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The Flamingo
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The Flamingo's claim to fame is that it was in actual fact the first hotel built
after World War II. Most people believe that the hotel was the idea of the notorious
crime boss Bugsy Siegel, but the Flamingo was in fact the dream of William Wilkerson
who named it the Flamingo because he really loved exotic birds. It was not named
after Bugsy Siegel's mistress (Virginia Hill) as commonly believed.
Since there were building restrictions after the war, and building materials were
hard to find, Wilkerson soon realised that his project would cost a lot more than
anticipated. It is then when Bugsy Siegel stepped in and bought Wilkerson out.
He invested about $1 million of his own money and another $6 from investors, there
were some suspicions that the money was not going to exactly where it was supposed
to.
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Because of all the suspicions the investors started to put pressure on Siegel to
open, and he foolishly decided to open the doors on the day after Christmas in 1946.
The hotel wasn't completed and the guests had to be put up in other hotels.
And just about everybody got lucky that night, and the casino made a huge loss.
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Siegel closed the hotel 2 weeks after opening, and repaired some of the problems.
Then relaunched; The casino resort did better than before but it was still not good
enough. The mob had much higher expectations.
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Shortly after the second opening of the hotel Siegel was murdered in Beverly Hills.
It's suspected that his murdered was directly linked to the failure of the Flamingo.
The Flamingo was claimed by Gus Greenbaum, the syndicate's casino boss, just minutes
after Siegel got shot. He was credited with saving the Flamingo. |
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Because of the negative image brought to Las Vegas by the killing of Siegel, the
Carson City legislators enforced casino licensing. |
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Significant Dates |
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1945
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Bugsy Siegel Raised $1 Million to buy the Flamingo.
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26 Dec 1946
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The Flamingo opens it|s doors for the first time. The launch was a total failure.
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Mar 1947
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The Flamingo re-opened with a bigger crowd, but still not to the mob|s satisfaction.
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20 Jun 1947
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Bugsy Siegel is found shot dead in Beverly Hills.
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Above: Flamingo Casino Chip used in the second opening of the flamingo hotel.
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Did you spend more tonight than you originally planned? |
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