Antique/Vintage Aladdin Casino Swizzle Stick ~ Las Vegas, Nevada

From the beginning, this property seemed to be doomed for failure. This property at times was called "The Vegas Jinx".
In 1962, inventor of the game Yahtzee, Edwin Lowe, opened the $12 million, 450 room, English Tallyho Motel aimed to prove that a resort motel without a casino could be successful. Tudor style, it had leaded windows, gables, and half-timbering. It contained 32 villas, a par 54 nine-hole golf course which some regarded as the most challenging in the West, four swimming pools and six specialty restaurants. The resort closed in October of 1963.
In 1964, the motel became the King's Crown Tallyho Inn and failed after six months when it was denied a gaming license.
In 1966, Milton Prell purchased the resort for $16 million. Another $3 million on renovations was spent, including a new 500 seat "Bagdad Theater" showroom. Prell swapped the English imagery for an Arabian Nights theme, but kept the original Tudor room wings.
A serrated canopy and a $750,000 15-story aladdin's lamp sign were added.
The 335 room Aladdin opened on midnight, April 1, 1966, with a black tie affair. Flower petals poured from the ceiling and onto guests as they entered the hall. One guest was composer-pianist Warren Richards. The opening entertainment included comedian Jackie Mason, the "Jet Set Revue," a musical review that showcased The Three Cheers and the Petite Rockette Dancers in the Bagdad Theatre.
Prell introduced an innovative main-showroom policy by offering three completely different shows twice nightly with no cover or minimum charges.
The Aladdin contained a golf course, 9 hole par 3.
On May 1, 1967, the Aladdin became important to rock n' roll history when it was the host of the wedding of Elvis and Priscilla Presley, before 100 friends and an armada of writers and photographers.
In 1969, wealthy Detroit widow Mae George purchased 24% of the resort. George was questioned by the Nevada Gaming Control Board because her business adviser was her late husband's foster brother, James Tamer, the Aladdin's entertainment director who later was placed in Nevada's Black Book. Four mobsters who had bilked the hotel of $250,000 received prison terms. Later it came to light that Detroit bail bondsman Charles Goldfarb and James Tamer were running the resort on behalf of Detroit and St. Louis mob interests. A grand jury was convened and a two-year investigation began.
In August of 1969, the Aladdin just completed a $750,000 face life including renovations to the Sinbad Lounge which became enclosed and leveled above the casino floor with Arabic motif.
Also in 1969, Parvin Dohrmann Corporation took over the Aladdin and in 1972, using the name Recrion Corporation, sold it to veteran casino executive Sam Diamond, St. Louis politician Peter Webbe, Sorkis Webbe, and Richard Daly for the price of just $5 million. Under the Webbes, a $60 million facelift was conducted including the addition of a 19-story tower, and the new 7,500 seat Performing Arts Center replacing the golf course, which was $4 million over budget.
The Aladdin stated that the new tower was 29 floors. It was actually a 19-story structure, but the owners, fond of the idea of 29 stories, started numbering the floors at 11.
A $250,000 porte cochere continued the tower's arabesques. The Aladdin also added a new $300,000 140-foot blockbuster sign with little neon, huge attraction panels and none of the arabesque of the Aladdin's original sign.
The Aladdin had a grand re-opening in 1976 with singer Neil Diamond being paid $750,000 for two shows.
In August, 1979, James Abraham, Charles Goldfarb, Tamer, and Edward Monazym were convicted by a Detroit Federal Jury of conspiring to allow hidden owners to exert control over the resort. The Nevada Gaming Commission then closed the hotel but U.S. District Judge Harry Claiborne opened it three hours later warning he had "special powers" as a federal judge. Aladdin attorney/owner Sorkis Webbe was indicted in connection with a $1 million kickback scheme during an expansion project at the hotel.
By 1980 there was a price war with Wayne Newton, along with partner Ed Torres buying the property for $85 million, over Johnny Carson's bids. Newton and Torres had personality and ego conflicts from the beginning. The resort's entertainment policy shifted from "big-name stars" to stage shows. Newton said he wasn't in favor of the change. Torres bought out Newton in 1982, but found himself fighting off banks and unions as creditors. A year after the breakup, Torres was trying to negotiate with Newton, this time to sell the resort back to Newton. In February 1984, Aladdin went into Chapter 11, $3.5 million in debt after a Teamsters Pension Fund forced the foreclosure. Newton had failed to show he had the finances to buy the property and the deal was dead.
Charges of mob infiltration and skimming closed the Aladdin from January 1986 to April 1, 1987.
Ginji Yasuda, a Japanese businessman bought the property in early 1987 for $54 million. The casino was closed while Yasuda applied for his gaming license and a massive year-long refurbishing began. State gamers granted Yasuda a two-year conditional license. He was the first foreign resident to obtain such a license and quickly became a hero to some individuals. It is reported that Yasuda spent $20 million in remodeling the resort.
During the casino's one year closure, he kept 80 employees on the payroll and lost as much as $850,000 a month. Yasuda was living beyond the Aladdin's income. He kept one of five elevator shafts roped off for himself while guests were waiting long periods of time for elevators. He would stay up late at night in the penthouse watching hotel monitors, placing slot machines in neat, orderly lines with no carousels. The Aladdin has no excitement.
Rumors were that Yasuda used the corporation's $25 million jet to fly his wife to New York on afternoon shopping excursions. Vendors began wanting their payment in cash. Hospitals refused to be providers for the Aladdin employees. It was reported that Yasuda borrowed $6 million from Japanese organized crime interests to keep the Aladdin afloat against the Internal Revenue Service who wanted to seize the hotel.
In August 1989, Yasuda refused to reveal the source of his loans to the Nevada Gaming Commission which cost him his license. Four days later the Aladdin was again filing for bankruptcy. Yasuda died of cancer in December, 1989.
Aladdin was instead put into the hands of a series of careful managers approved by the bankruptcy courts.
The occupancy rate of the Aladdin was 94% to 97%, but "Lately it seems people have been using us as a bedroom and spending their days elsewhere."
In 1991, United States Bankruptcy Judge Linda Riegle granted Bell Atlantic Tricon the deed, saving the closure of the resort and 1,300 jobs. Valley Bank was calling in a $2 million loan.
In 1992, possession of the Aladdin was turned over to casino executive Joe Burt on a 12-year lease, ending three years of bankruptcy court control. Although Burt orchestrated a $15 million renovation, people were still using the Aladdin for a bed and not much more. What was once one of the largest casinos in the state was a tired old relic next to the shine and glitz of the new resorts such as The Mirage and Excalibur. Even the Performing Arts center was outdated.
The Aladdin gained the interest of the public by having big name entertainment such as Bon Jovi, Jefferson Starship, Heart, Stone Temple Pilots, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers play there, as well as good musicals such as Country Tonite. Burt was credited as a strong operator who had turned the Aladdin into what looked like it was going to be a financial success.
Just when Burt was beginning to see his dream of the rebirth of the Aladdin making a strong come-back, he was killed in a motorcycle accident in July of 1993, in Arizona.
In 1994, New York real estate developer Jack Sommer and his Sigman Sommer Family Trust, through their company, Aladdin Gaming LLC, took over the resort for $80 million. A spokesman was quoted as stating that the resort will not be demolished.
In 1997, the Aladdin announced that the present hotel will be demolished and a new $1.2 billion hotel and gaming complex will be built on its 35 acres of land, opening in the spring of 2000.
On November 25, 1997, the Aladdin closed its doors forever. The Aladdin was imploded on 7:30pm, on April 27, 1998.