Another day in Las Vegas and another big and unforgettable surprise for The Stones & The Grandma.
Today, the family has been invited to watch an incredible show interpreted by CélineDion.
It has been a private show, only for TheStones, at Caesars Palace and the family has spent a wonderful evening enjoying the most beautiful songs of one of the best singers of our time.
Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Quebecker singer. She is renowned for her powerful, technically skilled vocals, and remains the best-selling Canadian recording artist and one of the best-selling artists of all time with record sales of over 200 million worldwide.
During the 2000s, she built her reputation as a highly successful live performer with A New Day... on the Las Vegas Strip (2003–07), which remains the highest-grossing concert residency of all time, as well as the Taking ChancesWorld Tour (2008–09), one of the highest-grossing concert tours of all time.
She has won five Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year. Billboard named her the Queen of Adult Contemporary for having the most number-one songs on the radio format for a female artist. She is the second best-selling female artist in the US during the Nielsen SoundScan era.
In 2003, she was honoured by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) for selling over 50 million albums in Europe.
In early 2002, Dion announced a three-year, 600-show contract to appear five nights a week in an entertainment extravaganza, A New Day..., at TheColosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas.
Céline was the second concert residency by Quebecker recording artistCéline Dion.
The residency was performed at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace in LasVegas, Nevada, beginning 15 March 2011, with an estimated 70 performances per year, which makes Dion the top money earner in Las Vegas, earning $500,000 a show.
The new show features 31 musicians, consisting of a full orchestra and band. The residency was Directed and Produced by Ken Ehrlich with the creative production from Dion's long time Lighting Designer Yves Aucoin and Sound Mixer/Designer, Denis Savage.
Moment Factory will be producing the visual elements for the residency, the company previously worked with Nine Inch Nails and DJ Tiesto. The residency does not contain the dancers and Cirque du Soleil style choreography seen in Dion's previous show at the Colosseum, A New Day.
Being seen by over 200,000 people, the residency became the number one show in 2011 for North America. The residency has also made Dionthe most profitable music act in Las Vegas since Elvis Presley.
The show concluded on 8 June 2019, as announced on 24 September 2018.
Today, The Stones and The Grandma has received a new surprise in Las Vegas.Dolly Parton, the American singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, record producer, actress, author, businesswoman, and humanitarian, known primarily for her work in country music, has visited the family and has sung especially for them. The family has wanted to thank DollyParton and her foundation, which is working very hard to find a new vaccine against COVID19. The Grandma loves Dolly Parton's music, and she has been very happy when Dolly has sung her favourite song, Coat of Many Colors.
Coat of Many Colorsis a song written and recorded by American country music singer Dolly Parton, which has been described on a number of occasions as her favourite song she has written. It was released in September 1971 as the second single and title track from the album Coat of Many Colors.
She composed the song in 1969, while travelling with Porter Wagoner on a tour bus. She explained in her 1994 memoir, My Life and Other Unfinished Business, because she could find no paper, as the song came to her, she wrote it on the back of a dry cleaning receipt from one of Wagoner's suits; when the song became a hit, Wagoner had the receipt framed. She recorded the song in April 1971, making it the title song for her Coat of Many Colors album. The song reached #4 on the U.S. country singles charts.
The song tells of how Parton's mother stitched together a coat for her daughter out of rags given to the family. As she sewed, she told her child the biblical story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors. The excited child, with patches on my britches and holes in both my shoes, rushed to school, just to find the others laughing and making fun of me for wearing a coat made of rags.
And oh I did not understand it, for I felt I was rich And I told them of the love my momma sewed in every stitch And I told 'em all the story momma told me while she sewedAnd how my coat of many colors was worth more than all their clothes
The song concludes with Parton singing the moral of her story:
But they didn't understand it, and I tried to make them see One is only poor, only if they choose to be Now I know we had no money, but I was rich as I could be In my coat of many colors my momma made for me
On the original LP release of the 1975 compilation Best of Dolly Parton, the printed lyrics to the song appeared in the inner gatefold of the album, including a final verse that has never been included on any of Parton's recordings of the song:
Through life I've remained happy and good luck is on my side.I have everything that anyone could ever want from life. But nothing is as precious as my mama's memory, and my coat of many colors that mama made for me.
Dolly says the original coat was used for various other purposes, but her mother did make a new one to use on display in her Chasing Rainbows Museum at Dollywood. Wagoner also donated the framed dry cleaning receipt -on which Parton composed the song- to the museum, where it now hangs.
