As the Palazzo nears completion next to the Venetian, memories of the former “skyscraper” of Spring Mountain and the Strip, the Sands, fade a bit more.  As seen here, circa 1975, the 18-story tower once stood head and shoulders above its neighbors.

To the north, the Desert Inn, Stardust and Frontier modestly rise to a few stories, and to the south, just visible in this photo, the new Holiday Inn hotel is the only building nearing the Sands’ stature. Today, none of those casinos remain, and the Holiday Inn structure is buried within Harrah’s Las Vegas. Only the distinctive big top of Circus Circus, visible in the upper left, provides any visual continuity.

The tower, designed by Strip legend Martin Stern, Jr., opened in 1965, barely two years before Howard Hughes acquired the casino.  It was a bit past the golden days of the Rat Pack (Ocean’s Eleven had been filmed there in 1960), and Frank Sinatra, who’d been a fixture at the Sands for nearly a decade, and was soon to depart of the greener pastures of Caesars Palace. But the new tower helped the Sands reach a new golden age of prosperity, and solidified its position as one of the Strip’s iconic casinos.  The cylindrical tower became a visual calling card of the Strip during the 1970s and 1980s.

But what was a perfect fit in 1965 wasn’t a money-maker in the mega-resort era. After several changes in ownership, the Sands closed for good on June 30, 1996, and was imploded within the year.  

As building heights rise further and further, it seems almost quaint that, barely 30 years ago, an 18-story building dominated a thriving stretch of the Strip.

The Palazzo, like the original Sands tower, will be a visually arresting structure: visible from several parts of the valley, along with the soon-to-be-twin towers of Wynn and Encore, it will stand, like the Sands once did, above the competition… at least until the next great vertical leap makes it seem diminutive.  

By David Schwartz

David G. Schwartz an Atlantic City native and the director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada Las Vegas. He is the author of Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling. His web site can be viewed at www.dieiscast.com.

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