the hotel long after its Imperial Palace days). Not even the entertainment at the Aladdin was themed, with acts including Jackie Mason, the Jet Set Revue (a musical showcase for The Three Cheers vocal group), and the "Petite Rockette Dancers" being first to grace the stage in the Baghdad Theater.

In November 1997, the original Aladdin closed, pending a complete implosion the following April (only the Theater for Performing Arts was preserved). Then, in August 2000, this ill-starred property (which was long-rumored to be jinxed) rose once more from the ashes, although as what proved to be more of a turkey than a phoenix.

"Opening Night at the Aladdin: The Sequel" was delayed by fire-inspectors, surveillance-equipment issues; and ongoing construction work, which saw valet attendants and front-desk staff all sporting hard hats, although no similar protection was offered to the somewhat disconcerted first-arrivals, who had to be accommodated in other hotels. Guests who lined up on the Strip the next morning to be be first in the casino doors were greeted by banks of out-of-order slot machines and not much in the way of "theming" aside from gaudily jeweled pillars and oversized emblems from the Arabian Nights atop every bar, from Aladdin's Lamp at The Lamp Bar, to the beady eye of the gargantuan Roc Bird at Roc Nest Bar upstairs.

Ironically, the second time around it was more the adjacent Desert Passage Shopping Mall that ventured into the realm of themed attractions, to the extent that either venue did, with its then-fashionable "changing sky"-effect" ceiling and Moroccan souk-like architectural embellishments that were aimed not to evoke the kitsch Arabian Nights-fantasy feel of the casino, but instead transport shoppers "on a journey from Gibraltar to India." Anthony Curtis was distinctly underwhelmed, however, when he reviewed the half-hourly indoor thunderstorm that was touted as the next BIG free "spectacle" on the Strip: "Every half-hour, on the hour, a mock thunder- and rainstorm occurs inside Desert Passage. People stand around and watch water fall from the ceiling into a pool. It's pretty lame, which would have been fine if it hadn't been touted in some circles as something just short of a quantum leap for Las Vegas spectacles. It ain't."

This mini-storm, which continues to operate today in the new Miracle Mile Shops incarnation of what was Desert Passage, also features an indoor fountain show at various intervals throughout the day, with lighted water effects, color-changing fog, bursts of light and "dramatic, original soundtracks broadcast via a state-of-the-art surround-sound system." Right.

Returning to the casino, the exterior did go the distance to include a facade of evocative minarets (albeit with a giant video screens as the centerpieces), while the main attraction inside was the "Enchanted Garden." Described as the "world's largest indoor light board," it was a 21-foot-tall and 120-foot-long "mini-spectacle" located high on the west wall and featuring close to 2,200 fiber-optic flowers that lit up in a variety of displays. Mildly interesting, but not exactly on a par with Bellagio's Conservatory, and what did it have to do with 1,001 Nights?

Above the casino flew a small herd of "ebony" horses, evoking the enchanted equine of one of Scheherazade's stories, while the casino bars were staffed by costumed bartenders and waitresses and each featured a giant model of an iconic symbol from the Arabian Nights, from the 36-foot-long lamp atop the aptly named Lamp Bar, to the upper-level Roc Nest venue, where drinkers were subjected to the mute scrutiny of the giant eye of the gargantuan bird from Sinbad the Sailor's second voyage.

So much for the Aladdins, I and II.

1999's September opening of Paris Las Vegas, by contrast, took its theming a little more seriously, albeit in a somewhat tight footprint that saw architectural features literally piled on top of one another, with half the base of the Eiffel Tower intruding through the ceiling of the casino, whether by necessity or design.

With a façade suggestive of the Paris Opera House and Louvre museum, featuring landmarks including a two-thirds-size version of the Arc de Triomphe and replicas of La Fontaine des Mers (since removed to make way for the now-defunct Sugar Factory American Brasserie) and the famous Montgolfier Balloon (extant, if having seeing much better days), complemented by a chandelier-studded hotel-casino and Rue de la Paix shopping district that today still features "cobbled" streets, those painted skies again, faux gas lamps, and stores with names like "Les Eléments" and "Le Necessities" and restaurants dubbed "Le Village Buffet" and "Les Artistes."

Gimmick-wise, Paris' theming was perhaps taken most to extreme when it came to its staff, who were actually required to take French lessons and greet hotel guests and phone customers who dialed 888/BONJOUR with a spiel of essentially accurate, if also largely ill-comprehended français in the resort's early days (our devilish streak led us to respond in-kind a couple of times, much to the confusion of the person on the other end of the phone).

A personal favorite touch, however, was the early fabulous presence of bicycle-riding onion sellers, who sported the cliched striped shirts, cravatte's, and berets straight out of Central Casting, as they randomly wove their way across the casino floor and through the shopping plaza, or delivered a fresh baguette on-demand to a guest room, a service very briefly extended to guests staying at the hotel who suddenly found themselves gripped by the urgent need of a French loaf.

