Resort’s name a blend of fact, fiction

Friday, Jan. 29, 1999 | 11:19 a.m.

Mandalay Bay doesn't exist today, though it'll be opening March 2 in Las Vegas.

There is a Mandalay -- a city in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. But the real Mandalay doesn't sit on a bay; it's smack in the middle of a jungle.

Yet as Circus Circus Enterprises Inc. executives searched for a name for their new tropically themed resort, they wanted to evoke the imagery of an exotic setting offering romance and adventure.

They took part of their name from adventure writer Rudyard Kipling's "On the Road to Mandalay," added "Bay" to convey a sense of cooling waters and announced the new name last February.

"This is a special place you can't find on a map," Circus President Glenn Schaeffer said at the time. "The traveler will find that place in Las Vegas."

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