Viva Las Vegas!

25. The Venetian

Las Vegas, NV

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This is the location of the former Sands Hotel and Casino, the most lamented of the lost pioneering hotels on the Las Vegas Strip. The Sands was the seventh to open outside of downtown, designed by architect Wayne McAllister, a leader in the Space Age style of designing buildings, in 1952. This is where Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr. Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford spent three weeks in 1960 filming the casino heist film Ocean's 11 during the day and performing together at night in the Copa Room. It was the birth of the famed Rat Pack. The lights on The Strip have dimmed three times as a sign of respect to performers on their deaths - for Davis in 1990, Martin in 1995 and Sinatra in 1998. When the old-style casino once the epitome of cool could not compete with the mega resorts of the 1990s it was imploded in 1996. Sands casino chips have become collector's items worth in the hundreds of dollars. The luxury Venetian took its place in 1999 with the final bill coming in at $1.5 billion. Landmarks from Venice, Italy, most splendidly the replica of St. Mark's Campanile, provide the inspiration for the resort. Also in evidence is the Palazzo Ducale where eccentric multi-millionaire art collector and interior decorator Carlos de Beistegui threw a masquerade ball in 1951 that is still regarded in awe as "the party of the century." Instead of spanning Venice's Grand Canal the Rialto Bridge in Las Vegas gets guests across the entrance road.