Pre-dating Paris, of course, was neighboring Bally's, the notorious reinvention of the original MGM Grand property that opened in '73 but was then victim to a tragic blaze in 1980 and a few years after reopening, was in 1985 sold to business-like gaming company Bally Technologies, which evidently wasn't in the the "theming' game. The resort's sole "attraction," if you could ever call it that, was the somewhat incongruous "Garden Walkway" out front, with its tunnel-shaped people mover and random color-changing neon tubes that were vaguely reminiscent of a Star Trek set and now stands the equally non-event-of-an-attraction that is the Grand Bazaar Shops, with its Swarovski crystal "sound and light" thingy.

Images appear courtesy: UNLV; KHS$S; Caesars Entertainment; News 1.

[freddy]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

Resort-Openings, The History: Part V - Bellagio and Caesars Palace
A:
Today's answer straddles two distinct eras and we'll start with the more modern of the two.

When Bellagio opened on October 15, 1998, on the site of the former Dunes, it would be the last occasion on which Steve Wynn delivered a resort to the Las Vegas Strip that offered extravagant free attractions, including the world-famous choreographed fountain show, which rises out of an eight-acre lake, no less, and which passersby can enjoy without even stepping foot on the property. Inside, the elegant vibe is complemented by the elaborate, whimsical, and labor-intensive displays that rotate in through the Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, not to mention the ornate glass ceiling in the lobby, comprising 2,000 hand-blown glass flowers by renowned artist Dale Chihuly.

Understated in its exterior architecture, which aims to echo a particularly picturesque hillside town located on Italy's Lake Como, Bellagio opened inside with a distinct sense of panache (if less attention to historic authenticity), with lashings of expensive drapery in a gelato flavor-inspired palette that was apparently meant to evoke the sense of a medieval market on the gaming floor. The sense of an old-school private men's club is more successfully carried off in the race and sports book and its bar, however.

On that "adult" note, the resort deliberately debuted without any kitsch gimmicks or kid-friendly attractions; on the contrary, minors were actively discouraged--even forbidden, for awhile, after the resort first opened--from setting foot on property. Even when it came to the adult demographic, although no strict dress code was mandated, it was clearly conveyed by the piano bars and caviar lounge, with its tradition of serving British-style Afternoon Tea; by the leather upholstery; by the look-but-don't-touch price tags in the marble shopping mall; and by scale and grandeur of the last of Las Vegas' signature "free" Strip-side spectacles, that the "theme" Bellagio was seeking to evoke was sophisticated European good taste (whatever that is).

It's fitting that Bellagio and Caesars Palace are neighbors, since when it opened on August 5, 1966, owner Jay Sarno similarly envisaged his resort bringing a new "regal" air to Las Vegas Boulevard, and once he'd settled on the imperial Roman-motif, Sarno paid attention to every detail, from the name (and his idiosyncratic insistence of omitting an apostrophe); to the now-iconic logo and typeface; to the pool complex modeled on Rome's Pompeii Baths and the Circus Maximus Showroom (modeled after Rome's Colosseum), which was even painted blue inside to evoke that authentic "al fresco" feeling; to the toga-like cocktail-waitress uniforms and the "goddess" outfits warn by the female servers in the legendary Bacchanal Room (where "bacchanalian" practices included these goddesses offering neck and shoulder massages to stressed diners).

While this era predates Las Vegas' immersive family-oriented theme frenzy of the late '80s and early '90s, Caesars did not debut without its themed "attractions," including the 18 huge fountains adorning the 135-foot drive up to the front of the hotel, which was lined with Cypress trees imported from Italy. Both the interior and exterior grounds were decorated with $150,000-worth of statuary imported from Peter Bagganti of Florence, while the foyer was fabricated from white marble and black mosaic tile.

Dubbed Caesars Forum, the casino was (and is still, to this day) graced by what was at the time the world's largest crystal ceiling fixture (it's not accurately to be described as a "chandelier" -- see QoD 2/18/11), fabricated from finest baccarat crystal in that classic instance of Las Vegas brazenly blurring the lines in a juxtaposition of classical-Roman meets 19th-century-European-opulence. This was Las Vegas' heyday as a strictly adults-only entertainment destination and apparently it was Jay Sarno who first pioneered the concept of windowless casinos with blacked-out ceilings to evoke perpetual night, since he felt this was conducive to relaxation (in marked contrast to the faux-daytime ceilings in the Forum Shops today).

Of course, it wouldn't be Vegas without the kitsch element, and on opening night the stampede of celebrity invitees were welcomed inside by a busty costumed Cleopatra greeter (Caesars had its King Tut Suites long before Luxor had even been thought of), who could direct them to the "Noshorium" 24-hour coffee shop or to the stage production Rome Swings, which opened in the Circus Maximus and starred Andy Williams, with Phil Richards playing the Caesar character.

