Howard Hughes's arrival in Las Vegas was like Sinatra signing you to Reprise.
It gave the city a credibility that it had never attained. It didn't hurt
that the feds were cracking down on mob activity in the late sixties, but
Hughes's investment was a sign to businessmen that Vegas was a place in which
money could be made on the up and up. Was he eccentric? Yeah, but money talks,
and he hadn't earned his billions through financial irresponsibility.
Hughes fell into Vegas like Rip Van Winkle. Heavily addicted to opiates, the
result of a 1946 airplane crash that almost took his life, Hughes encamped in
the top two floors of suites at the Desert Inn. When management requested he
leave to free up the suites for their VIPs, Hughes told his right-hand man,
former FBI agent Robert Maheu, to take care of the problem. After some
negotiation, Hughes bought the place for $13 million. He didn't leave -- or
clean -- the suites until he left Vegas in 1970.
Beginning with that purchase, Hughes, through Maheu and prominent Vegas banker
E. Thomas Parry, proceeded to purchase the Sands (home
base to the Rat Pack), the Frontier, the Silver Slipper, and the Castaway. It
took the SEC, worried about a Hughes monopoly in Vegas, to stop him from
grabbing up the Stardust as well. He even bought the local CBS affiliate,
KLAS-TV, from media magnate Hank Greenspun so he could
set a late-night viewing schedule for his preferred movies.
A publicity battle with Kirk Kerkorian over the construction of the
International Hotel (now the Las Vegas Hilton) led to Hughes building the now
demolished Landmark tower at the Sands. He wanted to ensure that his property
remained the highest in Las Vegas.
Eventually, Howard Hughes, accompanied by his Mormon mafia -- a small group of
Mormons who tended to his feeding and drug habits -- left Vegas for the
Bahamas. In only four short years, he had dramatically altered the make-up of
the gaming industry, pushing out prominent mob men in favor of legitimate
businessmen, and added his name to the Vegas mystique. The Desert Inn was
bought and subsequently torn down by Steve Wynn to develop a
new mega-resort.
