Jay Sarno - Founder of Caesars Palace and Circus Circus

Founder of Caesars Palace and Circus Circus

Sarno wanted a hotel whose name would sound European, yet at the same time appeal to Americans, and, in 1964, he, alongside Mallin and Harris, began to build the Caesars Palace Hotel. The idea was at first met with skepticism, because many considered a European style hotel in the middle of an American desert to be a business failure in the making.

Harris, however, designed the hotel in a way that each of its amenities had to be approached by passing the hotel's casino first; this, in turn, would lead to people being tempted to try their luck in the casino area, which made the hotel a profitable business venture. The Caesars Palace hotel was inaugurated in 1966; by 1969, Sarno and his business partners were able to sell the property for the amount of 60 million dollars.

Sarno and Mallin then opened what was one of Las Vegas' first family oriented venues, the Circus Circus. The attraction featured a circus tent with daily acts, and Sarno would dress up as a ringmaster and attend to families and children personally.

The Circus Circus was not a hotel when Sarno and Mallin opened it: instead, it was a casino with, as its name implies, a circus. Sarno's idea was that, while children could go and use their money having fun at the circus' their parents, likewise, would use the money at the casino. But soon, a Gas crisis began in the United States, affecting tourism to Las Vegas, and the casino did not do well under Sarno and Mallin's leadership, so Bill Pennington and Bill Bennett, a Del Webb executive, leased the Circus Circus.

After retiring from the Circus Circus, Sarno spent the rest of his time teaching would-be hotel owners about how to manage that type of business, and dreaming about a new hotel venture, which would have been called the "Grandissimo". One of his students was Steve Wynn, who would later on become the owner of the Golden Nugget and the creator/owner of The Mirage Hotel, Treasure Island, and Wynn Las Vegas. Sarno could not complete his dream of opening the "Grandissimo"; death surprised him during the planning stages of what would have been his third business venture in Las Vegas.