And so things have pretty much continued at Caesars Palace, with additions staying in-keeping with the Roman theme, like the 1970 addition of Cleopatra's Barge, the floating nightspot that found a way to make lemonade out of the same lemons that scuppered the original plans for an underground parking structure at Caesars, namely the vagaries and intrusions of the Las Vegas Wash.

It wouldn't be Vegas without some bizarre anomalies along the way, either, with those that spring to mind including when in the 1980s, when the hotel opened an Atari game room, featuring more than 60 video game arcade machines, or the 1996 opening of the multi-million dollar attraction that was Caesars Magical Empire, located by the Race and Sports book what back then was the Palatium buffet. The intricately themed multi-theater show-and-dinner experience, with its cavernous atrium, firepits, live wizard, and real birds of prey flying around, aimed to capitalize on what turned out to be a passing/cyclical public fascination with magic and magicians and it closed at the end of 2002, its former space re-purposed, tellingly, to accommodate PURE nightclub.

[freddy]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

On the next leg of our Strip hotel-attraction odyssey, we can gloss pretty quickly over the Flamingo and Imperial Palace, the latter which started life as an adjacent motel that piggybacked on its bigger neighbor's amenities. The style of the Flamingo itself was the vision of original developer Billy Wilkerson, a big player on the L.A. nightlife scene and owner of the Hollywood Reporter, who wanted to recreate the Sunset Strip in Las Vegas but ran out of money.

By the early '50s, Vegas was ditching its old marketing slogan as "the old west in modern splendor" was being sold as the chic place to vacation. Hence, the Flamingo was designed to exude modern European luxury and a hip Hollywood-celebrity vibe -- kind of the Hard Rock/Cosmopolitan/SLS of its day, in contrast to what Wilkerson disparagingly referred to as the "sawdust joint" on Fremont Street.

If Jay Sarno can be credited for the "perpetual night" concept that he introduced to the casino at Caesars Palace, Billy Wilkerson gets props for the complementary policy debuted at the Flamingo, whereby there were no windows and no clocks on the walls of the casino. As to the inspiration for fun, versatile, stylish flamingo-bird motif, while legend has it that Bugsy Siegel named the resort after his girlfriend Virginia Hill, on account of her long skinny legs and red hair, the more accepted wisdom is that it was Wilkerson, with his personal love of exotic birds, who adopted the tall, colorful, leggy species as the logo for his new resort. (As an aside, the Flamingo was begun in 1945 but was still not quite completed when Siegel held the official Grand Opening the following year; it should be noted that the popular pink plastic lawn ornament was not invented until more than a decade later, in 1957, and hence had no bearing on the Las Vegas casino's concept.)

As to the "theming" of the Imperial Palace, history doesn't seem to relate why Ralph Engelstad chose that particular styling for the low-rent mid-Strip property he purchased in 1971, other than perhaps that fact that no one else had yet done 'Oriental.' In reality, the actuality didn't live up to the theming promised in an early brochure for the property (see below) and the IP's identity wasn't much defined beyond some Chinese-inpired lettering and plaster "pagoda" accents. In light of the controversy around Engelstad and his apparent Nazi sympathies and secret Hitler birthday parties, it's probably best to move swiftly past what type of "imperial" vision he may have had him mind...

Moving northward, and across the street, we come to the Mirage, the property credited for changing the whole Las Vegas paradigm when it opened in 1989. Located in the township of Paradise, Nevada, it was a tropical, vaguely Polynesian theme that Steve Wynn chose for his flagship Strip resort, a vibe evoked at every opportunity, from the lush "rain forest" foliage and palm trees to be found in the public areas, to the signature tropical scent pumped out through the air-conditioning system, to the exotic animal habitats featured among the new resort's multiple attractions.

The most iconic of these, of course, was the volcano out front, which raised the bar for what an attraction could or should be in the context of Las Vegas. "Risk and being new was not on anybody's radar," recalled operations chief Bobby Baldwin in an interview with VEGAS Seven."The Mirage was as foreign to that environment in the mid-1980s as was Jay Sarno in the early 1960s with his concept for Caesars Palace." As Wynn himself describes, "Designing The Mirage took one year of R & D and three years of further development. Nothing was conceived in one brilliant stroke. It was done an inch at a time, step by step. If every idea we explored was reduced to paper, it would fill a warehouse."

By 2006, the once-pioneering nightly eruptions on the Strip were beginning to look a little tired and underwhelming, not least when compared to sister-resort attractions like Bellagio's fountains, so the volcano received a massive makeover and remodel, with the introduction of taller explosions, more fireballs, and a driving new soundtrack composed by The Grateful Dead's Mickey Hart and Indian tabla sensation Zakir Hussain.

