Riviera site + Sahara + El Rancho site

Liberace's first high-rise, the Beatles' hotel, the Strip's very first resort — and the line where the city actually starts.

Key facts

The Riviera opened in 1955 as the Strip's first high-rise (nine storeys), with Liberace headlining its opening at a reported $50,000 a week; it was imploded in 2016 and the site became parking and expansion space for the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The neighbouring Landmark tower opened on July 1, 1969 — reportedly rushed to open a day before Kerkorian's International — and was imploded in 1995, with the demolition footage used in the film Mars Attacks!.
The Sahara opened in 1952; the Beatles stayed there during their 1964 U.S. tour, though their only Las Vegas concert was at the Las Vegas Convention Center, not a casino.
El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941 as the first resort on the Las Vegas Strip, burned down in 1960 and its lot sat largely vacant for decades.
Sahara Avenue is the boundary of the City of Las Vegas; south of it is unincorporated Paradise, which is why most Strip resorts are not in the city.

Narration transcript

On your right, this stretch is thick with ghosts. Start with the Riviera. When it opened in 1955, it was the Strip's first real high-rise — nine whole storeys, dazzling at the time — and Liberace played its opening for a reported fifty thousand dollars a week, candelabra and all. It was imploded in 2016, and today the ground is doing the least glamorous job imaginable: parking and expansion for the Convention Center.

Right beside it once stood the Landmark tower, and it opened with a great piece of spite — the first of July, 1969, reportedly rushed to open just one day ahead of Kerkorian's rival hotel. It came down in 1995, and the demolition was filmed and dropped straight into the movie Mars Attacks! — a Vegas hotel getting a second career as a special effect.

Then the Sahara, opened in 1952, where the Beatles slept during their 1964 tour — though, in a very Vegas twist, their actual concert wasn't in any casino; it was at the Convention Center up the road. And on the corner ahead once stood El Rancho Vegas, which opened in 1941 as the very first resort on the Strip. It burned in 1960, and its lot sat largely empty for decades.

Now, notice something invisible: you are crossing Sahara Avenue, and that is the actual city limit. North of this line, you are finally in the City of Las Vegas. Everything south — everything you've driven so far — was Paradise. That's the line the whole tax trick was built around.

Keep heading north. On your right, you can't miss the next one: a slim thousand-foot needle spiking into the sky, with thrill rides bolted to the very top. That's the STRAT.