The New Frontier Hotel & Casino emerged from a small 1930’s built night club/gambling hall called the Pair-O-Dice. It sat approximately where the north end of the Fashion Show Mall stands today.
In 1941 the 5 acre property (including the Pair-O-Dice, renamed “91 Club”) was purchased by R.E. Griffith and in 1942, the Hotel Last Frontier opened. Competing with the El Rancho, the first resort on highway 91, it featured a large complex of different connected buildings and sprawling courtyards. Besides the 91 Club, the resort featured a roadside pool, 105 room hotel, small casino and bar, and a small show venue. It was the second resort to open on what would become The Las Vegas Strip. The resort offered horseback riding, BBQ’s, line dancing, and other authentic western treats. It really lived up to it’s motto – “The Early West in Modern Splendor! It played host to many performers, including a young Ronald Regan.
The 1950’s brought the Last Frontier Village. The Village was a theme park of sorts, featuring a western town Main Street, shops and recreations including an old western post office, general store, a mock jail, a museum with pieces documenting the Las Vegas valley’s growth and Indian roots, as well as the now world famous Little Chapel of the West.
In 1955, the New Frontier building was constructed on the north end of the property, partially taking over the village and forcing the chapel to make it’s first move (of many) to the southern end of the property. The New Frontier abandoned the western theme for the most part, opting for a more modern feel. The original resort remained to the south and was kept in use. The roadside pool and front foliage, however, were replaced with parking.
The new building featured a sleek port cohere and a modern sign of stacked inverted cones which were indirectly lit at night, standing out in the desert sky. A new pool was built at the rear of the building to compete with the ever-growing pools of newer resorts such as the Flamingo which had opened down the road.
The 50’s also saw the launch of many careers at the New Frontier including Elvis’ first Vegas appearance in 1956 (which was not well received), Judy Garland’s nightclub debut, and gave birth to Liberace’s career and staple candelabra.
The 60’s heralded the end of the Hotel Last Frontier and the Last Frontier Village. The New Frontier expanded it’s hotel to include a 7 story hotel building where the Last Frontier had stood. The addition of tennis courts, a putting green, coffee and steak houses, Olympic size pool, and additional parking updated the resort to again compete with the ever growing competition along Las Vegas Boulevard. The sign was again updated, towering 190 feet and adding and lower marquee and rotating “F” at the top. This is the sign that stands at the resort still, although the “F” no longer rotates.
In 1967 Howard Hughes bought the property and dropped the “New” from the name. Hughes’s reign saw the addition of a second hotel tower which now formed a horseshoe around the pool and tennis courts. He also established the first computerized room reservation system in Las Vegas at the Frontier.
Through the 70’s the hotel and casino crawled out of the financial hole they had slowly been sinking into over the years, and the frontier featured many more entertainers in it’s various show rooms and convention space. In 1970 The frontier hosted the last performance of Diana Ross with The Supremes.
In 1982, Siegfried & Roy, who had gained notoriety at the neighboring Stardust Resort, opened a show at the Frontier which ran through 1988. In 1991 Margaret Elardi bought resort and had many plans, but ran into some trouble with the Culinary Worker’s Union in September of that year, causing one of the longest continuous strikes in history. During the time picketers marched outside the resort and harassed patrons, both inside and out, The Hacienda, Dunes, Sands, and Landmark casinos were all closed and demolished.
In 1990 the resort underwent another remodel, enclosing most of the balconies on the two hotel towers and adding the 16 floor Atrium Tower where the pool house and tennis courts once stood.
The strike ended in 1997 when Phil Ruffin purchased the resort and changed the name back to The New Frontier. The resort has undergone few changes since it's 1990 remodel, only adding different food venues and convention rooms, and also the widely flocked to Gilley’s, a country western bar with a mechanical bull and mud wrestling.
In 2007 the property was purchased by a large corporation and plans were made to close and demolish the casino for yet another mega-resort on the Las Vegas strip. The 34.5 acre property that held The New Frontier and formerly the Silver Slipper casino was sold for approxiamtely $1.2 billion. On March 16th employees were given 60 days notice that after 65 years the property would be closed for good. The casino closed it's doors at midnight on July 15th and an auction was held the following week.
The closing of The New Frontier is bittersweet. By the end, the property lost most of it's charm. Generic coin cups, ashtrays, pens, and assorted other items replaced The New Frontier themed ones. The Atrium Tower which when opened was a beautiful sight, with flowers and plants lining every floor, had fallen into despair, and the other two hotel towers were rumored to have bedbug problems. Even still, she had a very loyal following with people returning year after year. The bingo parlor was the last on The Strip, the rooms were cheap but nicely (and sparsely) appointed. The employees were even more loyal than the guests, some having served for over 40 years.
Implosion of the Atrium tower took place on November 13th, 2007 at 2:30 a.m. The rest of the hotel and casino followed quickly. The letters from the rear porte cochere (picured above minus said lettering) resurfaced at Dr. Lonnie Hammargren's house in various forms.