While Mirage's non-specific "tropical" theme has proved generic and timeless enough to endure, the kitsch level introduced by successor Treasure Island proved not quite as evergreen. To quote an interview for Elle Decor with Steve Wynn's long-time designer Roger Thomas, who's the co-visionary behind Mirage, Bellagio, Wynn/Encore, and TI, "We don't do theme design at Wynn, not since we learned our lesson at Treasure Island. We thought it would be great fun to design a pirate village with sinking ships and pyrotechnics. The day after it opened, we all looked at each other and said, 'What have we done? This is so not us.'"

What they 'had done' was expand Wynn's original concept of an additional hotel tower for the Mirage into a fully-fledged stand-alone resort with an immersive pirate theme, from the skull-and-crossbones marquee, to the cliched treasure chests, parrots, and "pieces of eight" scattered through the interior design, to the pirate battles staged nightly in "Buccaneer Bay" in front of the casino entrance on the Strip. "At the time, we tried to think about what we could do that would enhance the Strip, that would be really exciting for us as well for our patrons. It just felt good. All of a sudden, we started talking like pirates, and Steve [Wynn] described the scenario, as only he can do, going through all of the voices of the various characters," recalls Wynn architect Joel Bergman.

From opening, Treasure Island offered a free show nightly every 90 minutes in the man-made Buccaneer Lake out front, with a cast of 30 stuntmen and actors enacting the showdown between HMS Britannia and the pirates from the Hispañiola. By 1999 the pirate battle had been witnessed by more than 16 million people.

Still, by the early 2000s the whole family-friendly experiment had been abandoned and the kitschy pirate theme was considered long past its sell-by date. Hence, yet another "de-theming" program got underway, with an attempt to rebrand the resort as "TI" with a new swashbuckling-free modern video marquee. In 2003 the the pirate battle was transformed into the "sexy" Sirens of TI show -- another misstep that had patrons calling for the return of the campy old High Seas showdown. The new show closed in 2013, after lasting a surprising decade in its new incarnation, to make way for a shopping mall concept that so far has delivered nothing more remarkable to the Strip than another CVS pharmacy.

In fact, much as for a time the overly themed properties like Luxor, Excalibur, and Treasure Island were perceived as vestiges of an embarrassing past era, like those overdressed, overly-loud relatives who invariably show up to make you look bad at family events, but there quickly followed a nostalgia backlash, with many visitors (among our readers, at least) bemoaning the "blanding" of Las Vegas and mourning the passing of the adult-Disney era, when no one took everything quite so seriously and Las Vegas was all about escapism. (The Pirate/Sirens show was runner up in a 2004 Reader Poll we ran about Las Vegas' disappearing attractions, second only to the MGM Grand's lions.)

[gregz]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like
barges, which navigated

Thanks. Enjoyed the playback.

Greg

[freddy]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

The Penultimate Installment of "Question of the Day" Does Las Vegas Resort-Openings: Part VII - Stardust, Riviera, and Circus Circus!
A:
When the Riviera opened on April 20, 1955, the biggest innovation it introduced to the Las Vegas Strip was the presence of a high-rise hotel tower which, with its nine floors of guest rooms, marked a significant departure from the low-rise, two-story, garden-style motel rooms that had typified Las Vegas accommodation since the early '40s.

If there was any "theme" informing the design, it was "South Beach meets Louis XIV," with interiors that allegedly aimed to be modern and chic, while bringing to mind the palace of Fontainebleau, with their imported Italian marble and corrugated cooper fixtures (another example of how evidently there's nothing much "new" in Las Vegas' repertoire these days - it's all be "done," or at least tried, before - who knew there had already been a resort identity inspired by the famous French château?). The various floors of what was originally to have been named the Casa Blanca, were named after French resort cities, including Cannes, Monaco, and Nice, and were reached via the Strip's first elevator, off the largest hotel lobby in town.

As far as attractions were concerned, there were no gimmicks at the Riv, just a line-up of top entertainers who packed the showroom, beginning with Liberace on opening night, and over the years including the likes of Dean Martin, Shecky Greene, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Elvis, Louis Armstrong, Joan Rivers, George Carlin, Phyllis Diller, Don Rickles, The Beach Boys, Steve Martin, Liza Minelli, Betty Grable, and Charo, to name just a few.

The Stardust, by contrast, which opened three years later on July 2, 1958, was all about theming and attractions. To quote a recent "Question of the Day" about the hotel's signage (see QoD Archives 5/4/15):

When the Stardust debuted on July 2, 1958, it was with an 'outer space' theme befitting the Atomic Age and the general fascination at the time with all things cosmic. There's debate about whether the concept for the outer signage should be credited to Moe Dalitz (as he claimed) or to Tony Cornero (who died shooting craps at the Desert Inn, just before the resort was originally slated to open, on July 13, 1955), but the actual finished design can be attributed with certainty to Kermit Wayne of the Young Electric Sign Company, who was responsible for both the original façade and roadside signs.

