History
The hotel began as just a casino with a few hundred rooms. It was founded by Jakie Freedman of Houston, Texas, the grandfather of the Houston socialite Carolyn Farb. In the late 1950s, Senator John F. Kennedy was occasionally a guest of Frank Sinatra at the Sands.
Arguably the hotel's biggest claim to fame was a three-week period in 1960 during the filming of Ocean's 11. During that time, the movie's stars Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis, Jr., Joey Bishop and Peter Lawford performed on stage together in the Copa Room. The performances were called the "Summit at the Sands" and this is considered to be the birth of the Rat Pack. Sinatra also owned a stake in the Sands for a time.
In the 1950s, (limited) integration came to heavily segregated Las Vegas when the Sands allowed Nat King Cole to stay at the hotel and gamble in the casino. In the 1960s, Sammy Davis, Jr. convinced the Sands to hire more African-Americans, and to allow them into the casino.
When Howard Hughes purchased the hotel in the mid-1960s, the architect Martin Stern, Jr added a 500-room circular tower in 1967 and the hotel became a Las Vegas landmark. Kirk Kerkorian (MGM) bought the hotel in 1988, and seven months later in 1989 it was purchased by the owners of The Interface Group - Sheldon Adelson, Richard Katzeff, Ted Cutler, Irwin Chafetz and Jordan Shapiro.
In its final years, the Sands became a shadow of its former self — a throwback to the old days - and it ultimately could not compete with the newer and more exciting megaresorts that were being built on the Strip. The decision was eventually made by its final owner, Sheldon Adelson, to shut it down and to build a brand new resort. On November 26, 1996, it was imploded and demolished, much to the dismay of longtime employees and sentimentalists. The Las Vegas scenes of Con Air were filmed at the Sands prior to its demolition.
With the Sands gone, its casino chips are now valuable collector's items due to the casino's musical history, with the average $1.00 chip fetching around $30.00. Some rarer chips reach hundreds of dollars, and sometimes over $1,000.00.
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