I suppose I’m nostalgic. I have been looking at old videos from the 1980s and 1990s of the Strip and Downtown. Here is a good YouTube video of one that compares 1988 to 2019. When I see those old hotels/casinos, it brings me back to when I was a younger man on a low budget, enjoying all that Las Vegas had to offer. For my next few blog posts, I am going to relate what some of those old places were like and how they have changed.
I guess I’ll start at the beginning. The first time I traveled to Las Vegas, my best friend Steve and I stayed at the now defunct Riviera. Ah… the Riv. It was pretty cool back then - 1992. That giant, window-world of a facade was only 2 years old at the time and looking quite stylish in the Vegas sky. The Riv was also near other casinos that catered to low rollers like me - The Stardust (my fav casino of all time), Circus Circus and Frontier. Construction had begun on the nearby Strat, but it was still a glimmer in Bob Stupak’s eye at that point.
The Riv was, at the time, one of nicer hotels in the area. A ton of movies were filmed there, even in its later years when its age started to show. It went through numerous upgrades and expansions since its inception in 1955, which lead to a bit of an odd layout. It had a myriad of hallways that seemed to lead to nowhere, and I recall once when my wife and I visited, we saw comedian Louie Anderson wondering around with his manager, and they were lost. Louie was saying “No, this can’t be right. This can’t be the way.” They stood there for a few minutes and looked for signage to help them find their way.
On our first trip to Las Vegas, Steve and I got into the city really late because our flight was delayed. We checked into our room at the Riv and immediately headed down to the casino at about 1 am. Ah, youth. I was nervous, and I’m sure it showed. I sat at a blackjack table where the cards were dealt face down, and I had no idea what I was doing. The dealer and some of the players were getting a little impatient with me. After a few hands, I just got up and went to a different table. I must have had that newbie smell all over me! Now a grizzled veteran, I can lose money at blackjack no matter the number of decks, how they are dealt or how surly the dealer is.
I remember a trip years later when Steve and I stayed at the Riv and had a pretty good blackjack session there. There was a younger dude at our table who kept wanting to high five us every time the dealer busted. The dealer was getting upset because he said the guy was reaching across the table and the eye in the sky wouldn’t like it because he was blocking their view. The young man didn’t seem to care, but Steve and I both thought it was not a good idea to anger casino and security folks. We left after a while with our profits, but I don’t know what happened with our gambling companion. Perhaps they used his head to open the front door facing the Strip. Probably not, but it had not been that long after the mob ruled those casinos, so who knows.
The pool was pretty awesome. It was big and rectangular and always had a cool, shady spot resulting from the shadows of the nearby hotel towers. The Riv hosted only a few eateries, including a nice steak house that had great food and was inexpensive. A few shops randomly scattered around the property, mostly near the pool. I remember a tattoo parlor and some small gift shops. There was no ultra lounge, no volcanoes or amusement rides, no million-dollar car dealership. Despite the fact that The Riv was not a modern hotel/casino, I thought it was a place I thought would be there forever.
Alas, it went the way of Frontier and Stardust when it closed in May 2015 and was later imploded. A huge hole is left where it used to be, waiting for the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority to do something with it. This area of the Strip is kind of odd these days. There is some new construction and some rebuilding, but I’m not sure how much traffic it will attract. Over 40 million people visit Las Vegas every year (well, not this year obviously). Mid-Strip is always packed, so what would drive people to head north? The Drew and Resorts World are set to open in the future, but who knows how they will fare or if they will divert people away from those pretty fountains at Bellagio.
Don’t get me wrong, I would love to see a resurgence of the northern area of the Strip. I just don’t know what would make that happen. I thought when SLS entered the picture that people would see it as an alternative to the expensive places Mid-Strip. That didn’t happen, and now it’s up to Sahara to try to make a go of it again.
I'll remember the Riv and all it’s glory and what those first few trips to Las Vegas were like for me and Steve. We played $2 blackjack with great rules and craps and lived like kings. We parked for free and never paid resort fees. We never had a problem getting a seat at a table or at the sports book. Times have changed, so I spend less of my entertainment dollars on the Strip than I used to, but I am still ever the tourist and not ashamed to admit that I love to visit Bellagio and see those fountains and the conservatory inside. But I do long for those days at the Riv in what seemed to me like simpler times.
Viva,
Mike