Everyone knows Las Vegas. And everyone knows everything there is to know about the city.
Except when they don’t.
The truth is that over the years few communities have been the subject of as many myths—some created by the city’s own publicists—as Las Vegas.
The following are just a handful of the more common legends and tall tales about a city that admittedly owes much to its own hype:
1. Las Vegas was founded by the Mob — Anyone who has watched any gangster movie or TV crime show about Las Vegas, might get the impression this is true. The reality, however, is that Las Vegas was founded by Mormons. That’s right—members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints established what is often called Sin City.
In 1855, Mormon leader Brigham Young sent 30 men to establish a small fort and settlement in the Las Vegas Valley. Due to its isolated location and hot, dry climate, the colony struggled over the next two years before it was abandoned.
A few years later, the fort became a ranch and trading post, which eventually grew into Las Vegas. The fort, now a state park, is located just north of downtown on the corner of Las Vegas Boulevard and East Washington Avenue.
2. Bugsy Siegel created the Las Vegas Strip — Anyone who has watched the 1992 film Bugsy, starring Warren Beatty, saw Las Vegas portrayed as a backwater town that owed its existence to gangster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel. In the movie Siegel, in Vegas to check on mob interests, pulls off the highway, walks into a desolate patch of sagebrush and sand, and announces that he will build a hotel there.
The reality is that the first resort built on the Las Vegas Strip was El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941, followed by the Last Frontier a year later. Siegel’s Flamingo Hotel did not open until New Year’s Eve 1946. Siegel wasn’t even the father of the Flamingo — Los Angeles publisher and restaurateur Billy Wilkerson was the original owner. Wilkerson, however, ran out of money and partnered with Siegel and his mob pals to complete the hotel (although he was quickly squeezed out of the picture).
Siegel also is not responsible for naming the Las Vegas Strip. That honor goes to Guy McAfee, a Las Vegas casino owner who had been a vice-squad captain with the Los Angeles police. In the 1940s, McAfee named Las Vegas Boulevard “the Strip” because it reminded him of Los Angeles’ famed Sunset Strip.
3. Elvis was always a big star in Las Vegas — Not true. In fact, Elvis Presley was a flop in his first Las Vegas appearance, at the New Frontier showroom, in April 1956. His fans, largely teen girls, were too young to get into the casino to see the show, and the gambling crowd thought he was too loud. However, when Elvis returned 13 years later, he began a long string of sold-out shows at the International (now the Westgate Las Vegas Resort).
4. Big-name hotel entertainment was invented in Las Vegas — While Las Vegas resorts no doubt perfected the casino showroom and lounge, the first big-name entertainer to play a Nevada hotel was bandleader Ted Lewis, who performed with his orchestra at the Commercial Hotel in Elko on April 26, 1941. The first big-name entertainer to appear in Las Vegas is believed to have been singer Sophie Tucker, who performed at the Last Frontier in January 1944.
The first star-studded entertainment event in Las Vegas history was the grand opening of the Flamingo in 1946, which featured George Jessel, Jimmy Durante, Baby Rose Marie, Eddie Jackson and Xavier Cugat’s orchestra. Their appearance sparked competition between the city’s resorts, which continues to this day.
5. Las Vegas is the hottest spot in Nevada — It may seem that way sometimes, but the place with the hottest recorded temperature in the state is Laughlin, which reached a scorching 125 degrees on June 29, 1994. The hottest recorded temperature in Las Vegas was a mere 117 degrees, recorded on July 24, 1942, and again on June 30, 2013.
Rich Moreno covers the places and people that make Nevada special.