I bought a deck of Sands casino cards in 1990 for $1.00 and sold it last year for $200.

I would love to see more videos of other hotels such as Riviera, the Stardust, Frontier and Dunes.

On the weekend of my birthday in 1992, I drove to Vegas from LA, to meet my old high school friend Robert and his close buddy Bradley. They both flew in from Texas and were staying at the Sands. Bradley who was a quadriplegic, was also an experienced corporate accountant. The Sands management was very inclusive for it's time, and Brad was there for an interview. Robert was there to assist Brad and have fun in Vegas. For me it was a close drive and something cool to do on my 30th birthday. While there, I almost won 600K on Quartermania slots, but all the Quartermania symbols were one click over the payline, which sucked. Still, I was up $500 from playing $5 blackjack the night before. That same weekend, the Sand's management called us into a very scary back office. A very beefy looking mobster guy eating pasta at a little table stood up, and welcomed us with a warm handshake. He seemed genuinely impressed with us as a group of friends and gave us ringside tickets to the Thomas Hit-man Herns heavyweight prize fight across the street at Caesar's Palace which included a limo ride. We declined the limo since it was easy enough to accompany Brad across the street to Caesar's. We were five seats back from ringside, close enough to feel the blood and sweat hit our faces. We were in front of Sammy Hagar and Arsenio Hall. True story. Bradley didn't get the job, but we all had an insanely great weekend at the legendary Sands, shortly before it became history. Sadly, Brad died a few years later of natural causes, having stayed with his accounting job with General Dynamics in Fort Worth. Robert got married and currently manages a large car dealership. Me, I left LA and moved back to Dallas after the 2008 recession. It wasn't my last trip to Vegas, but it was the last time I experienced something that cool, at a place that no longer exists.

Rather than a museum, why not build a new Sands Resort & Casino? It can be 1960s Las Vegas themed and feature Rat Pack inspired performances. Cirque du Soleil could even be commissioned to create a Rat Pack show.

It would be nice if Las Vegas had a little more of what she possessed in the 50’s and 60’s. Great video.

I remember walking into the empty Copa Room one day in 1988. I walked up to the stage and took in the history that took place there. Even then you could feel the presence of those great performers.

I stayed at the Sands in its last week. So many memories. I wish I’d of kept some keepsakes. I was there a whole week for 2 trade shows. I miss the nostalgia of the Sinatra era. Vegas literally amazes me today.

I miss the Riviera. I stayed there for a week every other year starting in 1985.

My maternal grandfather was one of the higher executives at the Sands he worked there "forever" as my mom stated and then became an executive at the Riviera. My grandfather passed away in '88, I believe, about 8 years before I was born, so I didn't know much about The Sands or the Riviera so this is very interesting to me, as it's very much *my* heritage!

My mother and I stayed there in 1962. We saw Dean Martin with Count Basie. Vegas had a wonderful atmosphere back then. Long gone.

The Neon Museum does a great job preserving Vegas history through their signs. I'm not sure if they have anything from Sands, but they have a lot including Stardust. As sad as I am casinos like Sands had to be torn down I will say what it was replaced with, The Venetian, is my favorite casino/hotel on the strip.

As a Vegas resident I appreciate these videos.

In 1985, my Wife and I was our first time to Vegas we both were 27 and the Sands was the Dumb and love our stay.

We visited there shortly before it closed, and we’re amazed how small the showroom was in comparison to today’s venues. Different times, but we still have our souvenir mug from the visit.

I worked at the Sands when I was about 20 yrs old. So sad to see it imploded.😭 I have some good memories.

Yes, Las Vegas will always be the most fabulous place in the whole world. Thank you for sharing.

My father (and my mother) loved Las Vegas....and on one of their trips there wanted to have dinner at the Sands, when my father called for reservations he was told that the earliest opening was the next night at 9 pm, he made the reservation and he and my mother went to the Sands earlier to play same black jack. My father pushed the dealer on the first hand and won every hand in the rest of the shoe. The pit boss comped their dinner.

I find it ironic that The Flamingo Casino is still there.

Wow. Really really good video! SO much work in this! All the details and history you mentioned in this. Many things I never knew. Thank you! Amazing job putting this all together. All the original photos too. The Sands WAS Vegas for so long. But like with everything it can only last for so long. But the memories of it will last much much longer!

Thank you for doing the history of the Sands. This is needed.

9:00 - Fifty years later, a Sands Casino-Hotel would be operating in Atlantic City, New Jersey. The Sands is the first casino built in Atlantic City to be demolished to nothing.

