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The above banner headline for a story by Bob Shemeligian writer for the Las Vegas Sun Newspaper announced his story printed below. After you read it you'll surely want to have a copy because it is the only book written by a top executive of a Las Vegas Resort Hotel. There is no other book available that tells about all of the inter-workings of a Las Vegas popular destination
hotel.
In this book you will find stories about: (l). Insider thievery, girls on the street corner that saved the hotel from bankruptcy during its first year of operation, a fleet of constellation airplanes operated by the hotel bringing in guests on their "Evening in Las Vegas Champaign Flights", the adventures of casino executive Bob Timm and his record breaking "endurance flight", death of guests in the hotel and the strange coincidence of the first two deaths taking place a year apart but in the same room, and much much more.
HACIENDA headliner Red Foxx laments turning over his $20,000 weekly paychecks to the Internal Revenue Service.
Elvis impersonators in sequined jumpsuits gorge themselves on Mexican food in the Hacienda coffee shop in homage to the real King. And, finally, the New Year's Eve implosion spells the end of the 40-year-old south Strip Hotel. These Hacienda stories and many more are brought to life by local historian and author Dick Taylor in his "Las Vegas Hacienda Hotel History-Volume II." Through newspaper clippings, local fliers and letters, Taylor's latest book provides a candid look at everything that happened in and around the Hacienda during the last 20 years.
The book, subtitled "The Last Chapter," details how the Hacienda grew from a 256-room motor lodge on the outskirts of town to a 1,200-room resort.
"When this place was built, there was absolutely nothing here", said Taylor, who served as General Manager of the hotel during the l950's to '60's.
Despite predictions from many early gaming executives that the Hacienda would struggle at its extreme location, the hotel did very well for many years.
Because the Hacienda didn't have a big-star showroom policy, Taylor explained, the hotel saved on entertainment costs, and executives made the most of their remote location.
"We used to get a lot of people coming down the old highway," Taylor said. "Plus, we operated our own airline. All of our planes had very impressive logos painted on the sides just like "the big boys" i.e. PanAm, TWA, etc. In the 60's we were flying nightly junkets out of Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco. We also had weekly flights out of Dallas, TX, and Honolulu. We were hauling more people on our flights than all the other airlines put together during the summer of l960. That's why the other lines filed complaints with the C.A.B. and finally made us cease operations.
There was another plus to the hotel's remote location: "We were so far from the other hotels, that you couldn't walk away from the Hacienda to visit them," Taylor said. "You had to drive or take a cab. So, a lot of our guests would just hang around their entire vacation."
And to keep the guests on site, owner Warren "Doc" Bayley and hotel executives thought up many different types of promotional events and activities.
"We were the first to do the family stuff," Taylor said. "We had a 3-par pitch-and-putt golf course encircling the hotel, a miniature golf course in the patio-pool area, a go-kart track, a quarter-midget race car track, and an Olympic-size swimming pool.
As for hotel promotions, the sky was not the limit, as detailed by historical accounts in "Hacienda-The Last Chapter". In l958, Slot Manager Bob Timm, who was also a pilot, thought of the mother of all hotel stunts. He talked hotel officials into sponsoring an attempt to break the sustained flight record of 52 days, and he and co-pilot John Cook accomplished this feat in a single-engine Cessna.
The two men received fuel and supplies by flying low and slow over a pickup truck speeding along the dry lake bed just south of the state line. A rope was dropped from the plane to the speeding truck, and then tied to a fuel line for fuel and bundles of food. The two men stayed in the air over Southern Nevada from Dec. 4, l958, until Feb 9, l959, surpassing the previous record for sustained flight by l5 days.
"In the early days of the gamblers ("mob" members) in Las Vegas, the hotels didn't keep records, and I've been told that the Hacienda is the only local hotel for which there is a complete set of records from when it was built to when it was imploded," Taylor said.
Taylor, who has compiled a dozen other local history books said the "The Last Chapter" is a must for students, researchers and anyone else with an interest in Las Vegas hotel-casino history.
See below for ways you can purchase this book:
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