Pioneer LV hotel PR executive Kovell dies at 80

Tuesday, April 23, 2002 | 8:21 a.m.

Las Vegas public relations pioneer L. Henry "Hank" Kovell, who organized local merchants to produce the first free coupon book that became a staple of the downtown gaming industry, has died. He was 80.

Kovell, who was the first public relations director of the Frontier hotel, died Friday at a Los Angeles hospital from complications of emphysema and Alzheimer's disease.

Besides the coupon books, he is credited with initiating a contest that renamed downtown Las Vegas "Casino Center."

Kovell was a Las Vegas resident from 1956 to 1977 and 1979 to 1981 and a resident of Los Angeles from 1978 to 1979 and from 1982 until his death. For 17 years, he wrote the Los Angeles Times' "The Mature Traveler" column for mobile seniors.

Services will be private.

Kovell, who authored "The Poor Man's Guide to Las Vegas," was public relations director at the Fremont hotel from 1956 to 1964 and was owner of Kovell Inc., which did the marketing for several resorts, from 1964 to 1969.

"He was a legend -- a giant in our industry," said Jim Seagrave, vice president of marketing and advertising at the Stardust hotel.

"Hank had one of the more innovative minds in the business. For one promotion at the Golden Nugget, he gave away real gold coins."

The coupon book that he helped produce with other downtown businesses in the early 1960s drew conventioneers and other tourists away from Strip hotels for downtown freebies and discounts. It also became the prototype for the popular casino fun books that now are produced by individual resorts.

Kovell also ran a contest to rid downtown of its nickname "Glitter Gulch." The contest drew 15,000 entries and resulted in the naming of the new Casino Center Association of downtown merchants and the renaming of Second Street to Casino Center Boulevard.

But Casino Center never caught on to describe the entire downtown area. The Casino Center Association evolved into the Downtown Progress Association.

Born Aug. 28, 1921, in San Francisco, Kovell was a Navy veteran of World War II. He was a staff writer for the Armed Forces Radio Service in Hollywood from 1946 to 1953 and worked for the Armed Forces Network Europe in Germany from 1953 to 1956.

Kovell returned to the United States in 1956 and settled in Las Vegas, where he became PR director for the Moulin Rouge, the city's first racially integrated hotel. When the Moulin Rouge closed after its brief run, Kovell took similar posts at the Fremont and Binion's Horseshoe.

In 1964 he founded Kovell Inc. and landed the post of Frontier public relations chief before the resort opened in 1967. Kovell resigned from the Frontier in 1977 to pursue business opportunities in California.

He returned to Las Vegas two years later to write travel stories. The Society of American Travel Writers, of which Kovell was a longtime member, has an award named in his honor.

Kovell served two terms as president of the Las Vegas Press Club and in 1972 founded the Public Relations Association of Las Vegas.

Kovell served on the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce board of directors, was charter president of the Downtown Optimist Club, was a member of Las Vegas Rotary International and was a director for the local Boys Clubs of America.

Kovell is survived by his brother, Ed Kovell of Oakland, Calif.

The Armstrong Family Mortuary of Los Angeles handled the arrangements.