Stardust Resort and Casino

Image & source

Done

Stardust hotel tower and sign, photographed 4 January 2006, before the resort closed.

Stardust operated on the northern Las Vegas Strip from 1958 until November 1, 2006. Tony Cornero conceived the resort but died in 1955 before it was completed. The finished hotel and casino paired a space-age identity with a large entertainment business: its name described both a place to stay and a visual promise made to motorists on the Strip.

Two generations of Stardust signs

That image changed during the resort's lifetime. The Neon Museum distinguishes Kermit Wayne's original 1958 frontage signage from Paul Miller's freestanding roadside pylon, added in 1968. A later photograph of the tall sign is therefore not a view of the resort exactly as it opened. The jagged atomic lettering also gave way to a different typeface in the early 1990s. Those changes help explain why two authentic photographs can show a recognisable Stardust while recording different eras.

Closure, demolition and redevelopment

After the closure, the buildings were imploded on March 13, 2007. Boyd had planned the Echelon redevelopment; Genting later acquired the site, which became Resorts World Las Vegas. The current resort is a successor development on the wider site, not a surviving Stardust hotel operating under another name.

Lido de Paris and the stage

The stage mattered as much as the sign. UNLV's Stardust records describe the Café Continental's hydraulic lifts and the arrival of Donn Arden's Lido de Paris production from France in 1958. Later owners kept entertainment at the centre of the resort: the Boyd family purchased Stardust in 1985, and Enter the Night replaced Lido de Paris in 1992. The archive preserves programmes, photographs and recordings across those changing productions, so the show-business history can be followed beyond a single famous image.

Ownership and the casino stories

A separate strand concerns the casino's ownership and organised-crime history. UNLV records the 1974 sale to Allen Glick's Argent Corporation, Frank Rosenthal's unofficial influence and the subsequent skimming scandal. Those episodes belong to specific periods and people; they do not explain every employee or every year of the resort's life. The related Story about cashier William Brennan's 1992 disappearance supplies another distinct episode, after the Boyd purchase.

Where the evidence survives

For today's visitor, Stardust's history is divided between a transformed site and surviving objects and records elsewhere. The Neon Museum holds lettering from different sign eras, while UNLV preserves the resort archive. Resorts World opened in June 2021. Reading a former-site view together with those collections makes the distinction clear: a resort can disappear from its parcel while its signs, records and stories remain evidence of how it once worked.

Read the full history ↗

Sources and context

1. UNLV: Stardust Resort and Casino Records, MS-00515

   UNLV Stardust Resort and Casino Records MS-00515, Abstract, paragraph 1; UNLV MS-00515, Biographical / Historical Note, paragraphs on theme and Lido de Paris; UNLV MS-00515, Biographical / Historical Note, final paragraph; UNLV MS-00515, Biographical / Historical Note, final paragraph; corroborated by Resorts World Las Vegas Conference and Event Planning Guide, Amazing Facts, page 20; MS-00515 Biographical/Historical Note: Cornero, space-age opening, Café Continental/Lido, Boyd and1992 successor show; selected complete paragraphs read30September2026; MS-00515, Historical Note and scope: Cornero, 1958 opening, performance technology, Argent/Rosenthal, Boyd, shows, closure and redevelopment.

2. Resorts World Las Vegas official website, checked 30 September 2026

   Hotel booking and Gaming presentation

3. The Neon Museum: Stardust sign technical drawings

   Stardust section: 1958 frontage, 1968 roadside pylon, early-1990s lettering and holdings. Prefer collection-specific account to conflicting general chronology.

4. Boyd Gaming: March 2007 quarterly filing

   Closure on 1 November 2006 and Echelon development context; issuer SEC filing.

5. Resorts World Las Vegas: fact sheet

   Opening on 24 June 2021; operator fact sheet, not evidence of surviving Stardust buildings.

6. Mapcarta / GeoNames: Stardust former-site point

   Attributed GeoNames 12089430, 36.13361,-115.16583, read October 19, 2026. Approximate former-resort vicinity; obsolete current-resort label qualified by UNLV closure/demolition history.

7. UNLV Special Collections

   UNLV Stardust Resort and Casino Records MS-00515, Abstract, paragraph 1

UNLV's historical note dates the resort opening to July 2, 1958; contemporary newspaper material and the stage-opening account use other dates in the same opening period. The date field retains 1958.

UNLV refers to a 1967 sign; The Neon Museum's technical-drawing history dates the roadside pylon to 1968. The prose attributes the pylon date to the museum that holds the sign records.

The property's present-day successor and off-site collections should not be mistaken for surviving Stardust buildings.