#Las Vegas Hilton

[vintagelasvegas]

SpaceQuest Casino at Las Vegas Hilton, 1998. The futuristic casino opened in tandem with the resort's attraction Star Trek: The Experience. Highlights in the design include three giant windows, 12 ft. x 25 ft. which simulated the view of the orbiting Earth, while offering scenes of spacecrafts docking at SpaceQuest. Spaceship arrivals and departures are announced over the PA system to further the illusion. 

Design by The Cuningham Group / Solberg+Lowe / TSL of Los Angeles. Martin Pegler "Entertainment Destinations" via CARI Stream. Photos by Greg Cava.

[retropopcult]

Sean Connery as James Bond and Lana Wood as Plenty O'Toole in Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

[elvis1970s]

Fairytale, a Pointer Sisters cover, was recorded by Elvis in early 1975 and featured as an album track on Today, released in May of that year. It would remain in the live set right up to the end. This joyous version was captured in a good quality audience recording during Elvis' dinner show in Las Vegas on August 20th, 1975. He's in such great form that it's actually quite hard to believe that following the second show that night, the engagement would be abruptly cancelled (just three nights in) and Elvis would be flown back to Memphis and admitted to hospital.

United Press international (UPI) issued a syndicated report on the sudden cancellation;

“…He just got very tired and fatigued and we thought it would be best if he cut his show here short this time rather than run into complications," said Dr. Elias Ghanem, the singer's Las Vegas physician. "We can't find much wrong with him. One of the liver enzymes is elevated and what he needs is rest…”

Dr Ghanem (1939-2001) enjoyed an enviable lifestyle from his business activities and from billing a number of wealthy and undoubtedly generous Las Vegas entertainers for treatment of, amongst other things, ‘Vegas Throat’ – raspy soreness caused by a combination of the dry desert air and the air-conditioning (and passive smoking) within the hotels and casinos. He was also a proponent of the sleep diet; a regimen of weight loss that appeared to involve the patient being sedated for much of the time and consuming liquid nutrition during rare moments of consciousness. Elvis himself had availed himself of this regime on at least one occasion.

The Irish Times wrote an obituary for Dr Ghanem upon his death from renal cancer in 2001.

“…He was Elvis Presley's personal physician, as well as the doctor for Elvis's posthumous son-in-law Michael Jackson. Although his patient list also included Liberace, Bill Cosby, Ann-Margret, and Virginia Kelley (the mother of former President Bill Clinton), it was Ghanem's relationship with The King which first brought him under the spotlight of unwanted notoriety. When ABC's television programme '20-20' reported that he had supplied the drugs which essentially killed Presley, Dr Ghanem threatened to sue - but he never did…”

The article also noted that Ghanem had been the subject of an FBI investigation over billing, but never charged, and that Colonel Parker had a financial interest in Ghanem's clinic situated conveniently adjacent to the Las Vegas Hilton.

"...Ghanem expanded his practice to include a chain of clinics around Las Vegas, treating literally thousands of patients. He proposed innovative umbrella health-insurance schemes long before they came into vogue, and signed contracts with the Hotel and Casino Workers' Union, by far the largest group of workers in Nevada. The arrangement was obviously a profitable one for Ghanem, but union leader John Wilhelm, recalled that during a protracted six-year strike at the Frontier Casino, Ghanem treated every worker free of charge and delivered over a hundred babies for the striking workers..."

Following the cancellation, Elvis was flown back to Memphis where he was admitted to a private suite on the top floor of Baptist Memorial Hospital. His next professional engagement was back in Las Vegas in December making up for the cancelled shows.

[spockvarietyhour]

The Las Vegas Hilton (now the Westgate Las Vegas) doubling as the Whyte House in Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

[countesspetofi]

Star Trek The Experience | KLINGON ENCOUNTER (PRE-SHOW + RIDE) Las Vegas...

I was there in 2003. It was amazing. The video is great, but even it can;t convey how much cooler it was in person.

Our room at the Hilton came with passes to Klingon Encounter and Borg Invasion, plus a free meal at Quark’s Bar.

[3liza]

ive been to chuck e cheese and disney world. quark's bar was the only theme restaurant/theme attraction that was actually good. it was an actual bar/retaurant in the Hilton on the Las Vegas strip. you could order Star Trek drinks at the bar, including the really big ones in the weird glasses. about half the employees were in BEAUTIFUL star trek cosplay, borderline screen accurate when accounting for the fact that classic star trek screen accuracy is a moving target because this was before HD television and they could really fudge a lot of stuff behind the low resolution fuzz we all filmed and watched television through.

so anyway we just went there on a whim. my first and only trip to vegas, drove there from LA with my lover at the time, he was just like "hey you ever been to Vegas? it's wild. let's go." i have no idea how we ended up at the Hilton. there was a Star Trek Nemesis(?) themed screen room ride about the Borg and Locutus etc that legitimately kicked ass. then we went to the bar and just hung out. when you hung out at Quark's Bar there were circulating DS9 civilians and staff who would come up to your table and do little improv interactions, like a Bajoran woman had a snippy little convo with a Klingon for you and asked you about your trip and everyone played their characters wonderfully. the themeing of DS9 is so good and so immersive in the show, and so grounded, it was really effortless to achieve that immersion both for us and for the staff.

