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The Las Vegas Hilton stands
a full half-mile east of the Strip, set back behind the Riviera on
Paradise Road. Traditionally, its location alongside the Convention
Center enabled it to compete on equal terms with the major Strip
casinos, but since the advent of
Bellagio and the
Venetian, the Hilton
has been faltering.
In the late 1960s, Kirk Kerkorian hoped that building the largest hotel
in the world on this site would spur the development of Paradise Road as
a second, parallel Strip. Existing Strip owners felt threatened enough
to attempt to prevent his International Hotel project ever breaking
ground. When it finally went ahead, Howard Hughes tried to spoil things
by buying up the Landmark Hotel nearby - a miniature Stratosphere - and
reopening it as a casino on the self-same weekend, in July 1969.
In any event, the International was an instant success, perhaps best
remembered as the venue for Elvis Presley 's triumphant return to lie
performance. Elvis wisely allowed Barbra Streisand to inaugurate its
untested showroom, profiting from her less than happy experience when he
replaced her a month later. Kerkorian himself swiftly tired of his
creation, and after just a year he sold his stake to Hilton, who made it
a condition of the sale that they took over Elvis's contract as well as
the hotel itself. In his eight-year run at the Hilton, Elvis went on to
sell out 837 consecutive shows, appearing in front of 2.5 million
people. The Hilton people remain grateful; a statue of Elvis in the main
lobby commemorates the King's achievement, and a memorial service was
held here for his manager Colonel Tom Parker in 1998.
The Las Vegas Hilton 's symmetrical trefoil shape made it easy to double
its initial 1500 rooms to more than three thousand in 1973, simply by
extending each of its three wings (if you look closely you can see the
joins). However, it had to wait 25 years before Paradise Road acquired
its second casino, the Hard Rock, about two miles south. Pedestrians
being the rarest of species on Paradise Road, it's a place you're only
expected to reach by car, and it doesn't even bother to present an
enticing facade to the sidewalk.
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It seemed out of character for the somewhat staid Hilton to open the
Star Trek Experience in its north tower in 1998, which has established
itself as one of Las Vegas's most popular themed attractions (daily
11am-11pm; $35).
The Experience is roughly equivalent to a top-echelon ride in the theme
parks of LA and Orlando; it's not bad, but it's absurdly overpriced for
a one-off. visits start from the Space Quest Casino, a sort of
Enterprise with slots, to which access is free. If you're lucky enough
to arrive when the lines are short - expect to wait up to two hours on
summer weekends - you might not even realize that the ramp that spirals
up from the ticket booths is a glorified queuing area. Glossy display
panels on both sides recount a ery wordy episode-by-episode Star Trek
chronology that features highlights such as World War III in 2053, the
colonization of Mars in 2103, and the birth of Spock in 2230.
Museum-like artifacts and costumes abound, and diminutive Ferengi stroll
among you.
The whole thing culminates when you're caught up in a dramatic plot to
prevent Jean-Luc Picard ever being born (you'll know by now that he's
due in 2305), and sent on a potentially omit-inducing motion-simulator
ride through deep space. visitors with conventional human digestive
systems can opt to sit out this portion. You emerge in due course in a
shopping area you could have reached without paying anyway, where
memorabilia prices boldly go to well over $2000 for a customized leather
jacket.
3000 Paradise Rd
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