Westgate Las Vegas celebrates its team and 55 years of iconic memories

This year marks the 25th anniversary, or birthday—however you’d like to describe it— for some monumental Las Vegas Strip resorts. Mandalay Bay celebrated in March, Venetian in May and Paris will party in September. The Cromwell (formerly Barbary Coast and Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall) opened 45 years ago, and in December Aria will hit its 15-year mark.

Just east of the Strip, however, an older, yet equally iconic casino property is celebrating 55 years of life in Las Vegas in July, and its unique history cannot be compared to the others.

For the last decade, it’s been Westgate Las Vegas, owned and operated by timeshare developer David Siegel. It originally opened on July 2, 1969 as the International Hotel, the first of three times that legendary businessman Kirk Kerkorian created the world’s largest hotel in Las Vegas. In 1971, Hilton Hotels took over and the Las Vegas Hilton came to life, continuing Elvis Presley’s historic residency and eventually adding hundreds of hotel rooms and a sports and entertainment pavilion. Another change in ownership resulted in a temporary rebranding as LVH in 2012, until Westgate purchased the resort.

When Siegel acquired the sprawling property that had fallen from relevancy, “he had every opportunity to close it down, and everyone encouraged him to do so because it needed serious renovation after having been LVH,” says Westgate president and general manager Cami Christensen. “But he went around the property and saw all these tenured team members who had given their lives to this property, and he was adamant about doing those renovations and keeping everyone employed.”

Westgate currently has a handful of team members who’ve been working there since the era when Kerkorian opened and operated the International, Christensen says, as well as 70 workers who’ve been around since the Hilton period 40-plus years ago, and more than 200 workers who’ve logged more than 30 years at the property, during the time when Colony Capital was its operator.

There are Vegas casinos that maintain many more “day one” employees than you might suspect, but few of them stretch back through six decades. Westgate hasn’t just changed its name through its lifetime; one could argue it has operated as at least three different kinds of casino resorts, with different identities and priorities. And that’s a unique accomplishment worth celebrating, which is what the entire team will be doing on July 31.

“If you have ever worked on this property whether it was the International, the Hilton, LVH or Westgate, you’re invited,” Christensen says of the 55th anniversary party—really more of a reunion. There will be live entertainment, food and drinks, and lots of memorabilia and photos documenting this piece of Las Vegas history. “We think it’s going to be a nice tribute to the people who made this property what it is.”

(Clockwise from top left) Liberace and Barbra Streisand, Muhammad Ali and Elvis Presley, Starlight Express

Some of the biggest names in entertainment also helped make it what it is, including Elvis, Liberace, Chuck Berry, Duke Ellington, Louis Prima, Tony Bennett, Shirley Bassey, Johnny Cash, Wayne Newton, Reba McEntire, and today’s record-breaking headliner, Barry Manilow. Westgate hasn’t just renovated the hotel rooms and various casino spaces; the company has emphasized a dedication to continuing the property’s grand entertainment legacy by adding new shows that connect to the Vegas of old, as well as additional concerts in the historic International Theater (Kool & The Gang, Gin Blossoms, Don Felder, A.J. Croce and more).

In the current Vegas landscape where sports and sports betting are as dominant as any entertainment offering, Westgate paints a fascinating figure. Opened in 1986, the casino’s SuperBook continues to be one of the most respected, popular and influential sportsbook operations ever established in Las Vegas, still competing with much more modern and expensive facilities. And the property has a significant if lesser known history of hosting sporting events, especially boxing at that pavilion. Mike Tyson fought several times there during the Hilton era, and the 1978 Leon Spinks split-decision victory over Muhammad Ali is one of the sport’s most legendary upsets.

While Westgate has made plenty of updates and upgrades in the past 10 years, plenty of elements remain from bygone eras that create a sense of history and nostalgia. That’s not frequently the case at the other Vegas resorts that were built in the city’s early years.

“All of us have some kind of nostalgic piece that we’d like to be able to go back to, and there are a lot of people who came here to see Elvis or Liberace when they were [young] and they’ve come back to this property,” Christensen says. “The other day I ran into a couple celebrating their 50th anniversary because they were married here, and they were coming back because it was so special. It’s so important to us that we can create some version of that feeling they had, so they leave here feeling the same way, that this place is special. It may not be a new, billion-dollar property, but you want them to feel like they are part of this family.”

Brock Radke is an award-winning writer and columnist who currently occupies the role of managing editor at Las Vegas Weekly ...