The name of the property was emblazoned across the front, twice, in spiky Electra-jag Googie-style lettering, and incorporated a panoramic view of the solar system, with a 16-foot plastic model of Earth at its center. At 216 feet long and 37 feet high, it was at that time the world's largest electric sign. As Wikipedia describes it, "cosmic rays of neon and electric light bulbs beamed from behind the model Earth in all directions. Three-dimensional acrylic glass planets spun alongside 20 scintillating neon starbursts. Across the universe was a jagged galaxy of electric lettering spelling out 'Stardust'. The sign utilized 7,100 feet of neon tubing with over 11,000 bulbs along its 216-foot front. The 'S' alone contained 975 lamps." At night, it was said to be visible from 60 miles away.

The free-standing roadside marquee that complemented this was also impressive, comprising a huge disc, circled by an 'orbit' ring, with the hotel name in the same funky font, all covered in dancing stars and glittering cosmic dust. And so it remained until 1965.

What Tony Cornero envisioned for what he originally he planned to call the "Starlight," was a giant casino that didn't cater to high rollers or the sophisticated clientele wooed by other Strip resorts, but instead was aimed truly at "regular joes who were loading up their Chevy's and taking the family on vacation," to quote the "Classic Las Vegas" blog. In other words, once again it seems there's nothing new under the Vegas sun, where the Stardust was doing "family-friendly" decades before the Mirage volcano or MGM Grand Adventure Park had even been dreamed of.

Speaking of volcanoes, it turns out there's nothing new there, either: The 1965 version of of the Lido de Paris topless revue, which debuted with the resort and was the largest production ever to have graced the Strip at that time, featured a live chariot race, a locomotive crashing into an automobile, and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius, complete with molten lava.

But this was just the tip of the entertainment iceberg (no pun intended, but at this juncture we'll point out that Lido creator Donn Arden debuted his famous "sinking of the Titanic" sketch at the Stardust, long before it became incorporated into his Jubilee! spectacular at Bally's, while the inaugural show of the Lido de Paris featured a fireworks display from the top of a replica of the Eiffel Tower... But we digress.)

The defunct Motor Vu theater out back was renamed the Stardust Drive-In and opened on March 20, 1959 showing Disney's The Shaggy Dog. It would close nine years later in December 1968, with a fitting triple bill of gangster movies, including The Scarface Mob, Young Dillinger and Pretty Boy Floyd.

Located immediately north of the Drive-In was Horseman's Park, a rodeo arena that featured bleachers, 300 stalls, corrals, a lighting system, and a judging stand. The facility hosted rodeo and horse-riding events until 1972, when the land was appropriated to expand the hotels' "Camperland" parking; the fixtures apparently were donated to Dixie College in St. George, Utah.

Another attraction was The Stardust International Raceway, located off-property (like the golf course) in what is now Spring Valley Township, in an area between Tropicana Avenue and Flamingo Road and bordered by Rainbow and Piedmont Boulevards. Designed to be a "pull" for jet-setting high rollers, the facility debuted on October 21, 1965, and featured a flat, 3-mile, 13-turn road course and a quarter-mile drag strip, placing it among what were considered the elite "supertracks" of the time.

Although it never hosted a major drag race, the track did welcome some of the greats, including "Big Daddy" Don Garlits and Jim Dunn, while in its capacity as home to the Can-Am championship finale and the USAC Champ Cars, it would see the likes of of A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones, and Bobby Unser competing on the road course. But it failed to make money and by 1969 had been abandoned by the hotel. It was briefly leased as a going concern to the track manager, but in the early '70s the land was sold to a real estate developer, who constructed the Spring Valley residential development on the former race track.

Some other significant boasts at opening time included the fact that the Stardust had the largest private telephone switchboard in Nevada, no doubt necessary to service its 1,032 rooms, regarded as a world record at the time. At 105 feet long, it had the largest swimming pool, not to mention the largest casino (16,000 square feet), which in turn is credited with introducing keno to the Strip.

With the dawn of the 1960s, the Stardust hopped on the South Pacific bandwagon and the contemporary love of all things Polynesian and in January 1960 debuted what would become the cult-favorite Aku-Aku Restaurant. Located between the Stardust and the old Royal Nevada, this homage to island culture cost $620,000 to build and decorate (according to menu, the "primitive art carvings" were the work of a member of the Honolulu Art Academy, who faithfully copied them from originals on Easter Island and New Guinea) while outside, in a classic instance of Strip-style cultural juxtaposition, a neon-rimmed shield-and-giant-arrows sign was added to the existing cosmic marquee presentation, along with the giant moai head (later copied by the Tropicana, see QoD 5/29/2015) that now resides in Sunset Park (see QoD 9/5/2013). Only in Vegas.

