The casino that would become the 3,460-room resort Flamingo Las Vegas opened on December 26, 1946, without any guest rooms at all. 

Along US Route 91, Margaret Folsom operated a small motel called the Rancho Aloha. In 1945, she sold part of the land to heavy gambler and frequent visitor William R. Wilkerson, founder of The Hollywood Reporter. He paid $84,000 ($1.5 million today). Billy Wilkerson had an idea for this lot, south of the hotels and casinos around Fremont Street and outside incorporated Las Vegas, but he didn’t really have the funds for it. 

In 1946, Wilkerson received $1 million ($18 million) from G. Harry Rothberg in exchange for two-thirds interest in the project. Rothberg’s partners included Moe Sedway, Gus Greenbaum, and Benjamin Siegel, all of them goodfellas. 

The group already had interests in the Las Vegas area, such as the El Cortez casino and hotel near Fremont Street. Bugsy Siegel threw himself into this new project. With the best food, liquor and entertainment, this resort would attract thousands of visitors and high rollers to the desert. Siegel named himself site boss, and, supported by Meyer Lansky, he created the Nevada Projects Corporation to build the resort he wanted. 

Not that he did this well. The $1 million ballooned to $6 million ($111 million). When the casino opened in 1946, the hotel wasn’t finished. The celebrities and VIPs who attended the 3-day festivities had to stay at nearby properties. When the 105-room, 3-story hotel finally did open in March 1947, the Flamingo was the first modern and upscale resort on what would become the Strip. Wilkerson, by this point, would be forced out entirely. 

Siegel was murdered in his Beverly Hills mansion on June 20, 1947. From there, the resort changed ownership several times, eventually landing with Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1972. Its currently owned by Caesars Entertainment. It’s been renovated half a dozen times, and all of the original structures are gone, with the last part being demolished in 1993 to make room for an expanded pool area and animal habitat.

The resort’s name, the Flamingo, is usually credited to Siegel. He either viewed the birds as good luck or because of his redheaded girlfriend, Virginia Hill. But Wilkerson also had a thing for flamingos, according to his son. He’d named previous projects after exotic birds, and his original idea was based on Miami Beach hotels. Wilkerson had the name. Siegel ran with it. 

So he gets the memorial on the resort’s grounds. Walk past the flamingos and the fish ponds, follow the trail around some greenery, and you’ll find it near the wedding chapel.