The View-Master packet Las Vegas, Nevada (A159) from the Famous Cities Series.
Packet Cover
Booklet Cover
From the 16-page booklet:
A newcomer to Vegas, whether he trains in, flies, or drives a car, finds that city hard to believe. Is it all a mirage? A trick played on the eyes? That first impression sticks in the mind, even after one has spent a few days (and several dollars) in the desert. It is unreal, a stage setting more appropriate to the Arabian Nights than the parched plains of Nevada.
Las Vegas, however, is not a trick or an illusion. Its 17 resort hotels and 280 motels are real. Its gambling casinos, bars, and restaurants are real. It is Nevada’s largest city, a round-the-clock town that knows no night or day, nor any season.
Mormons were the first settlers in Las Vegas, coming to “the meadows,” a campground on the Old Spanish Trail from Santa Fe to California, in 1855; but there seems to be no connection between that event and the city we know today: The Entertainment Capital of the World—bright, brash and bosomy, sun-tanned, giddy, and gay.
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Fremont Street at Night
Glittering Fremont Street at night
From the 16-page booklet:
FREMONT STREET
The Mormons abandoned their settlement two years later, in 1857. The present city of Las Vegas was established in 1905, on ground then owned by the San Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad. It was incorporated in 1911, two years after it became the seat of Clark County.
Vegas might still be a sleepy, little railroad town had it not been for legal gambling and the “quickie” six-week divorce law enacted by the State Legislature in 1931.
Fremont Street, a glitter gulch with wall-to-wall neon, is located in downtown Vegas, a city in itself, seemingly separate from the fabled Strip west of town.
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Freemont Street by Day
Fremont Street by day
From the 16-page booklet:
DAYTIME DOWNTOWN
Fremont Street, a sort of welcome mat, running from the Union Pacific depot to the Hotel Fremont, greets visitors who come into town by train. As you can see, the Old West is alive and well in Las Vegas, carefully nurtured in the names of its gambling houses: The Mint, Horseshoe, Golden Nugget, Four Queens and the Pioneer. Vegas may well be a natural extension of that free-swinging, card-playing and hard-drinking society which once peopled the West.
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Horseshoe Club
Horseshoe Club and The Mint Hotel
From the 16-page booklet:
HORSESHOE CLUB AND THE MINT HOTEL
The nine airlines serving the city carried a total of three million passengers to McCarran Field last year.
Temperatures in Las Vegas range from very hot to cool and comfortable in the span of a single day, accounting for the jackets, coats, and sweaters you see here.
Many visitors find this part of town more real than the Strip. The people you see here seem to be a cross-section sliced from Smalltown, USA, as opposed to the high-flying “Jet Set” seen on the Strip’s hotel row. Casino Center is only two blocks long, that is true; but its 12 hotels and casinos stand side-by-side, which means you won’t need to hire a cab to get from place to place.
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Slot Machines
Slot machines lure more women than men
From the 16-page booklet:
SLOT MACHINES IN A DOWNTOWN CLUB
The ratio of men-to-women seen here is about right; the “slots” have always been a great favorite of the “weaker” sex. Their promised pay-off: a jackpot in nickels, dimes, quarters, halves, or silver dollars.
“One-armed bandits” work on a reasonable profit margin, returning something like 10% to the house. Then, too, the machine has therapeutic value; it develops muscles in the arm and back, the latter a result of packing loose change in one’s pocket or purse. You can, in fact, note a slight list to the right in most slot machine players.
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Action at Craps
Craps is a favorite game with men
From the 16-page booklet:
ACTION AT THE CRAP TABLE
The use of dice for games of chance probably started in the Orient, spreading then to India and Egypt. The design of the die has been standard throughout its history. Dice matching those in use today have been found in Persia and among the ruins of ancient Thebes.
This, in contrast to the slots, remains a man’s game, a fast-moving, quick win-or-lose proposition. Two house men work each table, insuring a fair shake for both the house and the customer. Women are not often used as “house men” or dealers in Vegas. That is common practice, however, in Reno, a place which claims to be the “Biggest Little City in the World,” a title more imagined than real. Las Vegas has done very well, thank you, without a title.
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Convention Center
Convention Center seats 8,500
From the 16-page booklet:
LAS VEGAS’ CONVENTION CENTER
This city of 166,000 played host to 15 million visitors last year; that amounts to one in every fourteen Americans! And they spent more than $400,000,000.
Las Vegas probably attracts more major conventions than any other city in the West. Its beautiful convention hall seats 8,500, boasts a well-equipped stage, has ample room for industrial displays and small gatherings.
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The Strip at Dusk
The famous Strip at dusk
From the 16-page booklet:
THE WORLD FAMOUS “STRIP” AT DUSK
The Strip, three miles of unprecedented luxury, or six, if you count both sides of U.S. highway 91, contains more resort hotels than any other spot on earth. Each hotel is an individual community, complete with sauna bath, health club, and swimming pool.
Las Vegas, itself, is located in a desert basin, almost surrounded by mountains. It is an oasis, a miracle set in sand, made green by the waters of deep artesian wells.
