Venetian / Sphere (Sands site)
The site of the Sands, where the Rat Pack held their Summit — now canals, gondolas and a giant glowing ball.
Key facts
- The Sands Hotel opened in 1952 and, in its Copa Room, hosted the January–February 1960 “Summit,” where the Rat Pack — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and others — filmed Ocean's 11 by day and performed at night.
- In 1967, Sands casino executive Carl Cohen punched Sinatra during a dispute over credit, knocking the caps off his front teeth; the Sands was imploded on November 26, 1996.
- The Venetian opened on the Sands site in 1999, complete with indoor and outdoor canals and gondoliers.
- The Sphere, behind the Venetian, opened in 2023, stands about 366 feet tall, and its exterior is wrapped in roughly 580,000 square feet of programmable LED, making it the largest spherical structure in the world.
Narration transcript
On your right, the campanile tower and the canals belong to the Venetian — but this is another “site of,” and the ghost here is one of the most glamorous in Vegas history: the Sands. It opened in 1952, and its Copa Room was the beating heart of cool. In the winter of 1960, this is where the Rat Pack held what they called the Summit — Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Junior and the gang, shooting the original Ocean's 11 by day and performing to a packed room every night. You could not buy a hotter ticket on Earth.
It wasn't all charm. In 1967, a Sands executive named Carl Cohen got into it with Sinatra over a credit line and knocked the caps off two of the singer's front teeth — a very Vegas way to end a business dispute. The Sands itself was imploded in 1996, and in 1999 the Venetian rose in its place, with canals and singing gondoliers where the Copa Room used to be.
And now look up, behind it, at that vast glowing ball. That's the Sphere, opened in 2023 — about three hundred and sixty-six feet tall, wrapped in something like five hundred and eighty thousand square feet of LED. One night it's a giant eyeball, the next it's the Moon, or a spinning basketball. It is the newest face this corner has worn.
The song on your screen is Sinatra's “Luck Be a Lady” — pure Copa Room. Let your passenger play it.
Keep rolling north. On your right, watch for a pirate lagoon out front of Treasure Island, and just beyond it, the bronze curve of the Wynn — standing on the site of a hotel that a billionaire once refused to leave.