The Riviera

The ninth resort on the Strip

Back in Chicago, in 1931, David, Meyer and Lou Gensburg started a small business, manufacturing pinball and other amusement games. As their business, Genco, Inc., grew, their father told them to use whatever money was available and buy real estate. They bought hundreds of parcels of land in northwest Chicago, including many corner lots with stores and apartments on them. Post-depression, the property was cheap, but the values were rapidly rising.

In 1952, the Strip was approximately 3 miles long. The Sahara and El Rancho Vegas were at the northern end, the Flamingo was at the southern end; the Thunderbird, the Sands, the Last Frontier, and the Desert Inn were scattered between them. Between the resorts there were restaurants, gas stations, and other small businesses…and lots of empty desert land. So, when the Gensburg brothers decided that they wanted to build a big casino in Las Vegas, there were plenty of empty parcels for them to choose from. The property they decided on was between the Thunderbird and the Desert Inn. The new resort was to be called the Casa Blanca.

Licensing

Charles “Charley the Blade” Tourine (AKA Charles White), and William Bishoff (AKA Lefty Clark, of the Detroit Syndicate) were named on the original license application, along with the Gensburg brothers. Bishoff had been associated with Meyer Lansky, running casinos in Havana. Tourine had also been a casino manager in Havana. Shortly before the Nevada Tax Commission meeting, where the gambling license would be granted (or not), realizing that he wasn’t likely to be approved, Tourine removed his name from the application. The tax commission refused to license Bishoff, so the project was delayed.

In September of 1953 a new application was submitted to the commission. The proposed resort name was changed to The Riviera; among others, the list of applicants included the three Gensburg brothers, and Harpo (Arthur) and Gummo (Milton) Marx, of the Marx Brothers comedy group. This time the application was approved and construction of the Riviera began in 1954.

The Opening

Before the Riviera, the Desert Inn’s Skyroom was the tallest building on the Strip, at three stories. Some designers believed that the sandy desert floor wouldn’t support a high-rise building. The Riviera, designed by Miami based architect Roy France and Son, topped out at nine stories. Luckily for the guests staying in the 291 rooms, the Riviera boasted the first elevators on the Strip. The casino had 18 table games, and 116 slot machines.

At 10,000 square feet, the Clover Room Theater was the largest showroom on the Strip. The room could seat 523 people for the dinner show, and 700 people for the second show.

The Grand Opening, the most lavish that Las Vegas had seen to date, was on April 21, 1955. Joan Crawford was the official hostess; being paid $10,000 plus her room and meals, for four days of greeting the Riviera’s guests. The headliner in the Clover Room was Liberace…at a previously unheard of salary of $50,000 a week! (For comparison, remember that this was around the time that the Sands was paying Frank Sinatra $15,000 a week! Just a few years earlier, Liberace played at the Last Frontier for $750 a week!) “He was the hottest name in show business, at the time” mused Tony Zoppi, the Riviera’s vice president in charge of entertainment and publicity. What did Liberace have to say about opening night at the Riv? “It was one of the great nights in my career. When the curtain went up, the ovation was tremendous. So was my bank account from that day forward.” There was also a 32-piece orchestra, conducted by George Liberace.

Bankrupt

Like the Royal Nevada, the Riviera ran into problems right from the start. This nationwide period of recession in 1955 was the only time in postwar history that the availability of hotel rooms greatly exceeded the number of visitors. Also, with Tourine and Bishoff out of the picture, no one in the group of investors had any experience running a casino…hotels, yes, but not a large casino. In July of 1955, the Riviera declared bankruptcy. Gensbro Hotel Corporation, the property owners, stepped in and immediately started looking for new operators. They turned to Tony Accardo, who was high up in the Chicago Mob, for help. Tony knew just who to contact.

Gus Greenbaum

Back in 1947, just a couple of hours after Bugsy Siegel was killed, three men walked into the Flamingo and announced “We’re the new bosses.” The three men were Gus Greenbaum, Moe Sedway and Morrie Rosen. Greenbaum was in charge of the Flamingo for the next eight years, and he ran the place at a profit…there was plenty for The Boys to skim, and still show a large enough profit to keep the taxmen happy. A win-win situation. Everybody was happy except for Mrs. Greenbaum. Gus was caught up in the Vegas life style; he drank too much, gambled too heavy, ate too much, and chased too many women. His health was suffering. In March of 1955 Gus approached his Boss Tony Accardo--he wanted to retire. Tony said O.K., so Gus and Bess Greenbaum moved back to Scottsdale, Arizona.