THIS WAS AN AWESOME VIDEO

Thank you this was a fabulous video I really enjoyed it. I stayed are the Sands back in the day and in many of the hotels of that era. I continue to visit Las Vegas throughout the 80s and early 90s. I watched the place change. I hope you will continue the series. Thanks again I subscribed.

Very nicely put together video and very entertaining as well. Thanks for posting this.

Love the modern ruins series keep up the hard work!

I was happy that I got to stay at the Sands with two friends before it was gone. Watching this was awesome to know I was in this historic place. Thank you for the Sands story!

Very good, and detailed presentation.

I am certain I was in the Sands once or twice. I can remember a few places that held on then finally closed. Those Rat Pack days really made these places. I was just a kid when all that was happening and missed it. Life goes on.

Great video! Thank you for sharing!!

Your content quality has went up so much it’s amazing. Well done 👍

Extremely well done!

Sheesh... I had a great idea about twenty years ago. A bunch of us were out there for the first "Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Festival". Down the way from the hotel we were at, there was what looked to be the remnants of a late 40s hotel, if I remember correctly it was 3 to 4 stories and GREAT looking... But it already was stripped and had a chain link fence around, ready for the wrecking ball. The place was big enough to have made a really large "Boutique" hotel... It looked like it might have had 150- 200 rooms. I thought "jeez, this would make a really great retro retreat... Restored exactly like in it's heyday... Hire still-existing acts to play the showroom. Staff dressed in period clothing... No digital bleep bleep machines... Call it "Lost Vegas" and it would have had a good second run... I'm sure.

Awesome video historian effort. Thank you

Well done... great history here. Thanks

A new opportunity has presented itself- Bally’s, has a very interesting history, and is soon to become the Horseshoe resort, with a complete remodel to go with the new name! This is a very great story, and involves many fascinating people and historic events! This also tells the tale of Las Vegas today!

Fantastic commentary as always 👍 also that was the first picture of Doris Day with a cigarette I have ever seen and I'm a huge fan 😮

FANTASTIC video! Your architectural informations was nice to see and your idea for a lasting memorial installation sounds like what is exactly needed. Cultural history to preserve.

I played trumpet in the Don Vincent orchestra ( Wayne Newton's musical director) which was the house band at the Sands. I got hired in1979 . It was the best GIG in the world! I thought I would be there for the rest of my career. Come February 1983, while playing the Bobby Vinton show, we were told that Bobby will be closing the Sands next week and will be the last performer to close the Copa Room. Comes to be that Bobby was the FIRST entertainer to open the Copa in1953! Vegas wanted to make the Copa Room a national landmark and preserve the stage but could not pull enough strings to make that happen. Great memories performing with Wayne, Tony, Bobby, Rodney, Debbie, Deon, Joan, and all the other greats I had the pleasure to perform with!

Excellent presentation.

Great job ! I stayed at the sands in the early 1980ies glad I did.keep these coming very very interesting!!

Great video yo loved it.. real old vegas and the room was like family living back then..

Great Video!...Very informative...Great Narroration

In Macau, one of the first hotel casino s still exist. It is the Lisboa Hotel and Casino, in the style of gone by years. I am so happy, that they did not demolish it, when the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino was build. The two now are neighbours, and I hope they will be for many years to come.

this was great! Please cover more vegas casinos!

Great history video on the Sands with fun inside information. BTW, in the image with Frank Sinatra and Doris Day, the other woman seated is Lauren Bacall.

WOW Thanks for sharing

thisis your best vid yet, really good and informative. there's a severe lack of las vegas strip history type docs imo

Gotta say that intro was awesome!!👏

The Sand's served it's purpose over the years!

I visited The Sands in June 1994. I wish I knew it was gonna be gone soon.

Great presentation. I was at the Palazzo (at The Venetian) just a few weeks ago.

Great video! I love this history and the story. That sign is so classic, I forget if its at the Neon Boneyard just outside town but that place has some really cool stuff and interesting history about that time

Could you please look into the Astrodome for a modern ruins video? Your formatting and pace is awesome and you go into detail with everyone of your videos, which I appreciate whole heartedly. The stadium sits right next to NRG stadium in Houston and for a couple of years I haven't heard much about what's happening with it. I heard there was talks about naming it a national landmark, there's been all kinds of talks about renovating and doing other things with it. So much history about it. Selena played her last show there before she was murdered. The rodeos, concerts, Astros and Oilers homefield too. There's a ton there that I think would make for an awesome episode brother.

