Circus Circus owner Jay Sarno,
Mayor Oran K. Gragson, Senator
Howard Cannon, Governor Grant
Sawyer, and other bigwigs don
top hats for the big top's opening.
photography
courtesy
of
Las
Vegas
News
Bureau
Perched on sky-high platforms barely wider than their waists, the legg y
dancers at Circus Circus should have been the center of attention on open-
ing night, October 18, 1968. But a look at the football field
–
size casino f loor
below revealed the real spectacle: the sparkling slot machines, buzzing craps
tables, and live band that drew many to Las Vegas's first "family-oriented
casino." Caesars Palace impresario Jay Sarno's idea had been to create a
haven for t he cit y's burgeoning populat ion of m iddle - cla ss v isitors. But
conventional it was not. To make the experience as authentic as possible,
Sarno hired many of his performers away from actual circuses. Unicyclists,
t rapeze a r t ist s, even Ta nya t he E lepha nt could be spot ted roa m ing t he
casino f loor. And in a nod to Sin City's youngest visitors, he erected a carni-
va l midway f illed w it h ga mes a nd sideshows. In t he casino's ea rly yea rs,
Sarno was able to hit a room occupancy rate of 100 percent, but by the mid-
1970s Circus Circus was in serious financial st raits. Only some creative
marketing (building the world's largest slot machine) and expansion (an RV
park was added in 1979, plus 810 more hotel rooms in 1980) saved it from
ruin. Today Circus Circus remains one of the Strip's major tourist attrac-
tions. It's been a location for such films as Austin Powers: International Man of
Mystery and Diamonds Are Forever and was the inspiration for Bazooko Circus
in Hunter S. Thompson's book Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. With the 1993
addit ion of T he Advent uredome —t he la rgest indoor t heme pa rk in t he
world, featuring 25 rides and attractions, including the new El Loco roller
coaster—Thompson's words ring even truer today, 40 years after he wrote
them: "[T]he place is about four stories high, in the style of a circus tent, and
all manner of strange County-Fair/ Polish Carnival madness is going on up
in this space." Family-oriented madness? Only in Vegas.
V
Let the CirCus Begin
Two years
afTer Jay Sarno opened Caesars palaCe, he beCame ringmasTer
of The world's largesT permanenT CirCus.
by juliet izon
12 vegasmagazine.com
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