VEGAS STRIP

Las Vegas, NV

The Strip, as it is known, is a 4 mile stretch of Hwy 91, now known as Las Vegas Boulevard. The first casino built there in 1931 was the Pair-o-Dice Club. The first full service casino-resort was the El Rancho Vegas, which opened with a 63 bungalow hotel rooms in 1941. Its success spawned many other hotels. Organized crime took a keen interest in the growing Las Vegas gaming center and funded many other resorts with mob money. That story was a theme of the movie Godfather. The Strip was named after Sunset Strip in Hollywood. Tens of thousands of pedestrians are walking along the Strip at any given time. About 50,000 pedestrians walk the Strip on an average day. 

The Paris Las Vegas casino hotel is featured in this sketch. The property features a 95,263-square-foot casino, 3,672 hotel rooms, a 1,400-seat performance theater, and various restaurants. The Paris-themed resort includes a half scale version (540 feet tall) of the Eiffel Tower, and replicas of the Arc de Triomphe, the Louvre, the Paris Opera House, and the Musée d'Orsay. The balloon shape marquee mimics the Montgolfier balloons of the late 1700’s in France. Construction of Paris Las Vegas began on April 18, 1997 at a cost of $785 million, and was designed by architect Joel Bergman.

The sketch was done from a pedestrian overpass of the Strip, during a break between rhythm and smooth events at the Holiday Dance Classic. Did good in my singles, but bombed in the multies. My wife suffered the same fate. Oh, well - can’t win them all.