In 1953, Sands Hotel was the end of the Strip. After it, there were only tiny motels except for far off Hacienda that stuck up like a sore thumb.

My understanding is that Humprey Bogart actually started and coined the term 'rat pack' of which Sinatra was a member

Oh wow! My father use to work there as security.

Dope video and frank Sinatra was a great person didn't know he was the reason blacks were able to be to be treated equally

Not gonna lie I can't wait until 3-4 years from now when my production quality and narration skills have gotten so much better so I can remake these early videos. Incredible stories that deserve better documentation.

Excellent video! It looks like the entrance to the Virgin Hotel is very similar to the entrance of the Sands. I moved to Vegas in June of 2022 and I'm really enjoying all the historical videos. I don't gamble but there are thousands of other things to do.

I was 16 when I watched the moon landing at the Sands. They had set up several tvs and there were busomy showgirls and they were giving out free champagne. I was having a difficult time watching the moon landing because I'd never seen women like that before. Meanwhile, in the main casino, the gamblers and slot players kept playing and maybe 50 people were watching the moon landing. But it was fun and OLD Vegas where they treated the customers like kings and queens ( my parents would take me to eat and they would gamble and I got to know people like Mr. Frank Sinatra whom I had lunch with and Totie Fields & Barron Hilton ) and things were better in 1968.

I remember going to COMDEX in November 1995 and visiting the Sands to eat lunch at the buffet and then play blackjack at a $1.00 table in the “Fun Pit.” The place definitely _looked_ dated, but there was something to be said for “Old Vegas” style. I think they already had plans for the Venetian, so I knew the Sands would be gone the following year.

I still have room keys from the 70s that I forgot to return.....Ops

Been watching your series and really enjoying it especially the football stadiums and Astrodome episode. Would love to see an episode on the old Sportatorium in Dallas. Old arena used for wrestling that was torn down in 2003.

I was able to visit The Sands in 94 before it was demo'd, not knowing 2 yrs later it wouldn't exist anymore. Me not being a gambler I haven't been back due to $$$, but also I'm old now & my legs don't want to cooperate, but after knee replacement, and retiring soon I want to go back for the kicks & grins. It's changed drastically since 94, but still want to check it out.

Really interesting

Just love the style of those times

An idea for a new casino… call it nostalgia or Old Vegas and make it in the style of New York, New York. The Sands, Desert Inn, Stardust, Sahara, The old Flamingo. The towers all connected with all the bright, 1965 carpets and furniture. All employees dressed for the time. Actors dressed like the Rat Pack and other period celebrities would walk around interacting with guests. Costume shops and stores would provide the guests with the proper attire to fit in for the experience. Everyone wants to go back in time.

Great narration and information. AH.... Vegas. My dad loved the place,. and my mom hated it. Me and my brother loved the pools.....

That is why you have your channel!!!

Wished I could've visited this place. My first Vegas trip was in 1998.

Decades agp we stayed at the Sands Hotel. Saw Wayne Newton in the Copa Room.

Sands Hotel in Reno was my favorite to visit. Back in the 80’s it was still the “old hotel” and was a lot of fun. They then tore it down and rebuilt it…..stayed there once in 1992 on my way to a remote site in Turkey and have never been back. Just wasn’t the same feel……

I have that poster @ 25:24 framed with a $5 chip hanging at my dad's house. We stopped there the weekend they were closing and snatched one up. Memories.

I love the remix of “Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen” you used for the intro, where did you find it? I need it on my playlists!

I got to visit the Sands in 1992, I can remember outside the hotel and seeing all the olive trees and all the olives all over the ground, every time I think of Vegas I think of the Rat Pack, I spent my honeymoon at the Star Dusk that year. What a amazing place. I love it there.

I always questioned the beginnings of Las Vegas. The stories of the mob starting the town w/ a casino in the middle of nowhere didn't sound logical nor reasonable. Thanks for clearing up the roomers. Great video.

As long as it’s been, I still miss the Sands. I’m a huge Sammy Davis Jr fan.

I first visited Las Vegas in 2018 as a middle school graduation vacation, we stayed in the Venetian which at the time was still owned by Las Vegas Sands. But they have since sold the hotel to Apollo Group since Sands found that they were making more money in other places like Macau and Singapore with places like the Marina Bay Sands.