Still, if the Stardust entered enthusiastically into the "theming" game, its efforts would pale into insignificance next to neighboring Circus Circus, which opened on October 18, 1968.

Envisioned by Jay Sarno as the world's largest big top, the architecture was the work of Rissman and Rissman Associates, who duly designed a giant circus tent-shaped main structure, a plan that was brought to fruition by R.C. Johnson Construction of Las Vegas.

At its opening, the $15 million facility featured a water-fountain feature out front which, at 306 feet long, was the world's largest, and a casino larger than a football field. The era of Las Vegas-resort hyperbole had truly begun. "I believe very strongly that when you select a theme for a hotel, you ought to follow that theme in every aspect of the operation where it is possible to do so," observed a member of the design team who'd also worked on Caesars, and with its giant pink-and-white tent, novel carnival midway, trapeze acts overhead, live "flying" pink elephant, a bar built into a merry-go-round, and a casino floor that could be accessed via a slide or a fireman's pole (in addition to more conventional means), Circus Circus definitely broke the mold. Sarno even originally charged a minimal entry fee, another first, so highly did he regard the entertainment delights offered within his new casino.

Still, while this novel themed property definitely had its eye on the family-vacation crowd, Sarno did not abandon the adult side of Sin City entertainment, and other opening attractions included peepshows and a "knock-the-girl-out-of-bed" game, both of which featured topless women. During 1969, a new 750 seat Hippodrome showroom opened with Nudes in the Night, starring the curvaceous 25-year-old Babette Bardot, who stated, "I am the highest-paid dancer in America. I studied ballet, which helps. I used to earn $250 a week, but not I get $2,500 a week. I have played before a record 18,000 people in Chicago. I do a very different act. I sing--I love singing--and my act is 45 minutes. Only the last 10 are stripping." During the day, the theater displayed the family-friendly Dancing Waters spectacle, made famous by Radio City Music Hall (the cover was 75 cents, with children under 12 admitted free when accompanied by an adult).

In March of 1969, Circus Circus advertised that it featured 700 musical slots, 14 bars and restaurants, family-priced buffet meals, $.25 food specials, Big Top trapeze acts, shows, clowns, games, and prizes. The only notable thing it didn't offer was a hotel, because Sarno had run out of money, and this would prove to be a major flaw in his plan. Before the end of '69, Sarno stepped down and allowed one of his executives to take over casino operations. Loans from the Teamsters Union financed the building of the first hotel tower, which debuted in 1972, along with an authentic Japanese bath, where trained Geisha girls pampered guests with aromatic soaps, prior to guiding them to a steam bath, followed by a cool plunge pool.

With Sarno mainly out of the picture, the early '70s saw some other changes at the property, with the removal of some of the carnival games and a new focus on attracting gamblers. In mid-'73, both the Hippodrome Theater and the Gilded Cage Lounge were removed in order to make way for the new Circus Circus buffet. And, while Circus Circus still retains something of Sarno's original vision, the steady de-theming has continued ever since, culminating in the 2006 removal of a suite of five statues commissioned by Sarno from local artist and worldwide circus performer Montyne, which formerly resided in front of the property.

The best-known of these statues, of an acrobat balancing on a single finger, was a self-portrait, while another, of a young female acrobat gracefully balancing on a board, atop a cylinder, was modeled after Montyne's wife and theatrical assistant, China. Also removed were the statue of Gargantua, the "World's Largest Gorilla," and one of a male lion. Today, only the clown remains; the others, instead of being returned to Montyne's family, as Sarno had agreed contractually in the event of their removal, were dumped unceremoniously in a Las Vegas landfill (where they likely joined part of the original Stardust sign, among countless other items of vintage Vegas memorabilia). According to an official spokesperson at the time, they were removed "because they were very old and had been painted over many times. They had deteriorated to the point that the statues no longer represented what we thought was the great Montyne's original vision when he created them in the 1960s."

[freddy]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

Las Vegas Resort-Openings: Part VIII - The Final Frontier, Feat. the Sahara and the Stratosphere Tower.
A:
After a brief hiatus yesterday to accommodate the new LVA Reader Poll, we return for what was to be the final leg of our Strip-resort history, highlighting opening attractions and what became of them. This will still be the final installment hotel-wise, but an unexpected discovery has obliged us to deliver just one more episode, which will feature three attractions that were added to a major Strip property. That's all we're prepared to divulge for now, but trust us, our find definitely merits one more QoD on this subject (inspired by one of the follow-up QoD queries we received on the back of this epic series). In the meantime, here's what was to have been the concluding part.

