Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://digital.greengale.com/i/66705
Goddesses" pose in the front drive of Caesars, opening day, "Cocktail August 5, 1966. "I was there the day they broke ground on the Forum Shops," says for- mer Las Vegas Mayor (1991 to '99) Jan Jones, who is now senior vice president of communications and government relations for Caesars Entertainment. "When they first went to build, you couldn't even give away the leases. Why would anybody come to Las Vegas to shop? They found out, of course, that people would come to Vegas to shop." Forum Shops director of marketing and business development Maureen Crampton was present on May 1, 1992, when the doors between the casino and the Forum Shops were opened for the first time, and the crowds surged forward to see the new Gucci, Versace, and Louis Vuitton stores. "When you think about the impact we've had on the whole retail aspect of Las Vegas," Crampton says, "you want to toot your horn, because you know it was instrumental in a lot of things." Caption will go here tk xerit lore del utpatisit velisl As more shopping complexes grew along Las Vegas Boulevard, through a casino-building boom and dizzying corporate consolidation, mega-brand Caesars Entertainment grew to own 10 casinos on the Strip and will soon launch its first hotel in China. At the end of the year, it will also welcome coun- try superstar Shania Twain to her residency at The Colosseum, the grand finale to a two-year "renaissance" that has included the additions of Central Michel Richard and Old Homestead Steakhouse res- taurants, the aforementioned upcoming Nobu Hotel, Rod Stewart's resident show, and the return of Celine Dion. Sarno died in 1984 of a heart attack. He was in a hotel suite at Caesars Palace, the very heart of his empire. By then, he had built and sold Circus Circus, seen his pro- tégé December 31, 1967. famously jumps the fountain at Caesars on Evel Knievel and colleague Steve Wynn buy his first strip of land (to open The Mirage Hotel & Casino), and was cultivating a new concept for a hotel-casino to have the man behind Caesars. here in a hotel suite, was the woman behind Joyce Sarno, been called the Grandissimo that would—he hoped—transcend every other opening night with the Ritz Brothers on Ed Sullivan resort built up to that time. In 2005, Sarno Straus successfully lobbied Clark County to memorialize her father by naming the street that leads into Caesars Palace Jay Sarno Way. "He was a creative genius," says David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at University of Las Vegas, Nevada and author of an upcoming book on Sarno titled Grandissimo. "Sarno saw the need to create the mythol- ogy of Vegas and the drama of Vegas. He was ahead of his time. 'What happens here stays here' is just taking a page out of his book. The idea that you come to Vegas and have an adventure, and do stuff that you wouldn't do at home, that's Jay Sarno. That's Caesars Palace." Selesner invited Sarno Straus back for Caesars Palace's 40th anniversary, where a ballroom was decorated to resemble the Bacchanal and photos of her father were blown up and hung on the walls. The homage reminded her of a favorite quote: "Julius Caesar said, 'It's better to be the first one in the village than the second one in Rome.' And my dad was the first one in this village." V 116 vegasmagazine.com photography courtesy of caesars entertainment (goddesses); lvcva (sullivan, knievel); heidi sarno straus (joyce sarno)