Las Vegas Strip Landmark Reduced to Pile of Rubble

Tuesday, Nov. 26, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The Sands Hotel, once the playground for the entertainment world's elite, was reduced to a 30-foot pile of rubble before dawn today in an implosion witnessed by thousands who gathered for the final hurrah.

"It's sad to see it gone, but life goes on," Sands owner Sheldon Adelson said. "We're anxious to get on to the next level."

The next level is a $1.8 billion, 6,000-room resort that Adelson plans to build on the 62-acre site.

The Venetian-themed resort is scheduled to open in 1999, with a 3,000-room tower opening in January of that year and another 3,000-room tower opening later in the year.

The Sand's demise was a far cry from its glory years in the 1950s and 1960s, when entertainers such as Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack - Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, Dean Martin and Peter Lawford - entertained the rich and famous from around the world.

The hotel, which opened in 1952, closed on June 30, the victim of age and overwhelming competition from flashy new megaresorts.

The departure was similar to that of the Dunes Hotel towers and Landmark Hotel in recent years, minus the fiery pyrotechnics that marked the other made-for-television implosions.

Rob Goldstein, a Sands vice president, said company officials were too involved in the new property to worry about taking down the 17-story tower in spectacular fashion.

Instead, workers with Controlled Demolition Inc. of Phoenix, Md. leveled the tower in what company president Mark Loizeaux described as a "no frills" implosion.

Precisely on schedule at 2 a.m. (PST), a warning siren sounded, bringing cheers from crowds watching along the neon-bathed Strip and in resort parking garages.

Then a series of loud blasts as charges of strategically-placed dynamite were detonated. The building shuddered, then crumpled downward accordion style, spreading a dense cloud of dust along a block of the Strip.

"It was really awesome," said Dan Thompson, 44, a security guard at a local hotel. He said the 7 second demise of the famed resort was worth the 2 1/2 -hour wait in the pre-dawn chill.

"We've killed another building," said Rich Heckendorf, packing up camera gear as cars streamed out of The Mirage Hotel parking garage across from the Sands.

"These are always spectacular," said Heckendorf, who had photographed the Dunes and Landmark implosions as well.

"We need to go back and find a seat in the buffet, if we can find it," Heckendorf joked.