Once upon a time, the Desert Inn was the most opulent hotel-casino in Las Vegas. It opened in April of 1950 as Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn, Mr. Clark being an entrepreneur with a big idea but not enough money to build it. He had to obtain money from "The Mob" to complete the place, whereupon vacationers, gamblers and celebrities flocked to enrich his investors. A little less than a year after it opened, my parents had their wedding and honeymoon there. (I know what you're thinking. I was born a year later so I was not conceived there.)
Clark sold off pieces of the business over the years and his name disappeared. He sold his last shares in 1964 and then two years later, Howard Hughes moved in, taking up residence in the top two floors of the hotel. When he was eventually asked to leave, he bought the place instead and then proceeded to buy other hotels up and down The Strip. After Hughes died, his company kept it running but eventually it was sold a couple of times and finally torn down (actually, blown up) in 2001 so Steve Wynn could build Wynn Las Vegas on that real estate.
You can see a little of the Desert Inn as it looked in 1985 in the Albert Brooks film, Lost in America. That's where his wife lost their nest egg on a roulette wheel and Albert's character tried to persuade Garry Marshall to give them their money back. But here's what the Desert Inn looked like around its peak in 1955…