Inn the Know

Friday, Oct. 26, 2001 | 4:17 a.m.

Few, if any, knew the Desert Inn as intimately as Burton Cohen.

The former president of the hotel-casino worked there on three different occasions for three different owners, including Howard Hughes, Kirk Kirkorian and ITT Sheraton, from 1970 to 1995.

Cohen, 78, moved to Las Vegas in the '60s to build the Frontier and has been associated with many casinos, including Circus Circus, Flamingo, Caesars World-Thunderbird Hotel, Caesars Palace, the Dunes and the Sheraton Desert Inn.

He was not among the throng of people who gathered to watch the implosion of the DI's 15-story Augusta Tower at 2 a.m. Tuesday.

Days after the event, the executive reminisced with the Sun about the defunct hotel that played such a big part in his career and in the history of Las Vegas:

Las Vegas Sun: What is your fondest memory of the DI?

Burton Cohen: My fondest memory of the Desert Inn was the employees. We had employees with the Desert Inn who had been there 30 to 35 years, almost from the day it opened up. We had one employee that, right out of high school, started working for the Desert Inn and stayed there till his retirement. The love of the employees for the Desert Inn is what made it, and when I left that's what I missed the most.

The ambiance of the Desert Inn was something else. There was a lot of pride in running it, of being associated with it. We had the biggest stars in America appearing there ... people would dress for dinner ... it was a class operation.

The Desert Inn has always been my first love, of all the hotels I have been at. It was always the locals' hotel, I'm talking back before all these great big mega-resorts. Everybody in Las Vegas thought of it as a first-class hotel. It always had a place in the hearts of Las Vegans.

Sun: Tell us about some of the entertainers who performed at the DI.

BC: I was never a star-kisser. My usual procedure was to walk them to their hotel suite and then I'd send them flowers and all of the other goodies. On opening night I would go to the show and send them a bottle of champagne and go backstage and congratulate them on what a great show it was and then I left them alone. They had a job to do and I had a job to do. I very seldom got personally close to them, although there were a handful -- Sammy Davis Jr. and I got very close, we would play golf, kibitz around. Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme, I got very close to.

Over the years, you name an entertainer and they worked at the DI, from Frank Sinatra to Robert Goulet and Wayne Newton. You name them, they all worked there.

Sun: How did the television series "Vega$" come to be filmed at the DI?

BC: Aaron Spelling brought it to me and I felt that it would be good public relations, not only for the DI but for Las Vegas, and it went over very well. The show was shot at the DI. We actually turned the hotel into a movie studio. We had a production room, makeup and everything else. Our employees were able to function and work around it. Our customers loved it. Everybody was a ham. They used a lot of employees as extras, me included -- believe it or not they had me in as a casino operator.

Sun: Do you feel nostalgic about the DI?

BC: The only feeling of nostalgia that I have, frankly, is the fact that the Desert Inn name will disappear. My career has been so closely associated with it, off and on, for so many years -- plus the way the town has always felt about the Desert Inn.

Sun: Why couldn't Steve Wynn have kept the name for his proposed mega-resort instead of calling it Le Reve?

BC: While I am saddened that the Desert Inn name will disappear, as an operator I can understand the necessity for that ... Everybody knows the Desert Inn, so a customer sitting somewhere in England may think that (the new hotel) is the old 700-room Desert Inn and might rather go to the Bellagio. It is easier on the advertising to create a brand-new edifice from the ground up.

Sun: How did you first become associated with the DI?

BC: I came to Las Vegas to build the Frontier hotel and be the general manager and vice president. Howard Hughes was (across the street) on the top floor of the St. Andrew's building. When we turned on the sign of the Frontier it shined into his room. He was less than pleased and made an offer to buy the hotel, which we rejected. We ultimately sold it to him. I was at the Frontier at that time and they moved me to the DI and the guy from the DI (was) moved to the Frontier.

When I got to the DI there was a lot of management already in place from the Hughes Corp. I found that there were a lot of things that needed to be done to make it more efficient but all I was greeted with was "Don't make waves, leave everything alone." So when Jay Sarno came to me with an offer to help build Circus Circus, I accepted that opportunity.

Sun: Do you miss the old days at the DI?

BC: Everybody would like things to stay the way they were, when eggs were 25 cents a dozen, but nobody had a quarter. Times change. Consumers' appetites change. The cost changes.

Sun: What are some of the other changes you have seen?

BC: Slot machines. In the early days casinos had a few slot machines around to keep the ladies busy while their husbands gambled. As hotels became larger, the slot machines became a major revenue producer. They work 24 hours a day.

And in the early days consumers never went to bed till 3 or 4 in the morning. They would see two shows, have a gourmet dinner, visit at least two lounges and in between be gambling, drinking booze and chasing broads. As time passed consumers changed -- they would get up at 7 in the morning and go jogging around the golf course. Now, most of them are in bed by 11 or 12 o'clock.

It was hard for me to understand what happened to the red-blooded American male. All of a sudden he changed on me.