Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn

The fifth resort on the Strip

THE PLAYERS CLUB

In 1945 Johnny and Mitzi Hughes opened a small, but elegant, club at 3145 Highway 91, in Las Vegas. The Club was called The Players; it was licensed for slots, blackjack and craps. Guests at The Players wore coats and ties, high heels and evening gowns. Wandering musicians provided entertainment in the Orchid Room. Fuller’s Index shows that Wilbur Clark was the licensed owner of The Players Club as of March 1949, and that the club was closed in 1949.

WILBUR CLARK’S DESERT INN

According to the March 1, 1955 edition of the Las Vegas Review Journal: “In 1945 when slender, dapper Wilbur Clark stood in the barren desert with a blue-print in his hand and visualized the completion of his dream, he did not know then that it would be five long years before the Desert Inn became a reality.”

Wilbur Clark had been involved in gambling, both legal and illegal, since the 1930’s. He worked on gambling boats off the California Coast, then moved on to Saratoga, Reno (Bonanza Club) and Palm Springs. In San Diego, he bought a couple of small bars that had gambling in the back rooms. Like other gambling entrepreneurs of the era, he eventually ended up in Las Vegas.

Clark bought a majority of shares in the El Rancho Vegas in 1944. In 1945 he leased the downtown Northern Club from Mayme Stocker, renaming it the Monte Carlo. He remodeled the Monte Carlo, bringing to it an elegance that wasn’t seen in other downtown casinos. The sale of these properties gave Clark the cash to buy out his partners in the Players Club. He demolished the building to make way for the Desert Inn.

Clark’s dream was to build a luxurious, chic resort that would compete with The Flamingo. Construction began in 1947 and, unfortunately for Clark, he ran into the same problem that Billy Wilkerson ran into when The Flamingo was being built…he ran out of money long before construction was complete. The construction site was silent for nearly two years, while Clark tried to raise the funds needed to complete his dream.

Moe Dalitz

In 1949 Clark met Moe Dalitz. Dalitz was a former rumrunner from Cleveland, with connections to top figures in organized crime. As head of the Mayfield Road gang, Dalitz also was involved with illegal gambling. Using the profits from his illegal activities, Dalitz invested in legitimate businesses including Detroit Steel Corporation, Pioneer Linen Supply, Liberty Ice Cream Co., Buckeye Catering Co., and several others. Clark sold 74% of the Desert Inn to Dalitz and five of his Cleveland partners. With financing that was secured from the Teamster’s Union Central States Pension fund, the Desert Inn was completed in 1950.

Preferring to remain in the background, Dalitz and his Cleveland partners were happy to have Wilbur Clark as a prominent “front man” with his image and name on napkins, match books, menus, place mats, coin cups, chips, tokens and neon signs that boldly proclaimed “Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn”.

Grand Opening

Understanding the importance of publicity, the DI sent Grand Opening invitations to all major newspapers and magazines. They flew the media guests in, at a cost of $5,700. Clark sent out 150 invitations to high rollers, with $10,000 credit limits. Moe Dalitz and his partners supplied the names of more dignitaries and gamblers who were invited to the Grand Opening, which was held on April 24, and 25, 1950. About half of the guests on opening night were from Nevada and California, the rest flew in from all parts of the country.

Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and the Donn Arden Dancers were among the entertainers who played to a full house on opening night, in the luxurious Painted Desert Showroom.

Success

The DI casino, at 2400 square feet, was the largest in Nevada. It offered five craps tables, three roulette wheels, four blackjack tables, and seventy-five slot machines. It employed sixty people. Profits for the DI, in its first week, were $750,000, including $90,000 from the bar. During the casinos first year of business, the monthly gross income was $250,000; net profits in the first year were just under $2 million. I’m assuming that would be reported income—after any skimming in the count room.

Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn was a success. In spite of the name, however, Clark had very little influence in the day to day operations of the DI. Instead, he and his lovely wife Toni acted as goodwill ambassadors, not only for the DI, but also for Las Vegas. They were constantly visible around the hotel, greeting and chatting with the guests. Clark was often heard on popular radio programs, and was seen on television, always promoting his Desert Inn and Las Vegas. He and Toni dined with dignitaries and politicians, including Senator and Mrs. John F. Kennedy. They were presented to the Pope, in two private audiences, and they were guests at the White House.

Golf

Moe Dalitz had his own vision for Las Vegas, one in which resort owners worked together to promote Las Vegas as a vacation destination. He tried to get other resort owners to join him in building an 18-hole golf course on the strip. He was rejected and ridiculed by the other resort owners, who thought it was a foolish idea. In November of 1951, the DI began the project on its own. A few months later, 165 acres of land adjacent to the DI had been cultivated and contoured. Grass and trees were planted; lagoons, sand traps and greens were added, resulting in an attractive 7200-yard course.

