The spotlights that had been illuminating the tower all
night, went dark as the tower fell. This unfortunate
happenstance foiled the many attempts to capture the
collapse in photos and videos.
Implosion
Gallery
1
2
3
4
5
Image credits
Nollie Agravante 2,3,5,8
Vince Yarga 4,6,10
Mark
E. Adams 1
Ringtail Studios 7
6
7
8
9
10
A tidy pile
of concrete, rebar and dust is all that's left of the
famed resort. Remaining are a few rooms from the oldest
section of the hotel. Those rooms were built in 1955 as
the Royal Nevada Hotel.
In the
background you can see the relocated trees from the
Stardust. These will be used again in the landscaping of
Echelon.
Click image to enlarge
On November 1, 2006, the legendary Stardust closed her doors forever, to make room for
Echelon.
Please enjoy the photo images of this historic resort. I was
very close to the Stardust and its great staff (to whom I
wish the best of luck). They will be missed much more than
the building.
Boyd will now ready the Stardust for her impending implosion
Tuesday morning, March 13, 2007 at 2:00 a.m., to make room for
Echelon . Ironically, the main tower is only 16 years
old (built in 1991).
The images
in this gallery were taken during her last few weeks, in the wee
hours
From
Dust to Dust
(The Demise of the Stardust)
A fire
broke out at the demo site on Tuesday, 2/13/07
around noon. I just happened to be at the Wynn
parking garage, taking photos of Encore.
Photo by Mark E. Adams
The
tower is now see-through and the sports book
is
truly history. At this rate there should be nothing
but the towers left in two weeks.
Joel Rosales of
Leaving LV.net
provided these photos.
Click images to enlarge
1/11/07
The demo
crews are working fast to ready our lady for her
demise.
Joel Rosales is busy documenting the progress for
his
new Vegas history website,
LeavingLV.net.
Here are some of his photos. Click images to enlarge
12/23/06
Windows are being removed from
the Stardust to ready the tower for its pending March
implosion.
Photo Mark Diederichsen
Click image to enlarge
11/19/06
Joel Rosales
captures a once in a lifetime shot of the gutted casino.
Click image to enlarge
A Brief History
The Stardust opened on
June 2, 1958 with 1,065 rooms (worlds largest hotel), a 16,500
square foot casino (largest in Nevada) a huge neon sign as its
facade (worlds largest electric sign) 216 feet long and 37 feet
high, the sign contained over six miles of wiring, 7,100 feet of
neon tubing and 11,000 lamps. There was also a large round
free-standing sign on the strip.
In 1959, the Stardust
absorbed the neighboring Royal Nevada Hotel (which opened in 1955)
In 1964, the county
abandoned the road between the two hotels so that the Stardust could
use the area to incorporate the properties and add its first tower,
the nine-story East Tower. The room count increased to 1,470. A
casino and lobby expansion was part of the project.
In 1965, a spectacular
new 188 foot tall, roadside sign replaced the old circular sign at a
cost of $500,000. The Electra-jag lettering which adorned the sign
was reflective of the "the future is bright" attitude of the times.
During this time the Jetsons was a prime-time TV show.
In 1977, the
Stardust went through another remodeling. The "Jetsonian" theme was
abandoned, though the roadside sign remained, and the façade was
covered with animated red and blue neon tubing and trimmed with
mirrored finish facets. The new Porte Cochere sparkled with 1,000
small incandescent bulbs.
Sam Boyd's locally-based, legit
gaming company purchased the Stardust in March of 1985 which was key
to ridding Vegas of the mob element.
Boyd added the 32-story West Tower in 1991, overshadowing the older
East Tower. The original Electra-Jag style letters in the main sign
were also replaced in 1991, by a cleaner Helvetica type face. The
original Electra-Jag letters are in safe keeping at the Neon
Graveyard and will most likely be used when the sign is restored.
Later in the '90s,
the
facade and Porte Cochere was once again remodel to a more
up-to-date, subdued look, removing the red and blue neon. Some
interior remodeling was also done at this time.
This is how she
looks in 2006
Around 2002, they
brought back the nostalgic Electra-Jag style logo to their print
material, room keys, slot cards and menus. They probably wished they
had never changed the sign.
The famous Stardust sign will be
moved to the Neon Museum on Fremont Street. It's going to
cost $80,000 to move it to the museum. This will be
the largest sign downtown (once restored).