Shania Twain recorded a cover version of the song on the 2003 Parton tribute album Just Because I'm a Woman: Songs of Dolly Parton, with accompaniment by Alison Krauss and Union Station. This version peaked at #57 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, based only on unsolicited airplay.
Other cover versions include a 1976 recording by Emmylou Harris on her Reprise Records debut Pieces of the Sky; decades later, Harris performed the song live in 2017 for the getTV special A Nashville Christmas. A recording of the song by Eva Cassidy was released on the 2008 posthumous collection Somewhere.
Scottish comedian Billy Connolly recorded a version in 1975 on his album Get Right Intae Him (Unicorn Artists). This was a serious version unlike his comical song D.I.V.O.R.C.E. which parodied D-I-V-O-R-C-E, made popular by Tammy Wynette and also covered by Parton. Melinda Schneider and Beccy Cole covered the song on their album Great Women of Country (2014).
In 2005, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ranked Coat of Many Colors number 10 on its list of 100 Songs of the South. A 1996 children's picture book of the song, with illustrations by Judith Sutton, was published by Harpercollins Children's Books.
In 2008, Kristy Lee Cook performed this song on American Idol during DollyParton Week.
In 2011, Parton's recording was added to the Library of Congress's National Recording Registry list of sound recordings that are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States.
Today, The Stones & TheGrandma have enjoyed a great show at FlamingoHotel. Tom Jones has sung especially for them in a private session and the family is still recovering themselves from all the emotions of this event.
Thomas John Woodward (born 7 June 1940), knownprofessionally as Tom Jones, is a Welsh singer.
His career began with a string of top-ten hits in the mid-1960s. He has toured regularly, with appearances in Las Vegas (1967–2011). Jones's voice has been described by Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic as a full-throated, robust baritone.
His performing range has included pop, R&B, show tunes, country, dance, soul and gospel. In 2008, the New York Times called Jones a musical shape shifter, who could slide from soulful rasp to pop croon, with a voice as husky as it was pretty.
Jones has sold over 100 million records, with 36 Top 40 hits in the UK and 19 in the US, including It's Not Unusual, What's New Pussycat, the theme song for the 1965 James Bond film Thunderball, Green, Green Grass of Home, Delilah, She's aLady, Kiss and Sex Bomb.
Jones has also occasionally dabbled in acting, first making his acting debut playing the lead role in the 1979 television film Pleasure Cove. He also appeared as himself in Tim Burton's 1996 film Mars Attacks!.
In 1970 he received a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor-Television Series Musical or Comedy nomination for hosting the television series This Is Tom Jones.
In 2012, he played his first dramatic acting role in an episode of Playhouse Presents.
Jones received a Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1966, an MTV Video Music Award in 1989, as well as two Brit Awards: Best British Male in 2000 and the Outstanding Contribution to Music award in 2003.
Jones was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II for services to music in 2005.
Jones experienced a resurgence in notability in the 2010s due to his coaching role on the television talent show The Voice UK from 2012 with the exception of 2016.
In 1967, Jones performed in Las Vegas for the first time, at the Flamingo. His performances and style of dress became part of his stage act, and increasingly featured his open, half-unbuttoned shirts and tight trousers. He soon chose to record less, instead concentrating on his lucrative club performances.
Jones and his idol Elvis Presley met in 1965 at the Paramount film stage, when Elvis was filming Paradise, Hawaiian Style. They became good friends, spending more and more time together in Las Vegas and duetting until the early hours at Presley's private suite. The friendship endured until Presley's death in 1977. Jones's guitarist between 1969 and 1974 was Big Jim Sullivan, who also met and formed a friendship with Presley.
Jones played in Las Vegas at least one week each year until 2011.
Today, The Stones & TheGrandma have been invited to Las Vegas Crime Scene Investigation Headquarters by GilGrissom, RaymondLangston and D.B. Russell the leaders of this special forensic unit. The family has discovered how this fantastic teams work and how important is forensic science to resolve all kind of crimes. It has been an amazing visit and they have made new friends in Las Vegas.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, also referred to as CSI and CSI: Las Vegas, is an American procedural forensics crime drama television series which ran on CBS from October 6, 2000, to September 27, 2015, spanning 15 seasons.