Many of the Strip’s hotels bear names which reflect its desert background (the Dunes, the Sands, and the Sahara), while others (the Flamingo, Thunderbird, Caesars Palace seem more inspired by whim. Names aside, the hotels share a common purpose: the visitor’s care and comfort.
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Circus Circus at Night
Circus Circus at night
From the 16-page booklet:
CIRCUS CIRCUS AT NIGHT
The casino, set squarely amidst the Strip’s hotels, is new and different, something unique on the Vegas scene, a Circus Circus! No hotel rooms. No shops. Entertainment? A three-ring circus of trapeze and tightwire acts, clowns, and acrobats. Excitement? Always something going on.
Highway 91 becomes a Great White Way at night, brighter than New York’s Broadway. Its neon sighn oscillate, soar, plunge, flash, blink, tower, spiral, rotate, and revolve; in short, they do everything but stand still.
Vegas is non-stop, a town stuck on “go.” There are no windows in its casinos, nor any clocks to tell the time of day. If you need to know that, wear a wrist watch.
Drinks? “Free” to serious gamblers. Hors d’oeuvers? A smiling girl will bring you some—“on the house.”
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Riviera Hotel
Riviera Hotel
From the 16-page booklet:
THE FABULOUS RIVIERA
The Riviera, neatly groomed and manicured, rather conservative in contrast to some of its newer and more noisy neighbors in Vegas, is “hotelman’s hotel,” an accolade earned through fine service, keen attention to minor detail, and by high standards of housekeeping.
The Riviera also has a deserved reputation for good dining in its Versailles Room, Starlight Lounge and pool-side terrace.
As is true of most hootels along the Strip, the Riviera offers its guests a choice of bars, lounges, and deluxe restaurants. Its “big” room, a theatre-restaurant, stars “name” entertainers, each doing a two-a-day, 4-to-8 week stint. Las Vegas’ supper shows are free; the meals, however, are expensive.
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Riviera Pool
Popular pool of the Riviera
From the 16-page booklet:
POOL-SIDE AT THE RIVIERA
Las Vegas has more going for it than a deck of cards or a pair of dice. Swimming, as any bystander will tell you, is one of the more popular sports. One need not “get in the swim” to enjoy some of its finer points.
Golf, and tennis, too, are very big in Vegas. Like swimming, they guarantee a deep suntan, a status symbol often envied by folks back home, whether it be New York, St. Louis, or Keokuk.
If you tire of these, Las Vegas is about a half-hour’s drive from Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, largest man-made lake in the world. Other scenic and recreational points of interest include: Lake Mohave and Mt. Charleston, both convenient to the Entertainment Capital.
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International Hotel
International Hotel, new to the Strip
From the 16-page booklet:
THE TOWERING NEW INTERNATIONAL HOTEL
A recent addition to the Strip, the International soars skyward above the desert, in keeping with a current trend in Vegas. There was a time, say 20 years ago, when hotels here were built ranch-style and spread over acres of flat terrain. Property values being what they are, however, it has become standard procedure to erect skyscrapers in the sand. The International’s three theatres, on legitimate, offer a wide range of entertainment, appealing to all age groups and a variety of tastes.
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Don Ho Show at the International
Don Ho Show on stage of International Hotel
From the 16-page booklet:
BILL MILLER PRESENTS “THE DON HO SHOW”
If there is one thing upon which Las Vegas has a claim, it is its reputation of being the “entertainment capital” of the world. No less than five $1,000,000 extravaganzas, two Broadway productions, and three shows starring Hollywood headliners played the Strip during a recent, typical week. Each production employs a cast of over 50 people, a weekly payroll of 50 or 100 thousand dollars.
The Don Ho Show, shown here, features a Hawaiian chorus line, appropriate to the island-born entertainer starring in the International’s huge theatre-restaurant. Here, and in all the Strip’s hotels, the stage is as much the thing as the play itself.
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Landmark Hotel Tower and Pool
Landmark Hotel’s tower and pool
From the 16-page booklet:
AN AERIAL VIEW OF THE LANDMARK HOTEL
The Landmark may herald the beginning of another Strip, south of highway 91 on Paradise Valley Road. This hotel’s Sky Bar affords a panoramic 360-degree view of the entire valley. The Landmark is new, so new that its grounds have not yet turned green. That will not take long; the desert blossoms “overnight” when you add water.
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Stardust Hotel at Night
Stardust Hotel at night
From the 16-page booklet:
THE STARDUST HOTEL
The Stardust, home of the Lido revue, boasts the most beautiful and best, equipped showroom in Vegas, the only stage with both an ice rink and a swimming pool.
The revue, new each year, is imported from Paris with its original cast.
The hotel, largest in Las Vegas, spreads over so vast an area that golf carts are used to ferry visitors from the hotel’s lobby to their rooms.
