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The hotel was built in 1906 on a prime Fremont Street corner, just across the street from the train depot. At that time most people arrived in Las Vegas by train. Because of its prestigious location, the hotel was assigned street number "1 East Freemont Street." The hotel also had the first telephone and was assigned telephone number "1."
For those that are too young to remember early wall-mounted telephones, there was a crank on the side of the telephone box that you had to crank and then a Hello Girl (female telephone operator) would ask what number you wanted. By saying "1," the operator sitting at a large switch board would physically plug a cable from your line into terminal "1," then ring the hotel to complete the connection. If no one answered the hotel telephone, the operator would tell you that no one answered the phone and then unplug the switchboard cable.
In small communities, telephone operators knew everyone in town and all of the gossip. You could just ring the operator and ask her where someone was located, who was out-of-town, how a sick person was doing, if some woman had her baby, or anything else that you might want to know about going on in the community. Clocks had to be wound each day. Most clocks would typically lose or gain a few minutes with the passage of time, so people would frequently call the operator to get the correct time and then reset their clocks.
The Golden Gate was originally named "Nevada Hotel," but the name was later changed to "Sal Sagev" (Las Vegas spelled backward). In 1955 the name was changed to Golden Gate in recognition of the Golden Gate Bridge and the many grand hotels in San Francisco that the hotel was designed after. In 1959 the 99-cent shrimp cocktail originated at the Hotel and by the turn of the century they had served over 25 million shrimp cocktails.
During its hey days, celebrities often visited the hotel - The Rat Pak, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, and many others. Their photographs still hang on the walls throughout the property.
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The Golden Gate is now dwarfed by the new Circa Resort/Casino, which is directly across the street. And, 99-cent shrimp cocktails are just a memory. However the Golden Gate Hotel/Casino it still a fun place to visit and look at all of the historic items and photographs that are on display.
The El Cortez Resort/Casino, a few blocks east of the Golden Gate, is also one of the oldest hotel/casino operations in Las Vegas. However, when it opened on November 7, 1941, it was the largest and most luxurious hotel/casino in Las Vegas and quickly became popular with Hollywood celebrities and mob figures from Chicago.
In 1945 gangsters' "Bugsy" Siegel, Moe Sedway, Meyer Lansky, and Gus Greenbaum purchased the property and Las Vegas soon became a city that was run by the mob as they purchased other hotel/casino properties. In addition to acquiring existing properties, the mob went on to develop the famous Flamingo Resort/Casino and other hotel/casino properties in Las Vegas. However, by the mid-1980s all of the mob figures lost their gaming licenses and the hotel/casinos became more legitimate businesses.
Over the years the El Cortez has made numerous expansions and other property acquisitions. In 1980 the El Cortez Tower was constructed and in 2009 the Ogden Hotel was purchased and is now known as the El Cortez Cabana Suites. Surprisingly, the front of the property still has the original 1941 façade.
The El Cortez is now popular with budget travelers and still offers some of the lowest-stake gambling in Las Vegas. It is one of the first properties in Las Vegas that required patrons to be at least 21-years old to enter the property. IDs are checked at the entrance doors. Since I look so young, I was surprised that they did not check my ID when I entered.
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Murals are painted on many of the building walls that surround the El Cortez, but I think that I'm too old to understand the meaning of some of the murals.
BONUS PICTURES
Even though I did not get to go with Sophia and her Aunt Kolohe to Iceland this summer, when I was a young man my Uncle Sam took me to Goose Bay (Labrador), Reykjavik (Iceland), Sondrestrom (Greenland), and Thule (Greenland). On the way to Reykjavik, the navigator made a slight error in the flight path calculation and we ended up flying around an underwater volcano that later emitted enough magma to form the island of Surtsey.
On the way home the navigator made another flight path calculation error and we flew around the North Pole and then down across the Northeast Territory in Canada.
Northern Labrador
Iceland
Reykjavik, Iceland
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Sandrestrom, Greenland
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Thule, Greenland
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Northeast Territory, Canada
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