From ‘Oppenheimer’ to ’Obliterated’: A look at Las Vegas history in 2023
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Historical features mean more in Las Vegas than in most other cities, perhaps because so few people actually know Las Vegas’ history.
Even though the city is relatively young, dating back to the auction of 1,200 lots in the area known as Clark’s Las Vegas Townsite in 1905, there haven’t always been very many residents to witness it. Given that for decades most of Las Vegas’ growth came from transplants, odds are that even if you were alive during some of the key moments, you were living elsewhere.
Mining the Review-Journal’s digital archive, which dates back to April 1, 1929, we brought you these only-in-Vegas stories:
As many as 200,000 people lined Las Vegas Boulevard on Oct. 27, 1993, to view the implosion of the Dunes. The event, which we called at the time “one of the biggest publicity stunts in the history of Las Vegas,” forever changed the way casinos in the resort corridor were destroyed. We ranked the 14 implosions — some of which were theatrical, some were solemn, and a few were afterthoughts — while we waited for word on when the Tropicana would join the list.
If you weren’t living here at the time, it can be hard to fathom just how recently some of the city’s most notorious mob exploits took place. The members of Tony Spilotro’s Hole in the Wall Gang, for example, could’ve planned burglaries on their way to see “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” And yet, precious few of the places most associated with the mob remain. We compiled this list of some of the places where mobsters stayed and played while the buildings are still around for you to see.
Even at its best, professional wrestling will always be a little ridiculous. WrestleMania IX, though, was flat-out bonkers. The matches took place the afternoon of April 4, 1993, in the parking lot of Caesars Palace. One matchup involved identical evil clowns. Hulk Hogan left with the top title despite never really being in a match for it. Bobby “The Brain” Heenan made his way to the announcers’ table sitting backward on a camel. For the 30th anniversary of the spectacle, we caught up with WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels, who first gained national exposure in 1986 during the American Wrestling Association’s tapings for ESPN at the Showboat on Boulder Highway, and Mark Calaway, who had arguably the worst match of his three-decade in-ring career as The Undertaker that day.
And three were a couple of present-day pieces about the Vegas-Hollywood connection:
There’s nothing typical about Netflix’s “Obliterated.” The action comedy from the creators of “Cobra Kai” focuses on a nuclear threat to Las Vegas that’s thwarted early on, only for our heroes to realize while they’re celebrating that the five-kiloton bomb they recovered was fake, the real one is set to go off in just seven hours, and they haven’t even begun to feel the full effects of the copious amount of booze and drugs they’ve just ingested. But what started as a routine Zoom interview with the trio of creators revealed something deeper: In the aftermath of the Route 91 Harvest festival shooting, many Las Vegas casinos remain uneasy about allowing the filming of scenes involving guns.
It’s one of the most popular axioms of local news: There’s always a Las Vegas angle. When “Oppenheimer” shocked Hollywood with an $82 million-plus domestic opening — on its way to a $950 million global haul — the subject’s granddaughter couldn’t have been more surprised. Dorothy Oppenheimer Vanderford, who works at the Nevada National Security Site and has called Boulder City home since 1998, spoke to us about how she became an advocate for the relative she never knew.
clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567. Follow @life_onthecouch on X.
