Caesars Palace
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| Address | 3570 Las Vegas Blvd South Las Vegas, NV 89109 |
| Opening date | August 5, 1966 |
| Previous names | none |
| Casino type | Land-Based |
| Theme | Roman Empire |
| Owner | Harrah's Entertainment |
| No. of rooms | 3,349 |
| Total gaming space | 166,000ft² (15,442 m²) |
| Permanent shows | Bette Midler: The Showgirl Must Go On Elton John: The Red Piano |
| Signature attractions | Forum Shops |
| Notable restaurants | Joe's Stone Crab Restaurant Guy Savoy 808 Bradley Ogden Empress Court Hyakumi Mesa Grill |
| Years renovated | 1974, 1979, 1992, 2001, 2005 |
| Website | Caesars Palace |
Caesars Palace is a luxury hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada, an unincorporated township in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. Caesars Palace is owned and operated by Harrah's Entertainment. Caesars is located on the west side of the Strip, between the Bellagio and the Mirage.
Caesars has 3,348 rooms[1] in five towers: Augustus, Centurion, Roman, Palace, and Forum. The Forum tower features guest suites with 1,000 square feet (93 m²) of space.
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[edit] History
In 1962, Jay Sarno, a cabana motel owner, used $10 million that had been lent to him by the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund to begin plans for a hotel on land owned by Kirk Kerkorian. Sarno would later act as designer of the hotel he planned to construct.
Building of the 14-story Caesars Palace hotel began in 1962. That first tower would have 680 rooms on the 34 acre (138,000 m²) site.
Sarno struggled to decide on a name for the hotel. He finally decided to call it Caesars Palace because he thought that the name Caesar would evoke thoughts of royalty because of Roman general Julius Caesar. Sarno felt that guests should feel they were at a king's home while at his hotel. It is called "Caesars" and not "Caesar's" because every guest is a Caesar.
Sarno contracted many companies to build the hotel, from the Roman landscapes it presents, to the water fountains that have been stages of various events and the hotel's swimming pools.
On August 5, 1966, the hotel was inaugurated, with Andy Williams and Phil Richards providing entertainment; they both played Julius Caesar at a play that night. Two days later, Latin bandleader Xavier Cugat and flamenco guitarist Charo became the first couple to marry in the new establishment.
On December 31, 1967, Evel Knievel unsuccessfully tried to jump the hotel's water fountain with his motorcycle.
On July 15, 1969, executives lay ground on an expansion area of the hotel, and they buried a time capsule in the area, but the time capsule was stolen days later.
In 1973, the Del Webb company was contracted to build a 16-story building adjacent to the Palace. The project was finished in 1974.
Many top performers, such as Celine Dion, Liberace, George Burns, Diana Ross, Cher, Julio Iglesias, Judy Garland, David Copperfield, Gloria Estefan, and Frank Sinatra have performed at the hotel.
[edit] 1980s
In 1980, Gary Wells gained much media coverage, and much physical suffering, when he unsuccessfully tried to jump a motorcycle over a water fountain at the Caesars Palace. He sustained injuries to many different parts of his body.
In 1982 Ronnie Vannucci, now playing in Las Vegas-based The Killers, became the youngest musician to play with a band at age six in a lounge in Caesars Palace.
The Las Vegas Grand Prix car race (a Formula One World Championship event) was held at Caesars in 1981 and 1982. After Watkins Glen race course was removed from the schedule after 1980, Formula 1 put an event in Las Vegas for the 1981 campaign. The new race was not popular among the drivers, primarily because of the desert heat. The track was laid out in the parking lot of the Caesars Palace hotel and was surprisingly well set up for a temporary circuit: wide enough for overtaking, it provided ample run-off areas filled with sand, and had a surface that was as smooth as glass. Its counter-clockwise direction, however, put a tremendous strain on the drivers' necks. When Nelson Piquet clinched his first World Championship by finishing fifth in 1981, it took him fifteen minutes to recover from heat exhaustion. The 1982 race was won by Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell, but the race was not renewed for the following season due to poor attendance.
During the 1980s, the hotel opened an Atari game room that had over 60 Atari video game arcade machines.
In 1989, Robbie Knievel successfully completed what his father could not do years before by completing the fountain jump.
Several championship boxing matches were held in Caesars Outdoor Arena. Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvelous Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, and Roberto Duran all headlined here, along with Larry Holmes against both Muhammad Ali and Gerry Cooney. England boxing captain Errol Christie was on the supporting bill with Hearns when he fought Duran. Also, three bouts between Evander Holyfield and Riddick Bowe were contested here, one of which included the infamous "Fan Man" incident which saw a parachuter with a fan attached to his back parachute down to the ring in the middle of the fight. Michael Moorer also won the Undisputed Heavyweight Championship of the World when he defeated Holyfield. The fight led to Holyfield's first of several retirements. Oscar De La Hoya also headlined several boxing cards here during the mid-to-late '90s, as did Shane Mosley.
[edit] 1990s
The hotel's management wanted it to have a new, family-oriented atmosphere as the 1990s approached, a trend mirrored by many of the big Las Vegas resorts. This move was not strange to Las Vegas hotel owners, as most hotels there were planning to modernize anyway by adding more children features and making Las Vegas hotels seem more family friendly and less gambler oriented.
In 1992, The Forum Shops at Caesars opened; it was one of the very first venues in the city where shopping, particularly at high-end stores, was an attraction in itself. The fourth phase opened on October 22, 2004. It now has the 2nd built circular escalator in the USA. The other one is at the Westfield San Francisco Centre.