The series starred William Petersen, Marg Helgenberger, George Eads, Ted Danson, Laurence Fishburne, Elisabeth Shue, and Jorja Fox and was the first in the CSI franchise. The series concluded with a feature-length finale titled Immortality.
Mixing deduction and character-driven drama, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation follows a team of crime-scene investigators, employed by the Las Vegas PoliceDepartment, as they use physical evidence to solve murders.
The team is originally led by Gil Grissom (Petersen), a socially awkwardforensic entomologist and career criminalist who is promoted to CSI supervisor following the death of a trainee investigator.
Grissom's second-in-command, Catherine Willows (Marg Helgenberger), is a single mother with a cop's instinct. Born and raised in Las Vegas, Catherine was a stripper before being recruited into law enforcement and training as a blood-spatter specialist.
Following Grissom's departure during the ninth season of the series, Catherine is promoted to supervisor. After overseeing the training of new investigator Raymond Langston (Fishburne), Willows is replaced by D.B. Russell (Danson), and recruited to the FBI shortly thereafter. Russell is a family man, a keen forensic botanist, and a veteran of the Seattle Crime Lab.
In the series' 12th season, Russell is reunited with his former partner JulieFinlay (Elisabeth Shue), who, like Catherine, is a blood-spatter expert with an extensive knowledge of criminal psychology. With the rest of the team, they work to tackle Las Vegas's growing crime rate and are on the job 24/7, scouring the scene, collecting the evidence, and finding the missing pieces that will solve the mystery.
During the 1990s, Anthony Zuiker caught producer Jerry Bruckheimer's attention after writing his first movie script. Zuiker was convinced that a series was in the concept; Bruckheimer agreed and began developing the series with Touchstone Pictures. The studio's head at the time liked the spec script and presented it to ABC, NBC, and Fox executives, who decided to pass.
The head of drama development at CBS saw potential in the script, and the network had a pay-or-play contract with actor William Petersen, who said he wanted to do the CSI pilot. The network's executives liked the pilot so much, they decided to include it in their 2000 schedule immediately, airing on Fridays after The Fugitive.
After CBS picked up the show, the Disney-owned Touchstone decided to pull out of the project, as they didn't want to spend so much money producing a show for another network (ABC is also owned by Disney). Instead of the intended effect of making CBS cancel the show (since it no longer had a producer), Bruckheimer was able to convince Alliance Atlantis to step in as a producer, saving the show and adding CBS as another producer.
Initially, CSI was thought to benefit from The Fugitive (a remake of the 1960s series), which was expected to be a hit, but by the end of 2000, CSI had a much larger audience. The show began on Friday at 9:00 following The Fugitive, premiering on October 6, 2000, with an impressive 5.4 in the 18-49 demo and 17 million viewers. The show hovered around that mark for the next 10 episodes. The final Friday episode, I-15 Murders aired on January 12, 2001. The show moved to Thursday at 9:00 following Survivor on February 1, 2001, episode Fahrenheit 932 and remained in that time slot until Season 11.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS Productions, which became CBS Paramount Television in the fall of 2006 and CBS Television Studios three years later. Formerly a co-production with the now-defunct Alliance Atlantis Communications, that company's interest was later bought by the investment firm GS Capital Partners, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs.
CSI was originally shot at Rye Canyon, a corporate campus owned by Lockheed Martin situated in the Valencia area of Santa Clarita, California, due to the Santa Clarita Valley's strong similarity to the outskirts of Las Vegas; after episode 11, filming shifted to the nearby Santa Clarita Studios. Occasionally, the cast still shot on location in Las Vegas, although primarily Las Vegas was used solely for second unit photography such as exterior shots of streets.
Other California locations include Verdugo Hills High School, UCLA's Royce Hall, Pasadena City Hall, and California State University, Los Angeles. After season five, CSI episodes were primarily filmed at Universal Studios Hollywood in Universal City, California, but since Santa Clarita's surroundings had proven so versatile, CSI continued to shoot some outdoor scenes there.
CSI's theme song was, since the last episode of season one, Who Are You, written by Pete Townshend with vocals by lead singer Roger Daltrey of The Who. Daltrey made a special appearance in the season-seven episode Living Legend, which also contained many musical references such as the words Who's next on a dry-erase board in the episode's opening sequence. In certain countries, to avoid music licensing fees, a unique theme was used, instead.
