When it first opened its doors in 1950, Wilbur Clark's Desert Inn in Las Vegas was more like a motel than the giant hotel of the same name that would soon stand on that choice hunk of real estate. The complex had been built with mob money and for a time, was probably the nicest place you could stay in that town. The above photo was taken in 1951 and as you can see, the star attraction then was Tom Ball's China Doll Revue, "direct from Broadway." That would make you think the China Dolls came from a Broadway theater. They did not. They came from Tom Ball's China Doll nightclub located in New York on 51st Street near Broadway. More on that place and them in another, upcoming post.
The photo of the Desert Inn may not seem like a very interesting photo to you but it is to me. My parents were married at the Desert Inn in March of 1951 and honeymooned there. For all I know, they might have been staying there when this pic was snapped. One of those cars out front could even have been my father's car. I have no idea what he was driving then.
The morning of March 3, he drove it — whatever it was — to the L.A. Airport and picked up my mother, who had flown all night from Hartford, Connecticut to get there. The two of them then drove to Las Vegas where they picked up a marriage license, which they said was about as easy to do in Vegas then as buying a Hershey Bar.
Next, they drove to the Desert Inn. Compared to the kind of mega-resorts they're building these days in Vegas, the Desert Inn probably looked like an outhouse with a couple of slot machines in it. There, they checked into a room and visited a little wedding chapel on the premises to say their "I do"s. My mother recalled they had to wait in line because there were three couples ahead of them.
Once they were joined in holy matrimony 'til death would they part, they had dinner in the hotel's fanciest restaurant, then retired to their room for the night. When they told me about all this, they didn't mention anything about seeing Tom Ball's China Doll Revue but maybe they took it in the next evening.
Come to think of it, probably not. And no, I was not conceived at the Desert Inn. I was born exactly one year later. They were enormously happily-married until my father died in 1991, nine days after they celebrated forty years of marriage.
The Desert Inn, which some of you saw in the Albert Brooks film, Lost in America (and other movies) was torn down in 2000 soon after its fifty year anniversary celebration. A few years before they did that to it, I took my mother there for dinner and a show, and we got to talking with a waitress who'd worked there for twenty-plus years.
My mother asked if any part of the original structure still remained. The waitress said no and my mother said, "That's too bad. I left a red sock here in 1951 and I was hoping it might still be around someplace." The waitress said, "Well, you're welcome to check the Lost and Found but I don't think it'll do you much good."
The Desert Inn was replaced by the Wynn Las Vegas, which cost $2.7 billion to build. If you ever stay there and you happen to see a red sock lying around…