When the Sahara opened on October 7, 1952, on the site of the former Club Bingo, its theme was North African -- "The Jewel of the Desert" as owner Milton Prell described the property. Still, the theming was of the cheesy (and decidedly politically incorrect) variety, with plastic model camels and riders forming a nomadic caravan on the lawn outside, and other camels and miscellaneous Arabs lounging around the interior, not to mention the life-size models of African warriors, spears in hand, flanking the entrance to the famed Congo Room. Aside from these ethnic embellishments, the exotic font used for the hotel logo, the "eastern" styling of venues like the House of Lords and Don the Beachcomber restaurants, and the plants and murals that bestowed a lush "desert oasis" feel on the showroom, however, the Sahara was basically just another two-story chip off the same Googie-style block as the Thunderbird and Desert Inn, with its de rigueur manicured lawns and Olympic-sized pool.

Just like the Riviera, it wasn't gimmicks but Hollywood glitz that the Sahara really wanted to be known for. "Our goal is now to make the name 'Hotel Sahara' synonymous with everything that is unsurpassed in the finest hotel luxury," stated Prell, and his property soon became the top celebrity hangout, with hotel guests who included The Beatles, Sinatra, Steve Allen, Elvis, Marty and Frenchy Allen, Telly Savalas, and Sonny and Cher. It was the Sahara, with acts like Louie Prima, Keely Smith, and Sam Butera and the Witnesses, that's credited with revolutionizing the Las Vegas lounge scene in the mid-1950s. As Classic Las Vegas" recalls, "The Casbar Lounge was the jumpingest place in town and everyone from Frank Sinatra to Judy Garland was in the audience" for this non-stop party. Performer Sonny King recalls in Mike Weatherford's Cult Vegas how "In the corner they had a barbecue pit. You'd eat sausages and peppers on Italian bread, steak sandwiches -- in the lounge. I think the fire marshals came in and took it out."

So much for the Sahara, whose iconic neon Moroccan dome-styled porte-cochère was a $4.6 million, 140-foot high 1997 addition, along with the tiled entryway arches, Moroccan art and fabric canopies, and exotic jeweled chandeliers that gave the old joint one final facelift. We continue our journey northward to the final stop on the Las Vegas Strip, where the tallest observation tower in the United States, the Stratosphere Hotel and Casino, debuted a year prior to the Sahara's upgrade, on April 30, 1996.

Standing at a height of 1,149 feet (Stupak had dreamed of a 1,800-foot tower, but the FAA had other ideas), with its observation deck offering panoramic views of the Las Vegas Valley, Bob Stupak's tower was an attraction in its own right. The self-styled Polish Maverick was never one to do things by halves, however: One of his original entertainment concepts was for a ride in the form of a giant ape that would carry riders up and down on one of the tower's columns, à la King Kong, only inside a viewing compartment in its belly. The $6 million, 70-foot-tall Belly of the Beast ride never came to fruition, however, although evidently the plan was abandoned after they'd already minted some "King Kong" Silver Strikes (see image gallery).

In the end, the first two rides offered by the Stratosphere Tower were the pneumatically powered Space Shot (now known as the Big Shot) and the High Roller roller coaster, which opened April 29, 1996 and was the highest roller coaster in the world, when compared to the surrounding terrain. The latter never proved as popular with the public, however, and when a half-million dollar refurbishment became due at the end of 2005, it was considered an opportune time to close and dismantle the attraction, which wound up in the collection of local memorabilia collector/junk hoarder Dr Lonnie Hammargren, which is generally open to the public to visit each Nevada Day (October 31). Hammargren was Lieutenant Governor at the time of the Strat's opening night, and happily piled on the hyperbole, declaring: "This tower will be the symbol of Las Vegas for all time. What Howard Hughes didn't do, Bob Stupak has finished off." More than 18,000 people per day ascended the tower during its first week.

On the lower level of the observation deck was the Top of the World rotating restaurant, which is still going strong to this day, while the casino was divided into three distinct themed zones, like the World's Fairs. The "Pavilion of Fun" was filled with whimsical cartoon figures of characters like circus strong men superhero types, scattered among the tops of the banks of slot machines. The "Pavilion of Imagination," by contrast, was represented by an incongruous statue of two young fairies cavorting on a sliver of a moon (apparently someone soon had the good sense to move it out of sight), while the "Pavilion of the World" featured a ceiling-level mural of notable architectural wonders from around the world, like the Colosseum of Rome and the rooftops of notable European cities.

While the opening night was well attended and featured a spectacular fireworks display, the resort had already been plagued with problems, including a construction fire that delayed the opening of a second hotel tower, plus additional delays with the opening of retail-tenant outlets, and a reluctance among the general public to fork over the high prices charged by the attractions and restaurants. Losing money hand over fist, the Stratosphere filed for bankruptcy in January of 1997, amid countless lawsuits.

