ML - Vegas Magazine

2014 - Issue 8 - December

Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.

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photography courtesy of the everett collection The world's image of glamorous, dangerous Las Vegas was cemented by the hit 1971 film Diamonds Are Forever, with Sean Connery and Lana Wood (as Plenty O'Toole). It's one of the most iconic images in the 50-year screen history of James Bond: Sean Connery as 007, gruff yet suave, leaning impassively over a craps table beside a buxom br unette whose da r ing décolleté is r iva led only by her voluminous coif. The scene is from 1971's Diamonds Are Forever—set in the h igh- st a kes world of d ia mond t h ieves a nd t he si xt h Bond f i l m to st a r Connery—in which a shimmering Las Vegas plays nearly as big a role as the leading man or Jill St. John (as glamorous smuggler Tiffany Case). Many pivotal moments in this classic spy film were shot at the Las Vegas Hilton (called the Whyte House in the movie), which was then the largest hotel in the world, with 1,512 rooms and a whopping 30,0 0 0 -square-foot casino f loor. Global superstars like Barbra Streisand and Elvis Presley sang there, the latter selling out an astounding 58 consecutive performances in 1969 and surpassing $2 million in ticket sales, a record at the time. But just like Bond, the hotel has been reinvented many times over the years. Called The International when it opened in 1969, it was the passion project of owner K irk Kerkorian, who correctly predicted that the demand for hotel rooms on the St rip would only continue to g row. Unfortunately, massive debts soon forced him to sell the property to Hilton Hotels, which christened it the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971. The 279 -foot fan-shaped Hilton sign, the largest in the world when it was built in 1997, became a familiar sight to tourists and locals. And this year the hotel was reinvented again, under its new owner, Westgate Resorts, which renamed it Westgate Las Vegas. But whatever it's called, the property endures as a Strip landmark—and a surprisingly nimble one in accommodating nearly five decades of reinven- tion. Just like 007, who remains beloved whether Sean Connery or Roger Moore or Daniel Craig is ordering Bond's martini shaken, not stirred. V DiamonDs are Forever Two icons, James Bond and The Vegas hoTel ThaT played The whyTe house, liVe on—despiTe mulTiple characTer changes. by juliet izon 14  vegasmagazine.com FRONT RUNNER

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