In July, Tony called Gus and set up a meeting. At the meeting, Tony told Gus that they really needed him to return to Vegas and run the Riviera. Gus protested that his health was shot and a return to Vegas and that lifestyle would kill him. Tony commented that one could die in a number of ways. A few days later Gus received a panicked phone call from his brother Charlie. Charlie’s wife, Lenore, had answered the phone a few minutes earlier—a man told her that if she knew what was good for her, she and her husband had better convince Gus to move back to Vegas! Gus assured Lenore that it was a bluff, nothing would come of it, and he had no intention of moving back to Las Vegas. A few days later Charlie came home and found his wife dead. Cause of death—suffocation. A human hand had smothered her. Gus and Bess packed up and moved back to Vegas.

Within a short time Gus had put together a group of investors, many of whom had been with him at the Flamingo, to bail out the Riviera. The group included Ben Goffstein (who would later open the Four Queens, downtown), “Icepick” Willie Alderman, Joe Rosenburg, Charles Harrison, Ross Miller (a Chicago bookie, whose son would eventually be Governor of Nevada), Dave Berman, Elias Atol, and several others.

On July 28, 1955 Gus Greenbaum and his group of investors applied to the Nevada Gaming Commission for licensing. Gus informed the Commission that his group would lease the Riviera for $1,250,000 a year, and that they had already loaned the Riviera $500,000 as a short-term solution to her financial problems.

In September it was announced that the Commission had reviewed the situation and the applicants. The Commission noted that several of the applicants had police records, most going back to the 1920’s and 1930’s. Because the Riviera was in dire financial circumstances, and because the country was in a recession, and Las Vegas needed the jobs that the Riv provided, and because the applicants had clean police records in Nevada, the Commission approved 8 of the 14 applicants. Approval of the others would be deferred until there could be further investigation, and Gus had to agree to replace any of the applicants that the Commission deemed undesirable.

Greenbaum did what he had to do to turn the Riviera around. He still had the names and addresses of the Flamingo’s high rollers, and his secretaries contacted all of them inviting them to enjoy the hospitality of the Riviera. A few dealers had been getting away with their own little skimming operation, at the tables…those dealers learned the hard way that it was impossible to deal when you had a broken hand. Finances at the Riviera were back on track, the mob was making money, and everybody was happy again. Sort of.

Before long, Gus was back to heavy losses at the craps tables. He was drinking too much, and no beautiful woman was safe from his attention, whether she was a showgirl, a secretary or a prostitute. Gus wasn’t making good decisions, and his Bosses noticed. They sent people to talk to Gus a couple of times, but nothing changed. After Gus gambled away all of his millions, he began pilfering. His bosses had enough--they wanted Gus out. They suggested it was time for Gus to go back into retirement, in Arizona. Gus said no; he was enjoying Las Vegas.

In 1958 Gus and Bess went home to Scottsdale for a few days over the Thanksgiving weekend. On December 3, 1958 their housekeeper found Gus and Bess dead, both were decapitated. The police report said that they had been murdered, but there was nothing to indicate that the murders were connected to the mob. Did I mention that “enforcer” Marshall Ciafano, and Tony Accardo happened to be visiting their friend Pete “Horse Face” Licavoli over the holiday? Did I further mention that Licavoli lived about 30 minutes away from the Greenbaum home? Probably just a coincidence.

On December 5, 1958, gambling at the Riviera was closed down from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m., while services for the Greenbaums were held in Phoenix and Las Vegas. In spite of a $35,000 reward that was put up for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the murder or murderers, the case was never solved.

On December 9, 1958, Ben Goffstein was named president of the Riviera.

The 1960’s

Goffstein had worked with Gus Greenbaum for a lot of years, and he knew how to run a casino. In spite of that, in mid-1960 Goffstein approached the Gaming Control Board and informed them that the Riviera was very close to closing her doors, due to a shortage of cash on hand. Goffstein explained that while assets were well over $2 million, there was only about $155,000 cash on hand due to buying Greenbaum’s shares from the estate, some of the other partners requesting money for their investments, and poor entertainment that hadn’t drawn the anticipated number of gamblers to the Riv. Within the next two weeks, the Riviera needed to be able to pay close to $500,000 for obligations such as payroll, rent and entertainment expenses.

