Howard, Wilbur, and the Desert Inn

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February 20th, 2017
Back Howard, Wilbur, and the Desert Inn

If there was ever a marriage made in Heaven, it was Howard Hughes, Wilbur Clark, and the Desert Inn.

The Desert Inn no longer graces the Las Vegas landscape. Steve Wynn, who purchased the property, closed down the casino and hotel in 2000, After demolishing the casino and hotel towers, he replaced them with the Wynn and the Encore.

But for many years, Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn not only symbolized Las Vegas. To many gamblers, it WAS Las Vegas.

Nobody could ignore dapper Wilbur, a smiling silver-haired gentleman in a tuxedo, standing in front of the luxurious D.I., as the locals called it, or being photographed while playing golf on the championship golf course with Ed Sullivan or Red Skelton.

Clark was a former bellhop from San Francisco who had worked in the dice pits in Reno, NV. as well as on gambling cruise ships. He became partners with Las Vegas newspaper publisher Hank Greenspun and he and his brother went on a venture to build the Desert Inn in 1950.

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When they ran out of money, they halted construction and began looking for investors to help them finish building the casino resort. They found a sugar daddy in mobster Moe Dalitz, head of the notorious Mayfield Road Mob from Cleveland, Ohio, who loaned them $1.3 million.

The Desert Inn was built in Paradise, a community on the edge of Las Vegas. It was originally constructed as a casino and 300-room hotel on Las Vegas Boulevard between Desert Inn Road and Sands Avenue.

Clark also built an 18-hole golf course on the property that hosted the PGA Tournament of Champions from 1953-66. The prestigious tournament drew such golf legends as Arnold Palmer, Sam Snead and Jack Nicklaus.

In one of his memoirs, Frank Sinatra said, 'Wilbur Clark gave me my first job in Las Vegas. For $6, you could have a filet mignon dinner and me.'

The Desert Inn's grand opening featured Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Ven Hefflin, Abbott and Costello and the Desert Inn Orchestra led by Ray Noble. Hollywood celebrities showed up along with high-ranking politicians, along with a number of well known mob figures including Peter Licavoli wearing a tuxedo.

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From 1950 to 1964, when Clark sold out his 17 percent interest in the property, the Desert Inn drew such guests as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Winston Churchill, Adlai Stevenson, Sen. John F. Kennedy, former President Harry Truman and reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes.

Hughes rented the Desert Inn's top two floors just before New Year's Eve. After 10 days, the hotel management politely asked for him to leave to make room for the high rollers expected for the D.I.'s New Year's Eve party.

Howard didn't leave. He bought the place for $6.2 million in cash and $7 million in loans.

For the next four years, Hughes lived in the D.I.'s penthouse suite. He banned the cleaning staff from entering his room and conducted his business there. On Thanksgiving evening 1970, he was removed from his suite on a stretcher and flown to the Bahamas.

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Sinatra celebrated his 77th birthday at the Desert Inn, attracting celebnrities and hundreds of fans who jammed the Crystal Room. Gambling at the casino's five dice tables, three roulette wheels, sports book and slot machines went on 24 hours a day and everyone had an incredible time, a casino spokesman said.

Before his death of a heart attack in 1965 -- he was 57 -- Clark built a home on the golf course. His wife, Toni, supported the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra and the Nevada Ballet Theater. In 1958, she was named one of the 10 best dressed women in America. She died in 2006.

The Desert Inn gained further publicity when several feature movies, including 'Ocean's 11,' starring Sinatra and Dean Martin, and 'Lost In America,' starring Albert Brooks, were filmed there.

“To many gamblers, it WAS Las Vegas”

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