As Las Vegas prepares to celebrate its 100th Anniversary in May, I thought it would be fun to look back at the history of the Strip over the last few decades.

After a rousing period of growth from the early 1940s through the late 1950s, things began to slow down on the Strip in terms of development in the next decade. More than a dozen major resorts with names like Sahara, Sands, Dunes, Flamingo and Stardust debuted during that time period.

But between 1965 and 1975 there were only three noteworthy grand openings.

---

Boom Turned To Bust For Vegas From 1955-65

---

It is theorized that a major factor in this decline in development was the drying up of a major source of capital: the mafia. Although no one really likes to talk about it, many of the casino-hotels that opened in the early days of Vegas were funded by the mob. By the 1960s, the government had started to go after the crime families and they were slowly pushed out of the Vegas arena by people like Howard Hughes, who bought the Desert Inn in 1966.

(Yes, the legend is true. Hughes had been staying at the Desert Inn for nearly a month. He was asked to vacate but didn't want to. Instead, he bought the place.)

A more corporate-focused era started in 1966 with the opening of the Aladdin, a remodeling of an existing hotel into an Arabian Nights theme. Noteworthy was the addition in the early 1970s of the Aladdin Center for the Performing Arts, a 7,500-seat theater that was the only piece of the property preserved when it was torn down in 2000 to make way for the current Aladdin (soon to become Planet Hollywood).

A little later, in 1966, the desert themes that had been ruling the Strip (Sands, Dunes, Sahara) moved to Rome with the opening of the decadent Caesars Palace. With 700 rooms and a lavish casino, the hotel set the standard for new development for years to come, ushering in an era of "we must outdo the last guy" mentality.

But it was 1973 that saw the debut of the concept of a mega-resort, with the original MGM Grand. At an estimated cost of around $100 million, more than 2,000 rooms, and a football-field-size casino, the Grand was the largest, most expensive hotel ever built. A tragic fire at the property in 1980 diminished the allure of the hotel for a while, but it bounced back and became Bally's in the mid-1980s.

The only other noteworthy property that opened from 1965 to 1975 was the Marina, a 700-room hotel and casino that lasted until the early 1990s, when most of it was torn down to make way for the current MGM Grand. But not all of it. The hotel tower was gutted and incorporated into the design of the new building -- it's the low-rise tower that extends out toward Las Vegas Boulevard.

Development started moving off the Strip in a couple of interesting places during the decade.

In July 1969, the Landmark Hotel opened on Casino Center Drive, just off the Strip near the Stardust. Its space-age style tower contained a rotating restaurant at the top, offering a much smaller blueprint for the Stratosphere, which came about 30 years later. The Landmark was imploded in 1995, captured in a spectacular blaze of glory in the movie "Mars Attacks!"

The day after the Landmark opened, the International Hotel opened a block further east on Paradise Road. Most famous as the place where Elvis made his big comeback, the hotel was expanded many times and still exists today as the Las Vegas Hilton.

The Full Story

Will Casinos Be Allowed To Charge Cover Fees?
New Concepts Came To Vegas From 1965-1975
Vegas Q&#38A: How Should I Get To My Hotel?

In Next Week's Column

Next week: The latest from Las Vegas.

Plus, don't forget to send your questions about Las Vegas. I've got room for more, so send them in today!

Click here to go to the main page of Vegas4Visitors.com and see all of the fantastic resources Vegas4Visitors has to offer you when planning your next trip to Las Vegas.