Sands Hotel and Casino

The Sands Hotel and Casino was a historic hotel and casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada, United States, that operated from 1952 to 1996. Designed by the architect Wayne McAllister, with a prominent 56 feet (17 m) high sign, the Sands was the seventh resort to open on the Strip. During its heyday, the Sands was the center of entertainment and "cool" on the Strip, and hosted many famous entertainers of the day, most notably the Rat Pack.

The hotel was established in 1952 by Texan oil tycoon Jake Freedman, who bought up the LaRue Restaurant, which had opened two years earlier. The hotel was opened on December 15, 1952 as a casino with 200 rooms, and was established less than three months after the opening of another notable landmark, Sahara Hotel and Casino. The hotel rooms were divided into four two-story motel wings, each with fifty rooms, and named after famous race tracks. The opening was widely publicized, and every guest was given a Chamois bag with silver dollars. Crime bosses such as Meyer Lansky and Frank Costello acquired shares in the hotel and attracted Frank Sinatra, who made his performing debut at Sands in October 1953. Sinatra later bought a share in the hotel himself. Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. were instrumental throughout the late 1950s and early 1960s in bringing a change in racial policy in Sands, and after an incident in 1961, it began employing blacks. In 1960 the classic caper film Ocean's 11 was shot at the hotel, and it subsequently attained iconic status, with regular performances by Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis. Jr., Red Skelton and others, who performed regularly in the hotel's world-renowned Copa Room. Much of the musical success of the Copa Room is credited to the room's band leader and musical conductor Antonio Morelli, whose house orchestra performed in the recording of hundreds of albums over the years.