Goffstein said that there were seven men who were ready to pay the Riviera $760,000 cash for 38.4% of the Riviera, which would keep it afloat. Goffstein expected that the Board would approve the seven investors, as all were involved with the Desert Inn and Stardust. The seven were Wilbur Clark, Allard Roen, Moe Dalitz, Sam Tucker, Morris Kleinman, Ruby Kolod and Bernard Rothdopf. Gaming refused to make an immediate decision, fearing that issuing multiple licenses to individuals would give too much power to too few people.

Meanwhile, the First National Bank of Nevada stepped in. Though the Riv had maxed out her credit, the bank offered another $250,000 loan, which would be guaranteed by the Desert Inn and Stardust groups. A $100,000 loan payment that was due would be extended for 60 days while Gaming processed the seven new applications. Ultimately, the applications were denied. It was tough but the Riviera survived the crisis thanks, in large part, to the popular comedian Shecky Greene performing in the Starlight Theatre.

In February of 1963, Ben Goffstein resigned as president.

In 1965, Hotel Riviera, Inc. bought out the Gensburg brothers, becoming the sole owner of the resort.

In 1967 a wing was added, with 200 guestrooms, a penthouse, a 9000 square foot lobby and 10,000 square feet of meeting and office space.

Shecky Greene was playing in the lounge, and it was packed every night. Celebrities could often be found in the audience, catching Shecky’s show in between doing their own shows. Just before the last show of a two-week engagement, Shecky was told that the lounge would be converted into a keno parlor the next day. When it was time for the show to start, Shecky stepped onto the stage holding an axe. He proceeded to chop the stage into bits, and presented the pieces to his fans as souvenirs. The next day, unaware of what had happened at the show, Executive Director Ed Torres called Shecky with the good news “We’ve decided to keep the lounge open for another month!”

In 1968 the Riv completed an expansion project, with a 12-story hotel tower and convention facilities. That same year “Rat Pack” member Dean Martin received shares in the Riviera, in exchange for performing in the showroom. Dino’s Den Restaurant was named for him.

The 1970’s

In 1973, the Riviera was sold again. The buyer was Meshulam Riklis, a New York multi-millionaire who paid $56 million for the resort. In 1975 he added the 17-story Monte Carlo tower with 300 rooms, 60 suites and an elaborate penthouse, at a cost of $20 million. This brought the total number of guestrooms to 1,000. In 1977 the San Remo Tower was built, adding 200 more rooms and the elegant Ristorante Italiano, a gourmet Italian Restaurant.

In 1973, Dean Martin was released from his contract and the Riviera bought back the shares he held. The reason given was that Kirk Kerkorian offered Dean a deal that he couldn’t refuse, to perform at the new MGM Grand which would be opening soon. There were rumors that Dean had been trying to get his contract with the Riviera rewritten, so that he only had to perform one show a night. A standard LV strip contract required two shows a night.

The 1980’s

The first time I saw the Riviera was in 1981, and it had the coolest sidewalk in front of it. The concrete squares had the handprints, footprints and autographs of dozens and dozens of stars, pressed into the cement. There were lights, kind of like rope lights, set between the squares. A few years later the sidewalk was gone, buried under the food court. In those days I rarely had a camera with me, so I never got a picture of that sidewalk.

In the 1980’s, the Riviera added the variety show “Splash”, “an aquacade of music and dance” that took place in and around a 20,000-gallon aquarium. The show featured numerous specialty acts. Of course, the infamous Splashbar was named after the popular show.

“Crazy Girls”, a topless female comedy revue was another popular show during the 1980’s, as was “An Evening at La Cage”. La Cage was a revue of female impersonators and cabaret dancers, starring 20 year old Frank Marino as Joan Rivers.

In 1982 several scenes from the movie Nevada Heat were filmed at the Riviera. The movie starred Pia Zadora, who also happened to be Mrs. Meshulam Riklis.