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Lido de Paris, Café Continental
Lido de Paris at Café Continental, Stardust
From the 16-page booklet:
CAFÉ CONTINENTAL’S LIDO DE PARIS
Stage effects in the Stardust’s Café Continental run an incredible gamut, from fiery earthquakes to rainstorms or floods. But what many people remember most ar ethe girls, endless lines of girls in various stages of dress and undress, all the more impressive when you remember it costs nothing more than the price of dinner and drinks.
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Desert Inn
Desert Inn, one of the pioneer hotels on the Strip
From the 16-page booklet:
THE DESERT INN
This was one of the first hotels built on the Strip, was recently purchased by mystery-man Howard Hughes. That and subsequent acquisitions have provided grist for the Vegas rumor mill. Does he (Hughes) intend to build a “jumbo jet port” near town? Does he have secret information on a new uranium strike? Or does he plan only on “cleaning up” the casinos? Anyone’s guess. Whatever, the Desert Inn remains the oldest, established pleasure dome on the Strip, going about its business with the same vigor it had when Wilbur Clark “plunged” into the wilderness west of town.
The Inn’s satellite shops, fashionable boutiques, men’s clothing stores, are considered the smartest in Vegas.
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Crystal Room Show, Desert Inn
Crystal Room show at Desert Inn
From the 16-page booklet:
THE CRYSTAL ROOM’S SPECTACULAR REVUE
Some Vegas productions (Pzazz, Le Lido de Paris, Folies Bergere, Minsky’s Burlesque) are booked for an indefinite run. Many combine the “best of Broadway and Hollywood,” a rather typical claim on the Strip. Each features a chorus line of elegantly-gowned showgirls, all tall, beautiful, and long-legged, who come to Las Vegas from all over the world to earn $275 a week and up. Many of the “bluebell” girls featured in the Lido Revue are, for example, from England, seemingly out-of-place in a “French” show.
In addition to these and other attractions (see below), the “Inn crowd” sponsors the $50,000 “Howard Hughes Open” Tennis Championships each fall.
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Frontier Hotel
Frontier Hotel on the Strip
From the 16-page booklet:
FRONTIER HOTEL
The Frontier, across the street from the Desert Inn and next door to the Stardust, presents an interesting parade of TV, movie, and recording stars. Following their run in Vegas, many of these headliners move on to engagements in New York City, Miami Beach, or Chicago, returning once or twice a year to the Strip by popular demand.
Room rates are reasonable in Vegas ($11 single and up); and hotel meals can be inexpensive (88-cent breakfasts, $1.46 for a buffet lunch) if one avoids the “big rooms.”
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Flamingo Hotel at Night
Flamingo Hotel at night
From the 16-page booklet:
THE FLAMINGO HOTEL
One of the larger Strip hotels, the Flamingo has a wide choice of accommodations and rates, ranging from singles to luxurious private suites with personal butlers and a private swimming pool.
Its atmosphere is relaxed and informal, traits shared with the Sands, Desert Inn, the Dunes, and Riviera, all neighboring pioneers on the fables Strip.
There are, of course, excellent privately-operated bars and restaurants on the Strip. It is not just one long row of resort hotels. And you can find one-armed bandits anywhere, in drug or hardware stores, in service stations.
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Tropicana Golf Course
Golf course at the Tropicana
From the 16-page booklet:
THE TROPICANA’S 18-HOLE COURSE
Las Vegas’ philosophy is simple: If it can convince you to spend an extra day or two, a week perhaps, it has done its job. You, therefore, get red carpet treatment and all the trimmings: 18-hole layouts and swimming pools to keep you in shape, soft music to soothe your nerves, the whole bundle. The town goes “all out” to keep you happy.
The Tropicana, last stop heading west on the Strip, has become a sportsman’s paradise, including the championship golf course pictured here, putting greens, driving range, and tennis courts, each calculated to increase the length of your visit to Las Vegas.
Off the well-kept greens and fairways, the Tropicana is everything one could ask. Its casino clinks to the rhythm of roulette wheels, the excitement of a jackpot, the fast but quiet action at the blackjack table, the anticipation that accompanies showtime in its Theatre Lounge.
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Folies Bergere at Tropicana
Folies Bergere is popular Tropicana show
From the 16-page booklet:
THE FOLIES BERGERE
French shows have become the “rage of Vegas.” There are now three: le Lido, Casino de Paris at the Dunes, and the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana. Can 50 million Frenchmen be wrong? Hardly. People stand in line for hours to get a table inside the Tropicana’s Theatre Lounge.
Glamour is a password in Vegas. One can rub elbows with the great and near-great at its gaming tables. Nowhere in America is there such a mixture of mink-clad women, girls in stretch pants, beauties in bikinis, men in blue jeans, cowboy boots, or dinner jackets. It is, as we said in the beginning a mirage born of heat waves in the desert air, and illusion that will not gow away. All that and more. Las Vegas is America’s most fun-loving city.
2 comments:
We can't take away the fact that Las Vegas is still popular for its casino and gambling activities. But do the increasing popularity of live casino is the big threat for land based casino?
These must look incredible with the 3D effect through the viewer. Particularly picture 1.
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