07/02/2019
Week 11
32 Fremont Street
Silver Palace, 1956-1964: In the 1940’s and early 1950’s the Las Vegas Pharmacy was at 32 Fremont Street, on the corner of First Street. Around the corner, on First Street were the Silver Café and the Silver Club. These all closed down so a casino could be built, and it must have seemed like a good idea to keep silver in the name…because the new casino was named the Silver Palace. In 1959 the Silver Palace offered Craps, 21, roulette and slots…including the “Wild Thunderbird” slot machines. You could get a choice top sirloin dinner for $1.79, and the cocktail hour was from 5 p.m. ‘til 8 p.m.
Carousel, 1965-1974: (McLaney’s, 1965-1967) Around 1967, Marty Kuzens had chips, matches and ashtrays made for “Marty’s Carousel”, but apparently was denied a gaming license. There’s a good shot of the Carousel at the end of a car chase scene in the James Bond movie “Diamonds are Forever”.
Gambler’s Hall of Fame, 1974-1976: Gambler’s Hall of Fame was licensed for slots, 21, craps, and roulette. Very few artifacts remain from this club, but after being in the hobby for well over 15 years, I’ve finally seen a few photos of this short-lived club.
Sundance West, 1976-1980: In June of 1976, Allan D. Sachs was approved for five blackjack games, three poker tables, and 203 slot machines at the Sundance West Casino. Like the Gambler’s Hall of Fame Casino, there aren’t a lot of artifacts or photos from this Club.
When Al Sachs was promoted to general manager of the Aladdin, on the Strip, he had less time and interest in running the Sundance West. He sold the property to Herb Pastor, who renamed it Sassy Sally’s. Herb states that Sally was the name of his children’s babysitter, and yes, she was sassy!
Sassy Sally’s, 1980-1999: When we go to Las Vegas, we usually stay at the Las Vegas Club, and we’ve stayed at the Plaza several times. The coffee shop at The Horseshoe (before Becky) was our favorite place for breakfast, and we’ve eaten a lot of dinners at the Golden Nugget. Going from one to another of those places, we’ve walked past Sassy Sally’s hundreds of times. I’ve probably gone in the door about 3 times. So what I re-member best are the hawkers outside the door, trying to get the customers in the door. They handed out plastic leis for awhile, then they switched to beads. They went through a few different costumes over the years. My favorite was the giant sponge-rubber cow-boy hat and the sponge-rubber horse that slipped over the head, and was worn around the waist. Hard to describe, you probably had to be there.
Mermaids, 1999-present: When Sassy Sally’s became Mermaids, the tacky Western dé-cor was changed to tacky Island décor. They still have the hawkers, but they added a new feature to draw the customers in…a camera. You have your picture taken on the sidewalk, then you go in and (they hope) play while they’re printing it. In May of 2000 my guy and I “eloped” to Las Vegas. I’ve never been fond of having my picture taken, so when we were making the wedding arrangements at the Little Church of the West,
they asked about a photographer and I shook my head no. My wishes were honored. So, while most people have wedding albums, we have a scrapbook. We didn’t even have a camera with us, so there’s very few actual photos in the scrapbook. There are three pic-tures of me and one of my husband, taken by the Las Vegas Club when we hit royal flushes throughout the week. There’s just one picture of the two of us, and we’re not ex-actly together. My husband is standing on the sidewalk in front of Mermaids, looking at the camera, and I’m trying to back out of the picture. Of course it says “Mermaids” on it! ☺ Vegas—ya’ gotta’ love it!! ☺
