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Thunderbird Hotel, 1948

Timeline of Thunderbird, Silverbird, and El Rancho

THUNDERBIRD, '48-'76

'46: Marion Hicks and Lt. Gov. Cliff Jones purchase property for a planned Nevada Ambassador hotel on 3/11/46. The property was bought from Guy McAfee, Art Ham, and J.K. Houssels who had planned a hotel called Casa de Oro. Sale price is rumored $85,000.

'47: Officers of Thunderbird are a Las Vegas and Los Angeles group, Hicks, Jones, V. Sayer, J. Lane, P. Wagoner, J. Wells (Reno), and J. Kozloff. Hicks as builder. Construction begins on 46 acre lot in Oct.

'48: Thunderbird opens 9/2/48. 107 rooms, 75-foot observation tower. Signs by Graham Sign Co (RJ 8/18/48).

'53: Hicks builds the spin-off Algiers Hotel.

'58: renovation, adding new second floor over casino framed in rectangular box, new porte-cochère. New signs by Western Neon (RJ 11/24/58, RJ 12/24/58).

'59: “Thunderbird” logo changed, road sign replaced in Fall.

'61: road sign moved to the front-center of the hotel, fire-shooting stick added to both birds.

'62: new road sign and pylon.

'63: Thunderbird Downs quarter horse track opened, Oct. 5 (RJ 9/24/63).

'64: Sold to Del Webb Corp in Sep.

'65: 700-ft horizontal “Thunderbird” sign by Bill Clarke/Ad Art installed over the south rooms in Jun. (RJ 6/10/65); road sign & pylon replaced with one road sign and new neon bird.

'72: Sold to Caesars World Inc.

'73: Blue/green sign painted zigzag red/orange in summer.

'76: Sold to Tiger Investment Co (Thomas, Mack, K. Sullivan, et al), leased to Major Riddle in Dec.

SILVERBIRD, '77-'81

'77: Reopened as Silverbird in Jan.

'78: Thunderbird signs replaced by the 190-ft sign/porte-cochère designed by Raul Rodriguez for Heath, built by AdArt. (RJ 3/29/78)

'81: Closed in 12/3/81.

EL RANCHO, '82-'92

'82: Sold at auction to Ed Torres in Feb; renamed El Rancho in Apr (RJ 3/18/82, 4/7/82). Opens at El Rancho 8/31/82.

'87: Tower addition.

'92: Closed Jul. 6.

2000: Tower demolished, Oct. 3.

Other sources include: New Hotel To Be Built.” Las Vegas Review-Journal, 3/13/46 p1; Vegas as Playground. Review-Journal, 7/31/46 p5; Construction Started. Review-Journal, 10/28/47; Thunderbird Hotel. Review-Journal, 8/29/48; Martin Stern Jr. profile by P. Michel. UNLV Libraries, archived 3/10/2004.

Photos: (1) Postcard c. 1948. (2-3) Undated aerial photo of construction, by Las Vegas News Bureau. Radio station KENO west of the Thunderbird site. (4) Undated, during construction. Photo taken from the observation tower, by Las Vegas News Bureau. (5) Same models as the color postcard, from Union Pacific Railroad Photographs (PH-00043), UNLV Special Collections & Archives.

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