Jay Sarno - Early Life

Early Life

Sarno was born in St. Joseph, Missouri. He came of age during the era of the Great Depression. His father was a cabinet maker, his mother a homemaker. The Sarnos were a very poor family, and young Jay wanted a better way of living in the future. Because of his oldest Brother, Herman Sarno (also a Hotelier), he and his six siblings were able to attend college; Jay graduated from the University of Missouri, with a degree in business.

It was at the University of Missouri that he met Stanley Mallin, who would become his lifelong friend and business partner. He and Mallin went to World War II and fought at the South Pacific theater. Sarno and Mallin settled in Miami, Florida, after returning to the United States; there, they became tile contractors. After that initial business venture failed, they moved north, to Atlanta, Georgia, where they became house builders. But Sarno and Mallin's lack of a truck haunted the pair during their second business venture together, and, eventually, they gave up on building houses.

Sarno and Mallin later on would meet Jimmy Hoffa. The union leader liked Sarno and Mallin's willingness to become successful businessmen, and he introduced Sarno and Mallin to Allen D Dorfman, who loaned Sarno and his friend some money, allowing them to open the Atlanta Cabana Motel in 1958.

After Sarno hired interior designer Jo Harris, the Cabana motel became a successful business, and soon, other motel locations were opened, in Palo Alto, California, and Dallas, Texas.

The closeness of those two cities to the gambling capital of the time, Las Vegas, brought a temptation that Sarno was unable to resist. So he took a short trip to Las Vegas, and found what he thought was a plain city, with small hotel chains and not enough casinos for gamblers to play in. The way he saw it, he could make a hotel there that would appeal to gamblers and make much more money than the Hilton Hotel located there, which did not have a casino then.