Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024 | 2 a.m.
As aliens descended on Las Vegas in the 1990s cult classic “Mars Attacks!” a flying saucer shot a laser at the base of the former Landmark Hotel, causing it to crumble.
It’s an impressive effect for a nearly 30-year-old movie, but that’s because, outside of the aliens, it’s real. The 13-second demolition was used for the film.
Controlled Demolition Inc., which imploded the former hotel, is working with Going Going Gone Demolition to take on their next task: imploding the Tropicana on early Wednesday morning.
The company has made its mark on Clark County and the Las Vegas Strip, knocking down dozens of buildings, such as the Dunes, Stardust and Frontier, since its silver screen debut.
Dunes
Like the Landmark Hotel, the Dunes’ 1993 destruction was caught on film, this time for a television special originating from Treasure Island. Keeping with the theme, the demolition was “triggered” by a pirate ship moored at TI firing its cannons at the building along with fireworks fanfare.
The demolition was the result of 365 pounds of dynamite, comparatively small to the more than 2,000 pounds of explosives that will be used Wednesday morning.
The Dunes stood for almost 40 years, starting with just 200 rooms before adding its towers in the 1960s and 1970s, according to the Nevada State Museum. The location is now home to the Bellagio, which opened in 1998.
Sands
Destroyed on live television in 1996, the Sands’ demise wasn’t the result of a change in ownership. When casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam Adelson, founders of the Las Vegas Sands Corp., went on their honeymoon in Venice, she suggested that a resort combining the Italian city’s atmosphere with Las Vegas’ luxury could “be a winner.”
Three years later after the Sands’ implosion, Sheldon Adelson, who died in 2021, opened the Venetian where the Sands once stood. The adjoining $1.9 billion Palazzo launched in early 2008. Las Vegas Sands sold what was previously its namesake property in 2022, marking the end of the Adelsons’ properties on the Strip.
Hacienda
New York City can have its New Year’s Eve ball drop. On Dec. 31, 1996, Las Vegas celebrated with the implosion of the Hacienda. Upwards of 400,000 people reportedly attended the Strip’s party that year.
The only remnant of the hotel that made it to 1997 was its south tower, which was knocked down by a wrecking ball the following day.
“It’s got to be one of the biggest parties in the country,” a spokesperson for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said at the time.
Aladdin
Rounding out the 1990s’ string of destruction on the Strip, the 1998 implosion of the Aladdin was supposed to turn a new page for the fledgling property. With inconsistent management and legal issues, the hotel consistently lost money, the Sun reported.
“Through the dust, I could read the neon letters of the sign (near the building),” then-Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren said at the implosion. “The sign says, ‘Out of the dust Aladdin rises anew.’ I tell you it’s a prophecy.”
That prophecy did come true, but it was short-lived. Opening in 2000, the hotel filed for bankruptcy a year later, and in 2007 it officially opened as Planet Hollywood.
El Rancho
The El Rancho was destroyed in 2000, but its life on the north Strip had ended years earlier.In 1992, the Wild West-themed resort closed and was left vacant.
A Florida developer who was building high-end condos nearby bought the decaying resort to destroy it, improving sightlines for its incoming residents. Compared with the raucous New Year’s Eve implosion in 1997 and the Dunes’ destruction at the hands of a pirate ship, El Rancho’s demise was a “subdued affair,” the Sun reported.
Desert Inn
Destruction of the Desert Inn, which had opened its doors in 1950, led the way for Steve Wynn’s namesake future mega-resort.
Unlike the Tropicana, the Desert Inn’s towers were imploded at different times. First, Controlled Demolition Inc. imploded the Desert Inn’s Augusta Tower in 2001. Three years later, Wynn knocked down the inn’s St. Andrews Tower, which the Sun reported was housing the company’s corporate offices. Wynn Las Vegas opened on the site in 2005.
Castaways
Castaways, which for most of its existence was called the Showboat, was demolished in 2006.
On Jan. 21, 2004, the resort reported that it had lost $1.6 million in December and that it was on track to lose $1.3 million that month, the Sun reported. Property officials planned to sell stock to the public to save the company.
VSS Enterprises reported that losses looked “worse than it,” with its chief financial officer telling the Sun that he expected to turn a profit in a few months. Eight days later, a Bankruptcy Court judge forced the hotel’s closure.
Bourbon Street
Bourbon Street’s ownership didn’t share what would replace the small hotel and casino when announcing its closure in 2005, only saying it was “acquired for long-term development,” the Sun reported.
The company bought the property months earlier, and there was speculation at the time that it would continue to buy up land around the Flamingo. It is now a parking lot next to the Westin.
Controlled Demolition Inc. imploded the hotel and its parking lot on Valentine’s Day in 2006.
Boardwalk
When what is now MGM Resorts International decided to pursue the City Center project, it had to close and bring down the Boardwalk in 2006. The property now is home to Las Vegas’ Waldorf Astoria.
Stardust
By the time the Stardust came down in 2007, the Strip had seen nine resorts imploded in 14 years. The New York Times wrote that, in Las Vegas, “old structures are dismissed as soon as they outlive their usefulness.”
Like most other implosions in Las Vegas, Boyd Gaming Inc., which was set to build on Stardust’s property, had a plan. The Echelon was supposed to be a $4 billion hotel, The Times reported. Announced in 2006, the planned hotel wouldn’t survive the economic downturn.
After buying the property, Genting Group finished Boyd’s parking garage and built Resorts World Las Vegas. It opened in 2021.
New Frontier
The site of the New Frontier, which opened more than 80 years ago and was imploded in 2007, remains vacant.
The property has had multiple failed projects, including a 1,100 hotel previously slated to open in 2018 and an earlier vision for a multibillion hotel killed by the Great Recession.
Wynn Resorts is “committed” to developing the land, recently getting its deadline to start building on the land extended to 2026.
Riviera
A two-phase implosion brought down the iconic property to make way for the expansion of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The 24-story Monaco Tower was imploded June 14, 2016. The second implosion was Aug. 16, 2016, and unlike other implosions, didn’t have many spectators.
The property had multiple structures — hence the need for two implosions.
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