In 1984, the Riviera had cash flow problems again, and filed for bankruptcy protection under chapter 11. Riklis blamed declining revenue from foreign high rollers. Arthur Waltzman was brought in as president, in an attempt to get the Riv financially stable again. He was able to accomplish that by catering to the middle class tourist in addition to the high rollers, and in 1985 the resort was back out of Chapter 11.

In 1988 the 24-story Monaco Tower was added, at a cost of $28 million, bringing the number of rooms to more than 2,000.

The 1990’s

In 1990 the Riviera expanded the casino, to nearly 125,000 square feet of gaming space…which they boasted was the largest casino in Las Vegas.

In 1990 the Riviera remodeled suite #2902. A remodel? For just one suite? Well, yes. You see, the star of the New Year’s Eve festivities was a star of stars…none other than Francis Albert Sinatra! And of course, Mr. Sinatra was still accustomed to hearing “Yes, Mr. Sinatra…and is there anything else I can do for you? Remodel a suite? Of course, and what amenities should the suite contain, sir? And your color choices? Very good sir…we’ll take care of it. And is there anything else?” Two thousand people packed the Superstar Theatre on that New Year’s Eve and rang in the New Year with a legend.

In 1993, during their 38th Anniversary Celebration, the Riviera revived an old Las Vegas publicity stunt…they had a floating craps game in the swimming pool.

The word around Hollywood was that the Riviera was very “movie friendly”. That certainly seemed to be the case in the 1990’s, when parts of the following movies were filmed at the Riv: (1992) The Runner; (1995) Beyond Desire, The Watcher, Showgirls; (1996) The Corporation; (1997) Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery and Vegas Vacation; (1998) Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Scenes from the 1997 movie Casino were also filmed at the Riviera. The movie was based on real happenings at the Stardust, but the ‘dust wouldn’t have anything to do with the film. So the fictitious name Tangiers was used, and the casino shots took place at the Riviera. We happened to be in town when some scenes were being filmed downtown. I came out of one of the casinos and headed toward the Plaza. I could see that there was something going on, there were police and security officers around, and there were cameras all over the place (everyplace except in my hand, sigh…). I walked up just in time to see Sharon Stone step out of a trailer; she looked gorgeous in a little white dress, and a white fur coat. But, it was kinda’ chilly out and I didn’t have a fur coat, and it actually looked pretty boring, so I went inside. I watched through the window for a few minutes, then headed for the casino and some video poker.

On May 10, 1997, the Riviera unveiled the largest lifecast bronze statue in the world. The “No ifs, ands or…” statue is 6’ tall, 11’ long and weighs 1540 pounds. It was created by Michael Conine, to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the Crazy Girls show.

In 1999 the Riviera designed and built 12 Skyboxes, rooms from 600 square feet to 1,024 square feet, which sit above the Royale Pavilion. The rooms are available for special parties, such as Super Bowl parties, and include a private bartender, servers, and network feeds on two televisions.

The new millennium

In 2005, the Riviera celebrated her 50th anniversary, one of very few Las Vegas casinos to make it that long. Part of the original building is still there, if you look at the front kind of behind the mirrored tower, you can see the long horizontal bands with the windows between them. That part was constructed in the 1950’s.

The Riviera currently has five towers, with approximately 2,000 guestrooms, 187 suites, and penthouses.

The casino offers reel slots and video games, table games, keno, bingo, a VIP slot area, and a race and sports book.

The resort offers a swimming pool, lighted tennis courts, health spas and exercise rooms.

Of course, the resort is now home to the annual Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collector Club, Inc.’s annual convention! YAAAAAAYYY!!

A few years ago the Splashbar became the un-official hang out for many of the Club's convention attendees. “Splash”, the show, has been replaced, and the Splashbar name has been removed. The bar, however, is still there and the Splashbar spirit of camaraderie and friendship remains. Drinking all day and/or all night is optional, soft drinks are available if that’s your preference and “blue stuff” is available for the adventurous (I don’t know what it is, but I think it’s alcoholic?). Brian, “Mr. Splashbar” Cashman will see you there in June…WOOOOOOOOO!!

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

Casino Chip and Tokens News is the official publication of The Casino Chip and Gaming Token Collectors Club, Inc.

Special Permission was granted to reprint this information. All rights are reserved by the CCGTCC.

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