In 1953, the DI held its first Annual Tournament of Champions Golf event, to raise money for the Damon Runyon Memorial Fund for Cancer Research. For 13 years this was an annual event on the pro golfer’s tour. It was televised by NBC, giving great publicity to the DI and Las Vegas.

Over the years presidents, including John F. Kennedy and Gerald R. Ford, have played the DI course. Robert Redford, John Elway, George Clooney and Bob Hope are some of the celebrities who have played the course. Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead, Lee Trevino, Greg Norman and Nancy Lopez have all won tournaments held on the DI course. Not a bad claim to fame for an idea that was considered foolish those many years ago.

Skyroom

Another unique feature of the Desert Inn was the Skyroom, billed as a sky-high cocktail lounge. The third-floor lounge was glassed in on 3 sides, and overlooked the figure-8 swimming pool. The room also overlooked the “Dancing Waters”, fountains with water rising and falling in time with recorded music, under the glow of colored lights. In the center of the lounge was an oval bar, and there were tables grouped along the glass walls. Against one wall were a number of slot machines. The midnight blue ceiling was set with electric “stars” that twinkled at night.

In the 1950’s, assured by the government that there was no danger to Las Vegas from the fallout, atom bombs were tested at Yucca Flats, approximately 75 miles from Las Vegas. Always looking for fun and publicity, casinos would host parties on the roofs so their guests could get a clear view of the mushroom clouds. The Skyroom was another venue from which many Las Vegans, as well as DI guests witnessed the tests.

The end of an era

In 1955 Wilbur Clark’s health began to suffer. Some say it was caused by unhappiness at what his dream had turned into, or the fear of what questions might come up in an interview. Regardless, he began to remove himself from the public view. In 1956 he suffered a stroke, restricting his moves even more. In 1964 he sold his shares to Dalitz and his associates, and a year later he died from a heart attack.

In the hands of Moe Dalitz, and his general manager Allard Roen (AKA Rosen), the Desert Inn continued to prosper. However, without Clark as a front man, more unwelcome attention was focused on Dalitz and his associates. Las Vegas was beginning to get uncomfortable with the syndicate in control.

Howard Hughes

Eccentric billionaire Howard Hughes often visited Las Vegas during the 1940’s and 1950’s. He enjoyed the glamour, and in the evenings would go from one resort to another, often with a lovely lady on his arm. He envisioned what the city could become; predicting that one-day the population would exceed 1 million. That man was far different from the recluse who arrived in Las Vegas on Thanksgiving Day in 1966, taking over the top two floors of the Desert Inn. The floors were reserved for 10 days only, for Hughes and his entourage. Hughes extended his stay. Dalitz was getting irritated; the suites that the Hughes party occupied were normally reserved for high rollers, customers who would lose tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in the casino. Hughes never left his suite, and his entourage didn’t gamble. Further, the suites had long been promised to high rollers for the holidays. Hughes told Robert Maheu, his right-hand man, to “handle it”. Maheu contacted Teamsters Union President, Jimmy Hoffa, and called in a favor. Hoffa telephoned Dalitz, asking him to let “my friends” stay. That lasted into the new year, then Dalitz began pressuring Maheu again. Maheu finally told Hughes that the only way they could continue to stay at the DI was for Hughes to buy it. He did.

After buying the Desert Inn, Hughes bought the Sands, the Frontier, the Castaways, the Silver Slipper, and the Landmark. Hughes purchasing these casinos meant that the syndicate was on its way out. Hughes brought in his own men, though many of the top management stayed. The inexperience of the Hughes team meant that the skimming could, and did, continue for awhile.

Unbeknownst to the public, Hughes was apparently in the beginning stages of mental illness when he went on his casino-buying spree. He wouldn’t leave the top floor of the Desert Inn, with its darkened windows, and it was seldom that he allowed anyone else in his suite. He had a phobia about germs, yet he lived surrounded by his own filth. In 1970, Hughes finally left the Desert Inn on a stretcher, and was taken to the Bahamas. He died on a plane enroute to Houston in 1976, at the age of 70. The cause of death was reportedly kidney failure, but he was malnourished and dehydrated, and pieces of hypodermic needles were found in his skeletally thin arms. What a sad ending for one of the wealthiest men in the world. His Summa Corporation continued to own the DI until 1987.