WrestleMania IX, one of the annual World Wrestling Federation spectacles promoted by Vince McMahon, was held here in 1993. The theme was "The World's Largest Toga Party".
In 1993, the NBC game show Caesars Challenge was taped here.
Magician David Copperfield was a headliner for several stints in the Circus Maximus Theatre.
Comedian George Burns had performed there a number of times in the early '90s and had stated that he wanted to perform there on his 100th birthday but could not due to failing health.
In the summer of 1996, a venue opened known as "Caesar's Magical Empire", showcasing major magicians such as Whit Haydn, Jon Armstrong, Jeff "Magnus" McBride and Lee Asher in a dinner theater. The show was profitable, but was eventually closed on November 30, 2002 to make room for Celine Dion's new venue.[2]
Over the years, the hotel has been owned by various companies, including Sheraton and The Hilton International Corporation. Caesars Entertainment (originally known as Park Place Entertainment) bought the property in 1999 before it merged with Harrah's in 2005. That year, Caesars Palace was affected by a large flood.
[edit] 2000s
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This article or section may contain an inappropriate mixture of prose and timeline. |
Caesars has opened the Roman Plaza, an open-air area with a cafe on the corner, and the Colosseum theater, where Céline Dion (A New Day...) and Elton John (The Red Piano) were regular performers. The Colosseum was specifically built for Dion's show, A New Day..., a spectacular produced by former Cirque du Soleil director Franco Dragone. Dion's show was also notable for having some of the highest ticket prices for any show in the city, with seats as high as $220 each; nonetheless, the show regularly sold out.[3]
On October 2, 2004, big-time boxing returned to the Palace, as Wladimir Klitschko and former Olympian Jeff Lacy headlined a card televised on Showtime.
Caesars Palace opened the Augustus Tower in August 2005. It stands 46 floors high and is perpendicular to the Strip.
In 2005, Harrah's Entertainment acquired Caesars Entertainment and became the owner of Caesars Palace.
On May 4, 2006, Mike Metzger became the first person to ever backflip on a motorcycle over the fountains.
In May of 2007, Bette Midler was announced as Dion's formal replacement. Midler will reportedly only perform about 100 shows a year, with Elton John continuing to perform his popular Red Piano show 50 nights a year while Midler is on hiatus. After taking a three-year hiatus, Cher, following her Farewell Tour, is also returning to the stage with a three-year contract to perform 200 shows beginning May 6, 2008.[4]
As of December 2007, Harrah's Entertainment runs some of their corporate offices inside the Caesars Palace Resort.
[edit] Future
With the success of the Augustus Tower, Harrah's Entertainment is planning a $1 billion expansion and upgrade to the famed resort. The expansion will include another hotel tower and a sports complex replacing the events center. The timeline for construction was undisclosed.
New features include:
- A new 29-story, 1,017-room hotel tower adjacent to the Palace Tower, which will frame the pool area at the back of the property along with an extension of the existing Convention Center.
- An additional 37,000 sq ft (3,400 m²) of casino space and about 110,000 sq ft (10,000 m²) of added retail and restaurants will cover the area closest to the Strip replacing the new outdoor Roman Plaza.
- A "pedestrian promenade", with several decorative fountains surrounded by landscaping which will guide strip-walkers into Caesar's domain. Underneath the promenade, Caesars will excavate a parking garage, with 389 valet-parking spaces.
[edit] Film history
- Hells Angels on Wheels 1967
- Where It's At 1969
- The Electric Horseman 1979
- Pleasure Palace
- History of the World, Part I 1981
- Oh God, You Devil 1984
- You Ruined My Life 1987
- Rain Man 1988
- Hearts are Wild 1992
- Caesars Challenge 1993, a game show
- Fools Rush In 1997
- Friends 1999
- The Strip 1999
- Ocean's Eleven 2001
- Rush Hour 2 2001
- Dreamgirls 2006
- Category 6: Day of Destruction
- Iron Man 2008
- In the video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Caesars Palace appears in the fictional city of Las Venturas, but with the name Caligula's Palace. The Casino is a major part of the game's plot, in which the main character must pull off a robbery heist on the casino, which is run by the mafia.
- A&E had a reality show called Caesars 24/7 showing behind the scenes at Caesars. The jobs highlighted by the show ranged from security and concierge to "The Grape Goddess" and "Shadow Dancers." Many visitors were documented as well. The show ran for two seasons.
[edit] Amenities and entertainment
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It has been suggested that Caesar's Palace Coliseum be merged into this article or section. (Discuss) |
Caesars offers additional attractions including:
- Exotic cars showroom
- Fall of Atlantis — free show
- Festival Fountain — free show
- Pure Nightclub a 36,000 sq ft (3,300 m²) nightclub
- Free shuttle to sister property Rio Hotel and Casino approximately every thirty minutes.
The Pussycat Dolls Lounge, an adjunct of Pure nightclub.
In February of 2006, a section of the casino was themed to match the Pussycat Dolls Nightclub[5] and is called the Pussycat Dolls Casino.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Las Vegas Review-Journal
- ^ http://www.magictimes.com/archives/2002/2002-12_02-08.htm Magictimes.com Retrieved on 05-09-07
- ^ Vegas.com
- ^ "Cher agrees to 3-year deal in Vegas", Yahoo! News, 2008-02-07. Retrieved on 2008-02-08.
- ^ Las Vegas Review-Journal, March 6, 2007, Page E1
[edit] External links
| Preceded by Hoosier Dome |
Host of WrestleMania IX 1993 |
Succeeded by Madison Square Garden |
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