The Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas has memories that willl live forever

The Sahara Hotel in Las Vegas is undergoing changes, but no one will ever be able to erase the history of the hotel casino.

I know since I was employed as everything from a busboy to a warehouseman and finally a bell hop from 1969-74 when the money was good and the times were beyond belief in many ways.

It was in the early years that the Sahara was owned by the legendary Del Webb, who had real estate holdings including the Sahara Tahoe, the old Thunderbird and Mint hotels along with ownership of the New York Yankees, to name a few.

A pleasant and humble man whose demeanor made him a friend to everyone from the front desk clerk to the maid and the valet parking attendant, Webb represented an era in Las Vegas when the corporate element was virtually non-existent and the times were fun.

And the Sahara was a fun place, as evidenced by the unending memories within the grounds of the 1,000-room layout.

Probably the greatest memories stemmed from the personalities who performed at the Sahara ranging from comedian Don Rickles to the singing group The Kim Sisters and singer Teresa Brewer. Add Sonny and Cher into the mix along with Buddy Hackett and Johnny Carson and it’s easy to see why the Sahara was the class of its field more than three decades ago.

Truth be known, one of Rickles’ funniest moments came when the young Kim Sisters were in the audience at the old Casbar Lounge in the Sahara.

“None of us knew English,” recalled Sue Kim many years later. “So when Don started ranting and raving at us, we all left. We didn’t know what to think at the time.”

The employees of the Sahara loved Rickles, who before leaving for the Riviera spoke freely with the staff and always left behind tokens of his appreciation upon completing his engagement. He would hit the door of the Sahara teasing an old bell captain from Louisiana named Les Garrity and patrons and employees always welcomed him back when he returned.

In the same breath, Carson was a highly-private individual who while well-liked, didn’t mix often with the help. Word had it that while Carson was one of the best entertainers ever at the Sahara, he shied from the public when off-stage and cherished his quiet time when not performing.

Sonny Bono, whose career was skyrocketing during the 1970s at the Sahara thanks in part to the glowing performances of his wife, Cher, created a memory that will forever live in Sahara history while strolling through the warehouse.

In his day, Bono was a fitness freak – so much so that he took every pound seriously. That said, he stripped to his bikini underwear in the warehouse and jumped on the Toledo scales, which just happened to be situated smack-dab in front of the office windows and in full view of the women in the office.

When confronted about his near-naked attire while standing in front of the eyes-wide-open female employees of the Sahara purchasing department, the brazen Bono said in part that he could not have cared less about the view he was offering.

When it came to Hackett, there could not have been a more despised individual in the hotel than him. In fact, during a break between shows one evening, several waiters and waitresses fumed about his comments to them during a previous show, and threatened to dump all of their trays and dishes in unison during his show.

In fact, Hackett even reportedly shot out the headlights of a vehicle he claimed was parked in his reserved parking space.

Then, there were the countless conventions that the Sahara attracted over the years ranging from morticians to the Tail Hookers to gun collectors and the rest. In addition, Jerry Lewis’ Muscular Dystrophy telethon fund raiser every year started at the Sahara before moving on.

In the case of the Tail Hookers – which were former members of Navy air craft carrier crews – there was not a bigger party on earth each year when the partying was intense and furniture was thrown out balcony windows and into the Sahara swimming pool before moving to the Hilton where they gained national notoriety for their antics.

And in its day, the Sahara was host to the PGA Sahara Invitational when the likes of Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Chi Chi Rodriguez headed a field of folks who were not only good golfers but good tippers at the same time. During a time when the current PGA tournament is struggling for spectators, the Sahara Invitational drew thousands each year.

The Sahara is about to be upgraded into a new look that will bring it up today’s standards.

However, I’ll take the old days of the Sahara when an element of surprise combined with the class of Del Webb created the old-time fun of the Las Vegas Strip.