Before his death, Hughes had approved an expansion and remodel of the Desert Inn. On July 4, 1978, the DI had a grand re-opening. Over 300,000 tourists and Las Vegas residents watched the desert sky blaze with the largest fireworks display the town had seen. Wayne Newton had signed the richest and longest-term entertainment contract in the history of Las Vegas. He welcomed the guests to the new Crystal Room, but then, after singing a few songs, he collapsed on stage. Suffering from the flu, he was carried off the stage on a stretcher and he was hospitalized for two days. For those two days Joan Rivers, Robert Goulet, Nipsey Russell, Doc Severinsen and Dave Barry filled in.

Vega$

Even if you never visited the Desert Inn, you may be familiar with its casino and pool area. Many scenes from the 1978-1981 television series, Vega$, were filmed there. Robert Urich played Private Investigator Dan Tanna. Tanna drove around Las Vegas in a 1957 T-bird, taking care of problems for Phillip Roth (Tony Curtis), the casino manager at the Desert Inn casino. Tourists were sometimes able to watch the scenes being filmed, and some were even selected to be ‘extras’ if a crowd scene was being shot. Long before he was my husband, my husband was at the DI when the show was being filmed. He was able to take a couple of pictures of Robert Urich by the swimming pool, and his daughter was picked to be an extra for the day! He says that she felt like a movie star! Unfortunately, when the episode was shown, they weren’t able to pick her out of the crowd…but they knew she was there!

More owners

In 1987 Summa Corporation sold the Desert Inn to Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda Corporation. The name was changed to the MGM Desert Inn.

In 1993 the Tracinda Corporation sold the DI to ITT-Sheraton for $160 million. A $200 million renovation and expansion was completed in 1997. The renovation actually reduced the number of rooms from 821 to 715, in order to offer more comfortable accommodations. The Augusta and St. Andrews towers as well as the casino and all public areas were renovated. The Palm Tower, Grand Lobby Atrium, Starlight Lounge and Villas Del Lago were all added, as well as a new Golf Shop and Country Club.

In 1998 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide bought ITT, acquiring the DI as part of the package. Starwood immediately put the resort up for sale as it was losing money.

In May 1999, Sun International Hotels, Ltd. bought the DI for $275 million. On March 2, 2000, Sun International announced that it was pulling out of the agreement to buy the resort from Starwood. They agreed to pay up to $15 million to Starwood if the resort didn’t sell for the originally agreed upon $275 million.

DI turns 50

On April 24,2000, the Desert Inn turned 50 years old and had a weeklong celebration. Festivities began with a celebrity golf tournament on the championship course. Some of the celebrities were Susan Anton, Robert Urich, Vincent Van Patten, Tony Curtis and Rip Taylor. A time capsule was buried on April 25, 2000, to be opened on April 25, 2050.

Steve Wynn

On April 28, 2000, Steve Wynn bought the Desert Inn for $270 million. Just four months later, at 2:00 a.m. on August 28, the Desert Inn closed her doors.

The Desert Inn was imploded, in stages, to be replaced by the upscale Wynn resort. The first implosion was the Augusta Tower, which went down on October 23, 2001. The Palms and St. Andrews towers were imploded on November 16, 2004.

WYNN

The Wynn resort opened on April 28, 2005, just 4 days after the 55th anniversary of the opening of Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn, and exactly five years after Steve Wynn bought the DI.

At a cost of $2.7 billion, the 50-story curved tower, covered in bronze glass, has 2,716 rooms. Of the rooms, 2,359 are standard rooms at 620 square feet; there are 270 parlor and salon suites, 45 executive suites, 36 fairway villas, and six 7,000 square foot private entry villas.

The 111,000 square feet of casino space offers 137 table games, 1,960 slot machines, a race and sports book, a keno lounge, a baccarat room and a poker room.

If a guest is hungry, there are 18 restaurants and bars, six of them overseen by renowned celebrity chefs.

The 76,000 square feet of retail space includes a Ferrari-Maserati dealership.

The Desert Inn golf course was retained, though completely redesigned by architect Tom Fazio. It was available to hotel guests only, and the cost per round of golf was $500.

Currently Steve Wynn is building the second phase of his resort, and is calling it “Encore”. I’m not sure if the golf course survived this expansion.

My husband and I went to Wynn. Once. It’s beautiful, it’s huge, and it’s elegant. I miss the much smaller Desert Inn, where I once went around a carousel of slot machines and played every one of them just one time…just to see how many would pay off. Most of them did.

Where’d Moe go?

Moe Dalitz died in 1989. At the time of his death he was a prominent member of the community, known for his charitable and philanthropic contributions.

First published in the Casino Chip and Token News Magazine Fall 2007, Volume 20 number 4 issue.

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