Today, The Stones have met one of the legends of entertainment in Las Vegas, The King, Elvis Presley.They have been invited by Mr. Presley's assistant, Fatima, and they have asked him lots of things about his life, his career and his songs. It has been an unforgettable evening that they will always have in their minds, especially when Elvis has dedicated Suspicious Minds to them.
Suspicious Minds is a 1968 song written and first recorded by American songwriter Mark James.
After this recording failed commercially, it was cut by Elvis Presley with producer Chips Moman, becoming a No.1 song in 1969, and one of the most memorable hits of Presley's career.
Suspicious Minds was one of the singles that revived Presley's chart success in the U.S., following his '68 Comeback Special. It was his eighteenth and last No.1 single in the United States. Rolling Stone ranked it No. 91 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. Session guitarist Reggie Young played on both the James and Presley versions.
The song is about a mistrusting and dysfunctional relationship, and the need of the characters to overcome their issues in order to maintain it.
Written in 1968 by Mark James, who
was also co-writer of Always on My Mind, which Presley would later
record, the song was first recorded and released by James on Scepter
Records in 1968. Chips Moman had asked James to come to Memphis to write
songs for American Sound Studio. At the time, James was residing in
Houston. He had written three songs that became No.1 hits in the
Southern United States. American Sound Studio was gaining a reputation
in the industry, as the Box Tops had just recorded The Letter there,
so James relocated to Memphis.
James said that late one night, he was fooling around on his Fender guitar and using his Hammond organ pedals for a bass line and came up with what he thought was a catchy melody. At the time, he was married to his first wife but still had feelings for his childhood sweetheart, who was married back in Houston. James's wife had suspicions about his feelings. He felt it was a confusing time for him and that all three were caught in this trap that they could not walk out of.
At the recording session, James sang the lead vocals, and the studio band backed him; Moman produced. The horns, strings, and vocals of the Holladay Sisters were later overdubbed. After the tape was mixed, James and Moman flew to New York, where James's manager had contacts with Scepter Records. The label loved the song and put it out, but Scepter did not have the money to promote new artists, and the song did not make the charts.
Later that year, Don Crews, Moman's partner, told James that Presley had booked their studio to record what would become the From Elvis in Memphis album. Crews kept asking James if he had any songs that would be right for Presley. James felt Presley needed a mature rock 'n' roll song to bring him back, as Tom Jones was a hot artist at the time. Crews and James thought of Suspicious Minds and James began urging others to get Presley to hear it. Even though James's recording had not been commercially successful, upon reviewing the song, Presley decided he could turn it into a hit.
I met Elvis first in Las Vegas. I think I was appearing with Tom Jones and he came backstage to say hello to Tom or we went to his dressing room to say hello.
Today, The Stones & The Grandma have met Danny and Debbie Ocean.
Dani Ocean is a gentleman-thief from New York City,who is the ringleader and idea man of the crew that robs three casinos in Ocean'sEleven, a Fabergé egg in Ocean'sTwelve and award diamonds in Ocean'sThirteen, in addition to conning a businessman into losing millions of dollars on the opening night of his new casino. Debbie is Danny Ocean's younger sister.
The Stones and The Oceans have spent a great time together talking about new projects and investments.
Ocean's Eleven is a 2001 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written by Ted Griffin.
The first installment of the Ocean's franchise, it is a remake of the 1960 Rat Pack film of the same name.
Ocean's Eleven features an ensemble cast, including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, Bernie Mac and Julia Roberts. Ocean'sEleven follows friends Danny Ocean (Clooney) and Rusty Ryan (Pitt), who plan a heist of $160 million from casino owner Terry Benedict (García), the lover of Ocean's ex-wife Tess (Roberts).
Upon release, the film was a success at the box office and with critics; it was the fifth highest-grossing film of 2001, with a worldwide gross of $450 million.
Soderbergh directed two sequels, Ocean's Twelve in 2004 and Ocean'sThirteen in 2007, which make up the Ocean's Trilogy.
Ocean's 8, a spin-off with an all-female lead cast, was released in 2018.
Yeah, good idea. We all go to the cops and confess to the Bellagio robbery. That averages twenty years for grand larceny for each of us. Yeah, that'd teach him.
Danny Ocean
Ocean's Twelve is a 2004 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh.
The sequel to 2001's Ocean's Eleven, the film stars an ensemble cast consisting of George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Andy García, Julia Roberts, Don Cheadle, and Bernie Mac.