The following August, financier Carl Icahn gained preliminary state approval to become the majority shareholder in the property for 50.04% of stock, with the promise of up to $100 million in investment to complete the hotel rooms and tower and build a swimming pool and a race and sports book. "As you know, I buy things when nobody wants them and in the case of the Stratosphere, nobody wanted it so we were there," he would later observe.

[Don in Vegas]

Post by freddy
When Luxor opened on October 15, 1993, it featured four gondola-like barges, which navigated a miniature "River Nile" that encircled the casino floor and were intended to ferry guests to the "inclinators" (the special elevators designed to accommodate the unique pyramidal shape), for a $2 fee. When guests complained about the wait that all this navigation entailed, however, the ride was promoted purely for entertainment purposes as the Nile River Adventure and tickets were up-sold at for first $4, and then later for $3, indicating its similarly limited appeal as an "attraction" (presumably not helped by rumors of its haunting by three workers who died during construction). The whole river experience remained in place for just three years, after which it fell victim to a major interior remodeling and similar "de-themeing" process as occurred at neighboring Excalibur (see yesterday's QoD).
Meanwhile, returning to opening attractions, guests who entered the atrium were greeted by a trio of themed paid attractions that collectively made up a $50-million "participatory adventure" in time travel under the umbrella moniker of "Secrets of the Luxor Pyramid." What were billed in this awesomely cheesy and hyperbolic official preview video as a "trilogy of cutting-edge special-effects attractions," included "In Search of the Obelisk," which took guests on a virtual journey inside an underground pyramid, "Luxor Live" - a kind of interactive contemporary talk show set in New York that for some reason featured a 3-D solar eclipse, and the "Theater of Time," in which guests could experience a time tunnel to the future featuring three alternate realities set in the year 2300 via an IMAX screen.
Back at opening time, the exterior also featured a laser-imaging show that interacted with the exterior fountains and the Sphinx, whose eyes projected "Luxor" onto the side of the pyramid (check out the end of this KLAS-TV coverage if you don't believe us about all this). As Anthony Curtis wrote at the time in the LVA newsletter, "It's meant to be the pyramid's answer to the Mirage's volcano, but it's not." The whole "hi-tech" futuristic vibe was complemented by the 18,000-square-foot Sega VirtuaLand arcade.
Then, of course, there were all the ancient-Egyptian replica artifacts, which debuted collectively shortly after the resort in the King Tut's Tomb Museum attraction (admission $1). Both this, and the IMAX theater, fell victim to the de-themeing juggernaut in 2008, evicted to make way for Bodies ... The Exhibition and Titanic: The Artifact Exhibition.
Last but not least, let us not forget Elias and Jodi (a.k.a. "Humpy and Lumpy"), the animatronic dromedary duo named for two close friends of Luxor's head developer. These talking camels were originally located in an oasis area in the casino but were later moved first to the casino lobby and then (Office Space-style) in 2003 to the walkway between Luxor and Excalibur, before being removed from the property entirely. They were the subject of a "Question of the Day" all of their own back in March 2014, which you can find in the QoD archives.
Today, pretty much all that remains of Luxor's opening attractions are the famous lightbeam (the pharaohonic equivalent of a stairway to heaven), the exterior statuary, and the pyramid itself, which to-date has defied de-theming.
"It's open. It's big. It's unbelievable." Thus wrote Anthony Curtis at the time of MGM Grand's December 1993 debut which, thanks to its tie-in with the movie studio, featured an extensive Wizard of Oz theme, including the green "Emerald City" exterior color scheme that survives to this day, unlike the original Leo the Lion's-head entrance way that was (expensively) ditched after it transpired that walking into the mouth of a giant predator was considered unlucky by Asian gamblers (and frankly, who can blame them?)
Once inside, visitors found themselves in the Oz Casino, facing Emerald City. Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Wicked Witch of the West were all present, in audio-animatronic form, as was an elaborate yellow brick road walk-through, complete with cornfield, apple orchard, and a haunted forest, which led guests to the door of the city and inside, for a performance of The Wizard's Secrets show. This all lasted only until 1996, when the Oz Casino was axed and The Emerald City completely demolished (aside from a gift store, which was relocated and remained open until early 2003).
Also debuting with the resort-casino was the MGM Grand Adventures amusement park, which occupied 33 acres and featured seven (relatively) big rides and attractions, four theaters with shows, and about a dozen eateries and another dozen shops. It can be considered another casualty of Las Vegas' ill-fated attempt to beat Disney at its own game and would shrink, in terms of both visitation and area, over the next few years, until it disappeared off the map altogether in May 2002, when it closed for good after a private "Parrothead" party following a Jimmy Buffett concert.
Tune in tomorrow for more adventures in Las Vegas Strip history, as we chronicle the next batch of resort-casino hits and misses on the attractions front. It's turning out to be a more epic journey than we'd bargained for but we've started, so we'll finish.

why he is so damned dumb that he can jump outta the window and miss the ground!

Don