Happy birthday Caesars Palace 🎂 The resort opened on the Las Vegas Strip six decades ago on August 5, 1966 — the same year Howard Hughes came to town and Frank Sinatra married Mia Farrow at the Sands. The mob was still in charge (hello, old friends 👋 ) and Clark County had less than 222,000 people.
We were about 25 years away from the era of the megaresort, but you could argue Caesars Palace planted the seed for it. The hotel started with about 600 rooms, breaking away from the standard motels and motor lodges on the Strip with a dramatic porte-cochère and a 14-story hotel tower. Over the years, Caesars Palace grew to nearly 4,000 rooms in six towers, including one branded the Nobu resort, pioneering another Vegas staple: the hotel-within-a-hotel 🙃 And the Forum Shops helped prove that you can’t truly be a big resort on the Strip without a sprawling shopping mall attached.
With a kitschy, but classic Roman Empire theme, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call Caesars Palace the most iconic hotel in Vegas history. Suites unofficially named after “The Hangover” and “Rain Man” symbolize Sin City excess, whether those movies actually used them as filming locations or not. The property has seen its share of wild, often notorious moments: an awful WrestleMania, an even more awful crash for Evel Knievel, a rogue parachute stunt during a boxing match, and hosting F1 before it was uncool.
Through it all, the resort helped shape Strip entertainment. Before the Sphere came around, Caesars Palace had the Omnimax theater, which was later torn down, along with the Circus Maximus showroom for the Colosseum — a 5,000-seat concert hall that reframed the Vegas residency with more than a thousand performances by Celine Dion. Caesars Palace also embraced the celebrity chef boom with the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Guy Savoy. (Even the food court gets in on the idea).
As mentioned in our guide to August, Caesars Palace is rolling out some specials this month to celebrate its big anniversary. You can also visit the Mob Museum Aug. 6 for Not Built in a Day: The Epic Story of Caesars Palace, a discussion included with paid admission to learn more about the resort’s history.
