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William Richard "Billy" Wilkerson (September 29, 1890 – September 2, 1962) was the founder of The Hollywood Reporter, [1] a real estate developer in Las Vegas and owner of such nightclubs as Ciro's. His series of columns known as "Billy's List" helped to initiate the red scare that led to the Hollywood blacklist. Wilkerson "discovered" Lana ...
The Flamingo includes a 72,299 sq ft (6,716.8 m 2) casino and a 28-story hotel with 3,460 rooms. The resort was originally proposed by Billy Wilkerson, founder of The Hollywood Reporter, who purchased the land in 1945. Early the following year, he partnered with a trio of mobsters to obtain financing.
In 1944 Charles P. Squires sold the land parcel that would ultimately become the Flamingo Las Vegas built by Billy Wilkerson and Bugsy Siegel [5] which is commonly referred to as the first resort on the Las Vegas Strip, although both the El Rancho Vegas and the New Frontier Hotel and Casino were in operation prior to the Flamingo's opening in 1945.
The Flamingo opened up the possibilities of what a Las Vegas casino could be. It also opened up the gates of the city to the Mob. An aerial view of the newly completed Flamingo hotel complex, Las ...
Flamingo founder Billy Wilkerson named the Flamingo, long before Benjamin Siegel got involved. Urban legend has it wrong that Siegel named the Flamingo Las Vegas resort after Hill, who liked to gamble and whose nickname was supposedly "Flamingo", a moniker that Siegel was said to have given her, referring to her long, thin legs, [ 7 ] but ...
Wilkerson was eventually coerced into selling all stakes in the Flamingo under the threat of death, and he went into hiding in Paris for a time. [81] From this point the Flamingo became syndicate-run. [82] By October 1946, the Flamingo's costs were above $4 million. [83] By 1947, the costs were over $6 M (equivalent to $72 M in 2023). [84]
The LaRue Restaurant was established in December 1950 by Billy Wilkerson. [4] The following year, Mack Kufferman bought LaRue, with plans to build a hotel and casino. [1] Kufferman failed to gain a gaming license, and his shares in the project were sold to Jake Freedman. [1]
The Flamingo Hotel was the creation of Billy Wilkerson, a Hollywood nightclub owner and one of the founders of The Hollywood Reporter. By the mid-1940s, it was still unfinished. This Flamingo Hotel project became Siegel's obsession.