page_title: Sands Hotel and Casino
section_title: Later history
hierarchical_section_title: Sands Hotel and Casino / History / Later history
context_page_description: The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by the architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56-foot high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, the Sands was the center of entertainment and "cool" on the Strip, and hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack and Jerry Lewis.
  The hotel was established in 1952 by Texan oil tycoon Jake Freedman, who bought up the LaRue Restaurant, which had opened two years earlier. The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952 as a casino with 200 rooms, and was established less than three months after the opening of the Sahara Hotel and Casino. The hotel rooms were divided into four two-story motel wings, each with fifty rooms, and named after famous race tracks. Crime bosses such as Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello acquired shares in the hotel and attracted Frank Sinatra, who made his performing debut at Sands in October 1953. Sinatra later bought a share in the hotel himself.
context_section_description: When Howard Hughes purchased the hotel in the mid-1960s for $14.6 million, the architect Martin Stern, Jr. added a 500-room circular tower, which opened in 1967, and the hotel became a Las Vegas landmark. Hughes grew particularly annoyed every time the Rat Pack were in his hotel, due to a hatred of Frank Sinatra which stemmed from the fact that he had been in love with Ava Gardner in the 50s and she had run off to marry him. The ill feeling was reciprocated by Sinatra. Hughes plotted to oust Sinatra from the Sands for good, and asked Robert Maheu to draw up a plan shortly after the new hotel opened in 1967. The hotel imposed restrictions on what Sinatra could gamble in the casino, to just $3,000 a night. Under previous management, Sinatra had no limits on the amount of credit extended to him by the Sands casino.  His IOUs, chits or "markers" were torn up at the end of Sinatra's engagements because he was considered to be good for business-bringing the hotel more monetary value than the worth of his gambling losses. Hughes put a stop to this system, telling Jack Entratter to inform Sinatra of the new policy; Entratter did not do so because he was afraid.
  Fuming, Sinatra began what The Los Angeles Times describes as a "weekend-long tirade" against the "hotel's management, employees and security forces". The FBI report says the incident began when Mia Farrow lost $20,000 at the Sands casino. Sinatra bought $50,000 in chips and made an attempt to win the money back.  He lost this sum within a short period of time.  Sinatra then asked for credit, which was denied. It culminated when Sinatra reportedly drove a golf cart through the window of the coffee shop where casino manager Carl Cohen was seated and began "screaming obscenities and anti-Semitic remarks" at Cohen. Sinatra reportedly punched Cohen, a heavily built man, who responded with a smack in the mouth, bloodying Sinatra's nose and knocking two of his teeth out.  As a result, Sinatra never performed at the Sands again while Hughes owned it, and began performing at Caesars Palace. A number of the staff were not disappointed to see Sinatra leave the Sands. Numerous employees had been humiliated or intimidated over the years, including a busboy Sinatra tripped while he was carrying a tray with dishes. After Sinatra left, the mobsters pulled out of the Sands and gradually left Vegas in the 1970s.  In the 1970s, it became associated with the likes of Wayne Newton and Liberace. At this time, some 30% of the performers at Sands were Italian Americans. Frank Gagliardi became the drummer for the house orchestra in 1964, starting a twelve-year tenure.
  In 1968, Hughes stated that he intended to expand Sands into a 4,000-room resort, but his plans did not materialize. In 1983, Hughes' company, the Summa Corporation, sold the Sands to the Pratt Corporation, but subsequently bought it back as they were unable to make a profit. MGM Grand, Inc. bought the hotel along with the neighboring Desert Inn in 1988 for a total of $167 million, and the property became known as the MGM Sands. The next year, MGM sold it for $110 million to Las Vegas Sands, a new company formed by the owners of The Interface Group, including Sheldon Adelson, Richard Katzeff, Ted Cutler, Irwin Chafetz and Jordan Shapiro. The same year, it was licensed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, and Adelson became a casino magnate. In the early 1990s, Adelson built the Sands Expo, a 1-million-square-foot (93,000 m²) convention centre.
  In its final years, the Sands became a shadow of its former self — a throwback to the old days - and it ultimately could not compete with the newer and more exciting megaresorts that were being built on the Strip. However, a 1990s travel guide stated that the hotel gardens and pool area still retained the ambiance of the classic Sands days. The decision was eventually made by its final owner, Sheldon Adelson, to shut it down and to build a brand new resort. The last dice in the casino was rolled by Bob Stupak just after 6pm on June 30, 1996.  On November 26, 1996, it was imploded and demolished, 
caption: The Sands in 1995
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