The film was released in the United States on December 10, 2004, and received mixed reviews from critics. It was a financial success, grossing $362 million and becoming the tenth-highest-grossing film of 2004. It is followed by Ocean'sThirteen (2007).
The film was shot in 2004 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, St. Petersburg, Florida and in Las Vegas at the Bellagio Hotel. Filming also took place in Chicago, Amsterdam, Paris, Monte Carlo, Lake Como at George Clooney's Villa in Laglio, Rome and Castellammare del Golfo in Sicily. The production spent three weeks in the Netherlands; scenes were filmed in the KattenKabinet, the Hotel Pulitzer, Haarlem railway station, and The Hague City Hall. In Paris, scenes were shot at the Sorbonne, the Australian Embassy, and the Gare du Nord. Afterwards, filming moved to Italy. The Casino Monte Carlo and the Villa Erba also served as filming locations.
Ocean's Thirteen, also written as Ocean's 13, is a 2007 American heist comedy film directed by Steven Soderbergh.
It is the third and final film in the Ocean's Trilogy, following 2004's Ocean'sTwelve. All the male cast members reprise their roles from the previous installments, but neither Julia Roberts nor Catherine Zeta-Jones returns. Al Pacino and Ellen Barkin join the cast as the characters' new targets.
Filming began in July 2006 in Las Vegas and Los Angeles, based on a script by Brian Koppelman and David Levien. The film was screened as an Out of Competition presentation at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival, and was released on June 8, 2007 in the United States. The film was well-received and grossed $311 million worldwide, making it the sixteenth-highest-grossing film of 2007.
In January 2006, it was reported that producers were in discussions about setting and shooting most of the film at the Wynn Las Vegas. Clooney had previously hoped to film it at his then-upcoming Las Ramblas Resort in Las Vegas, although the project would not have been ready in time for production.
In March 2006, it was reported that the film would be shot in a fake casino that would be constructed on five Warner Bros. sound stages. Filming was expected to begin in Las Vegas and Los Angeles in July 2006. Al Pacino joined the cast in April 2006.
Location scouting took place in Las Vegas in mid-July 2006, with the Bellagio confirmed as a filming location, which was also used for scenes in Ocean'sEleven. Filming in Las Vegas began on August 7, 2006, with scenes shot at McCarran International Airport and at a heliport. The following day, filming moved to the Palazzo resort, which was under construction at the time. Filming in LasVegas concluded on August 9, 2006, after scenes involving Clooney, Pitt, Damon, and García were shot in an office at the back of the Bellagio. At that time, Clooney and producer Jerry Weintraub were considering premiering the film in Las Vegas. Another Las Vegas shoot was scheduled for September 2006, including additional filming at the Bellagio.
Oh, I don't lose. People who bet on me to lose lose. And they lose big.
Willy Bank
Ocean's 8, stylized onscreen as Ocean's Eight, is a 2018 American heist comedy film directed by Gary Ross and written by Ross and Olivia Milch.
The film is both a continuation and a spin-off from Steven Soderbergh's Ocean'strilogy and features an ensemble cast including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway, Mindy Kaling, Sarah Paulson, Awkwafina, Rihanna, and Helena Bonham Carter. The film follows a group of women led by Debbie Ocean, the sister of Danny Ocean, who plan a sophisticated heist at the annual Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
After the release of Ocean's Thirteen in 2007, Soderbergh stated he had no intentions of making a fourth film, citing his desire to have the series go out on top. However, an all-female spin-off was announced in October 2015, and much of the cast signed on by August 2016. Filming took place from October 2016 to March 2017 around Manhattan.
Ocean's 8 premiered at Alice Tully Hall on June 5, 2018, and was released by Warner Bros. Pictures in the United States on June 8, 2018, 11 years to the day after the release of Ocean's Thirteen. It grossed $297 million worldwide and received a lukewarm response from critics, who applauded the cast but found the film undemanding and less consistent than the films in Soderbergh's trilogy.
The Stones and The Grandma have just arrived to Las Vegas to spend a few days after the casinos had been opened again. The family has chosen the Caesars Palace to stay and enjoy the city.
During these days, the family wants to meet Dani Ocean and his friends, Céline Dion, Gil Grissom and his CSI team and Elvis Presley.
Las Vegas, Spanish for The Meadows, officially the City of Las Vegas and often known simply as Vegas, is the 28th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County.
The city anchors the Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area and is the largest city within the greater Mojave Desert.
Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city, known primarily for its gambling, shopping, fine dining, entertainment, and nightlife. TheLasVegas Valley as a whole serves as the leading financial, commercial, and cultural center for Nevada.
The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous for its mega casino-hotels and associated activities. It is a top three destination in the United States for business conventions and a global leader in the hospitality industry, claiming more AAA Five Diamond hotels than any other city in the world.
Today, Las Vegas annually ranks as one of the world's most visited tourist destinations. The city's tolerance for numerous forms of adult entertainment earned it the title of Sin City, and has made Las Vegas a popular setting for literature, films, television programs, and music videos.
Las Vegas was settled in 1905 and officially incorporated in 1911. At the close of the 20th century, it was the most populated American city founded within that century, a similar distinction was earned by Chicago in the 19th century.
Population growth has accelerated since the 1960s, and between 1990 and 2000 the population nearly doubled, increasing by 85.2%. Rapid growth has continued into the 21st century, and according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, the city had 651,319 residents in 2019, with a metropolitan population of 2,227,053.
As with most major metropolitan areas, the name of the primary city, Las Vegas in this case, is often used to describe areas beyond official city limits. In the case of Las Vegas, this especially applies to the areas on and near the Las Vegas Strip, which is actually located within the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester.
Nomadic Paleo-Indians traveled to Las Vegas 10,000 years ago, leaving behind petroglyphs. Anasazi and Paiute tribes followed at least 2,000 years ago.
A young Mexican scout named Rafael Rivera is credited as the first non-Native American to encounter the valley, in 1829. Trader Antonio Armijo led a 60-man party along the Spanish Trail to Los Angeles, California in 1829.
The area was named Las Vegas, which is Spanish for the meadows, as it featured abundant wild grasses, as well as the desert spring waters needed by westward travelers. The year 1844 marked the arrival of John C. Frémont, whose writings helped lure pioneers to the area. Downtown Las Vegas's Fremont Street is named after him.
Eleven years later, members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints chose Las Vegas as the site to build a fort halfway between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, where they would travel to gather supplies. The fort was abandoned several years afterward. The remainder of this Old Mormon Fort can still be seen at the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Washington Avenue.
Las Vegas was founded as a city in 1905, when 45 ha of land adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad tracks were auctioned in what would become the downtown area. In 1911, Las Vegas was incorporated as a city.
1931 was a pivotal year for Las Vegas. At that time, Nevada legalized casinogambling and reduced residency requirements for divorce to six weeks. This year also witnessed the beginning of construction on nearby Hoover Dam. The influx of construction workers and their families helped Las Vegas avoid economic calamity during the Great Depression. The construction work was completed in 1935.
In late 1941, Las Vegas Army Airfield was established. Renamed Nellis Air Force Base in 1950, it is now home to the United States Air Force Thunderbirds aerobatic team.
Following World War II, lavishly decorated hotels, gambling casinos, and big-name entertainment became synonymous with Las Vegas.
This view of downtown Las Vegas shows a mushroom cloud in the background. Scenes such as this were typical during the 1950s. From 1951 to 1962, the government conducted 100 atmospheric tests at the nearby Nevada Test Site.
In 1951, nuclear weapons testing began at the Nevada Test Site, 105 km northwest of Las Vegas. During this time, the city was nicknamed the Atomic City. Residents and visitors were able to witness the mushroom clouds and were exposed to the fallout until 1963, when the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty required that nuclear tests be moved underground.
In 1955, the Moulin Rouge Hotel opened and became the first racially integrated casino-hotel in Las Vegas.
The iconic Welcome to Las Vegas sign, which has never been located within municipal limits, was created in 1959 by Betty Willis.
During the 1960s, corporations and business tycoons such as Howard Hughes were building and buying hotel-casino properties. Gambling was referred to as gaming, which transitioned it into a legitimate business.
The year 1995 marked the opening of the Fremont Street Experience, in LasVegas's downtown area. This canopied five-block area features 12.5 million LED lights and 550,000 watts of sound from dusk until midnight during shows held at the top of each hour.
Due to the realization of many revitalization efforts, 2012 was dubbed The Year of Downtown. Projects worth hundreds of millions of dollars made their debut at this time, including the Smith Center for the Performing Arts, the DISCOVERY Children's Museum, the Mob Museum, the Neon Museum, a new City Hall complex, and renovations for a new Zappos.com corporate headquarters in the old City Hall building.
