How it started: The birth of Caesars Palace — PHOTOS
By Tony Garcia Las Vegas Review-Journal
An aerial shot, left, of Caesars Palace under construction on Oct. 23, 1965, along with a photo of the Caesars Palace rotunda shot March 14, 2023. (Las Vegas News Bureau and Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal)
An aerial shot of Caesars Palace on March 25, 1966. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
Caesars President Nate Jacobson poses with Jimmy Hoffa during the grand opening of Caesars Palace on Aug. 5, 1966, in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
Kirk Kerkorian, Jay Sarno, Nate Jacobson and others take part in the groundbreaking for Caesars Palace on Jan. 26, 1965, in Las Vegas. (Jerry Abbott/Las Vegas News Bureau)
Jay Sarno and Line Renaud pose in a chariot near the fountains and replica of the Giambologna statue “The Rape of the Sabine Women” during the grand opening of Caesars Palace on Friday, Aug. 5, 1966. The chariot and horse were a gift from the Sahara. (Milt Palmer/Las Vegas News Bureau)
Caesars President Nate Jacobson poses with Kirk Kerkorian and his wife, Jean Maree Hardy, during the grand opening of Caesars Palace on Aug. 5, 1966, in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
An aerial shot of Caesars Palace under construction on Oct. 23, 1965. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
Ann Miller, from left, Nevada Gov. Grant Sawyer, Caesars President Nate Jacobson and Jay Sarno perform the ribbon-cutting during the grand opening of Caesars Palace on Aug. 5, 1966, in Las Vegas. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
“Goddesses” cocktail waitresses stand by the fountain prior to the grand opening of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Aug. 5, 1966. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
The furniture design at Caesars Palace in 1966 represents Rococo Modernism, a style common during the era also known as Hollywood Regency. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
The furniture design at Caesars Palace in 1966 represents Rococo Modernism, a style common during the era also known as Hollywood Regency. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
The furniture design at Caesars Palace in 1966 represents Rococo Modernism, a style common during the era also known as Hollywood Regency. (Las Vegas News Bureau)
The Caesars Palace rotunda in Las Vegason Tuesday, March 14, 2023. The structure is set for demolition. (Rachel Aston/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @rookie__rae
Although it has been closed to the public for years, news that Caesars Palace received permits to demolish its rotunda along the Las Vegas Strip triggered some feelings of nostalgia.
The brainchild of Jay Sarno and Stan Mallin, Caesars Palace opened to the public on Aug. 5, 1966, at a cost of $24 million.
“We hit lightning in a bottle with Caesars,” recalled Mallin, who died in 2021 at 98. “It took right off. It was the nicest thing in Las Vegas and maybe in the country.”
In a Las Vegas Review-Journal profile on Sarno published in 1999, Caesars Palace was described as “a fantasy world where every guest was a Caesar or a Cleopatra. This theme made it easy to escape the boring mores of mainstream America, to loosen up and bet a hundred on a hardway eight.”
Sarno and Mallin sold Caesars Palace three years later for $60 million.