not my photo but a great representation of the Vibes, which were impeccable. i always wanted to go back but they fucked all this up when the JJ Abrahms star treks started coming out. like yeah, i want to Go to There, to regurgitate a cheugy expression for a moment, we all understand that feeling, which is a feeling that most theme attractions just do not get. disney reaches for it but rarely achieves it because everything has to be safe and comfy for children. in Vegas this isnt a consideration, Star Trek drinking experience is not an all-ages proposition, so they could really just go whole hog.

i like how it's sort of janky and shitty because again, thats what star trek looks like on tv. and the conceit of ds9 also is that the station itself is halfassed, old, leaky, and falling apart.

i have no idea what the hilton is like now or how much of this remains and in what form. if i had a podcast i would look for former employees and try to interview them. i would love a job like this, i would be such a good klingon or bajoran.

in total i was probably only there for like 3 hours, which is the ideal amount of time to spend in Vegas. you drive down the strip, go "wow!", and then speed out of town as fast as possible because my god that city sucks

long term hostage situation in which I refuse to surrender until Quark's Bar is restored at the Las Vegas Hilton

[landinrris]

If there's one thing Paris Hilton is going to do, it's love her girls and gays (x)

[emaadsidiki]

Classic Vegas 🏙️

[makeagif]

Lando Norris's Surprise Birthday Stay

[alexi-01]

just paris hilton calling lando bro

[wtflife01]

Las Vegas gp ‘23 looks 2/4

[vintagelasvegas]

Ironworker on top of Las Vegas Hilton, 1994. The original penthouse aka "Elvis Presley Suite" and rooftop lounge were demolished and replaced with three suites called the Sky Villas.

We were on the top of the hotel tower adding high roller suites. We initially demolished the former Elvis suite and then added 2-3 floors of steel, it was a unique job. - JohnBar69234406

[64sue]

boyfriend vibe <3

[elvis1970s]

On December 12th, 1976, Elvis played his final ever Las Vegas show, ending a fifteen show engagement that had begun on December 2nd. The schedule was now a little easier than in previous years, with seven nights, including this one, consisting of one show instead of two. This is an audience recording, but the sound quality is very good. The position of the recording device also gives a great feel in terms of the audience's enthusiasm, excitement, and warmth.

Around five months later, The Nashville Banner, citing 'authoritative sources' in Nashville, Memphis and Los Angeles, claimed that Colonel Parker had decided to sell Elvis' contract for 'health and financial' reasons. The story claimed that Parker needed a fast million dollars to replace money lost gambling during the December '76 Las Vegas engagement.

Elvis biographer, Peter Guralnick, (Careless Love: The Unmaking of Elvis Presley) points out that the paper's alleged sources were anonymous, and that the article contained factual inaccuracies, including the incorrect assertion that Elvis' Las Vegas Hilton contract had expired, leading to the reporter's conclusion that Parker would no longer be able to trade Elvis' services to pay off his debts, hence the sale. In reality, Elvis was booked to play his most significant engagement in Vegas since 1969 – the grand opening of the new 5 000 seat Hilton Pavilion showroom, scheduled for October, 1977.

When the story broke, Colonel Parker was on tour, one day ahead of Elvis and the band, in St Paul, Minnesota, and spoke to rival Nashville paper, The Nashville Tennessean, describing the Banner's story as a 'complete fabrication'. 'I'm here, I'm working with Elvis, I'm in good health, and I don’t have any debts – at least none that I can’t pay.'

Joe Esposito also weighed in, describing the relationship between Elvis and Colonel Parker as 'cordial' and stating that neither had any plans to break their long-standing agreement that had begun with a handshake. The 'consortium of West Coast businessmen' who were the alleged buyers never materialised, if they ever existed at all.

Having said this, Peter Guralnick concluded;

"… but it was apparent to anyone who knew anything about the recent history of their tangled relationship that the story was, in essence, true. Too many people had heard Colonel complaining that Elvis was more trouble than he was worth, that he was intractable and could no longer be effectively managed. And too many people were aware, as Elvis' Los Angeles lawyer Ed Hookstratten was inclined to put it, that Colonel was 'servicing a problem of his own.' Elvis had no doubt about the story in any case: he knew in his bones it was true. And while the consortium of 'West Coast businessmen' who were supposed to be buying his contract never surfaced, driven off presumably by the glare of publicity, Elvis had never felt more betrayed or more alone…"

[twixnmix]

Ike & Tina Turner performing at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel on May 20, 1975.

[jumbolatex]

The BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL Goddess, Paris Hilton at the Las Vegas F1 Grand Prix in leather.