Stardust Casino in Las Vegas razed to Ashes

The Stardust Resort and Casino in Las Vegas was closed after a 48-year run of continuous 24-hour operation. The Stardust Casino was imploded on Tuesday March 13, 2007 at 2.33 a.m. The sight was truly worth watching with fireworks prior to the buildings tumble. It was one of the oldest and the best casinos in the Las Vegas.

The Stardust Casino was officially closed at 12 p.m. on November 1, 2006 and was finally razed yesterday at 2.33 a.m. It was demolished to make way for the Boyd Gaming Corp.'s $4.4 billion megaresort Echelon, which is expected to open in 2010 with more than 5,000 hotel rooms and various other facilities like shopping malls, a production theater etc. The clean up of the site will take at least 2 months.

The Stardust Resort and Casino was located on 63 acres along the famed Las Vegas strip in Las Vegas, Nevada. The resort was built by Tony Cornero. After that it was headed by Morris “Moe” Dalitz due to the early demise of Tony Cornero. When the hotel opened it had the largest Casino, the largest swimming pool and the largest hotel in the Las Vegas area.

The Stardust Resort opened on July 2, 1958. The attendees present on the inaugural were governors, senators, city-officials and Hollywood celebrities. The opening of the night lounge offered “Billy Daniels”, “The Happy Jesters”, “The Vera Cruz Boys” and the “Jack Martin Quartet”.

The Stardust resort had 1,065 rooms. It had a 105-foot long Big Dipper swimming pool, a 13,500 square foot lobby, 16,500-foot casino and deep brown colors and indirect lighting.

The stardust casino took over the closed Royal Nevada, which was redeveloped and was converted into a convention centre and high roller suite. But Royal Nevada seemed to be plagued with financial problems from the start.

The Stardust casino can be seen in an umpteen number of movies Vince Vaughan starred Swingers and many more.

Sammy Davis Jr., Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra were the frequent visitors of this resort.

On the final day of this Stardust resort William Boyd said, “The day is finally here. Turn out the lights. Let’s shut it down, Jake”,

Stardust served people for 48 years and some people really hated the sight of it been demolished to ashes and dust.