Las Vegas has farewelled another iconic landmark this week with The Riviera demolished in spectacular fashion almost a year to the day since closing its doors.
A series of internal explosions sent The Riviera’s 24-storey Monaco Tower crashing to the ground, joining fellow Las Vegas icons the Dunes, Sands, Desert Inn and Stardust on the city’s rapidly growing scrapheap.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, which purchased the property for US$182.5 million last year, will use the site to expand its Las Vegas Convention Center.
The Riviera opened in 1955 and like its Las Vegas Strip neighbors played a key role in the city’s mobster past, with profits regularly skimmed and sent to the Chicago gang that owned it. Legendary performer Dean Martin also held a 10 percent stake in the property for three years in the early 1970s.
More recently The Riviera has featured in a number of Hollywood films including The Hangover, 1995 mobster flick Casino as well as the original Ocean’s 11. Its demolition leaves the Flamingo and Tropicana as the last of the Strip’s old mob casinos.