I forget who was also included but, it was considered that Humphrey Bogart formed the rat pack and after a night of partying Lauren Bacall saw them and said "Don't you look like a pack of rats?" and that started it. Then Frank sort of took it over and made it more famous. Being biased by relationship to the Mastin family I believe that Sammy was the most talented of all the Rat Packers and many other people consider him the greatest entertainer of all time. When I was a kid the parents never told us when we were going to Vegas so that we could go to bed like any other normal night. Then in the middle of the night they woke us up and piled us into the station wagon and we usually fell right back asleep. Ingenious solution to the "Are we there yet?" syndrome.

“My Father used to GOLF at the SAND’S all the time, until they closed it and put the BELLAGIO in it’s place!” And when I got married in 2001, down the Strip from the FLAMINGO HILTON; my wife and I watched them shoot the Second RUSH HOUR, in an Older Casino slated for Demolition!

“Mysteriously murdered.” Getting your eye shot out of your head would not qualify as mysterious.

You could look into the history of Amber Court and SamaWorld Theme Park in Genting Highlands, Malaysia. Would make an interesting video

they should make a museum called vegas of old, recreate the old hotel lobbies/casinos/rooms/restaurants of the sands, frontier, DI etc different set for each hotel

its amazing all the old casinos that were torn down. the aladdin, the riviera, the sands, the landmark, the dunes, and i wonder which one is next.

Do the desert inn or the dunes next!

The neon boneyard has a lot of the old signs from the casinos. I don't remember if I saw the one from the sands there.

I am loving your videos! I would love to learn more about Texas Stadium and why the NFL forced Jerry Jones to also buy the stadium when her bought the Dallas Cowboys. Thanks!

Fun Fact: The Stardust, another famous mob-run casino was another casino that Howard Hughes was interested in purchasing but the owners refused because they said he owned too many properties in Vegas.

Ricky Ricardo? BTW, the woman you failed to identify in the photo with Sinatra and Day is Lauren Bacall.

I stayed at the Sands. Unfortunately, it was a dump by the time I was there. I'd have loved to see it in its heyday.

The smashing redhead with Sinatra in the Ocean's 11 clips at the video intro is Patrice Wymore. She was Errol Flynn's widow and her role was a 'grace and favor' as she was hard up for cash at that point in settling Flynn's debts and trying to hang on to their Jamaica estate. (She did)

I was fortunate enough to stay at the Sands tower in the 90’s as a teenager, before they tore it all down.

When the Sands, Cataways, Landmark, Hacienda, and Dunes were still standing Las Vegas was a better place. Used to be a great place for adults to go for a weekend - rooms and food were cheap, free drinks in the Casinos, regular gambling games (single deck BJ) - Now it is expensive and touristy with goofy games that have highly slanted odds and 50 deck BJ.

I got a Royal Flush at the Sands in 1972.

the live at the sands album with Frank Sinatra and the Count Basie Big Band is some of the BEST big band I have heard......"A man and his music".

I was there before the take down. Was not 21. Security nicely telling me I could not be in there. Dad came out because of announcement. So, he saw Liberace walking. We went out back. Saw him in his pale yellow Cadillac. Stopped him. He put electric window down. Shook my hand and Dad's. Hi. How are ya. He said. Of course, different from now, no body guard or security. This was at The Riveria. Now. Torn down and a parking lot. Good memories. I am a swimmer so dad and I would go to the pool and mom, dad, and I would stay at the casinos and come home at 4 am. Such fun on tge cherry slot machines with no flash and the $2.99 breakfasts. Smile!

21:31 - Stayed at the Sands for an international sales meeting for the company I worked for in 1992. A Florida company... mostly because the Sands was cheap in the middle of the summer... while watching my top management play blackjack in the casino I played the slot machines and won $350 on a $20 stake... later found out I was a "natural" on slot machines and how to make them pay... came home with $100 more than I left with... and then I stayed at the Venetian in 2010 for an investment conference, not actually aware that it was the same location as The Sands...

Keeping the sign would have been cool

The Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens, The Chicago Stadium, Boston Gardens, The Philidelphia Spectrum, The Pittsburg Igloo, please?

I'd love to take a time machine back to when the rat pack were there, I think I have all the live recordings from when they were there as well as other locations, they were available on vuze, I saved them on usb, CD's and they're all on an external hard drive along with most or Frank and some of deanss albums. I live in NJ and everyone I've spoken to in Atlantic city says they preferred Vegas when the mob ran it. The sands in ac was imploded in 2007 or 2008, a company called pinnacle was supposed to build an at the time state of the art casino and hotel but the economic downturn in 2008 put a stop to it, nothing has been built there ever since, the property was turned into a kind of art park I think it's called, part of the walkway bridge that used to take you from the boardwalk to the casino is still there, the vestibule is used for an information booth.