Las Vegas Stories So Crazy You Can’t Believe They’re True
While the tension at online baccarat tables can reach almost unbearable levels, nothing too crazy is going to happen when you’re playing online. However, the same cannot be said of Las Vegas. Over the years, several incredible tales have come out of Sin City, many of which sound far too outlandish to contain even a hint of the truth. However, some of these wild Las Vegas myths are true, and here we have chosen a few favorites for your entertainment.
Howard Hughes Ordered 350 Gallons of One Ice Cream Flavor
Howard Hughes is a genuine Las Vegas legend. The billionaire recluse hardly ever left his penthouse suite and instead, relied upon his aides to manage even the smallest details of daily life. However, his reclusiveness was far from his only eccentricity. Another one involved ice cream.
Paul Winn, Hughes’ director of corporate records from 1957 until Hughes’ death in 1976, revealed that Hughes would become obsessed with one flavor of ice cream at a time, and for a very lengthy period, that flavor was peach.
Winn explained that they were running low on ice cream, so the aides went to the shop to buy some more, only to discover that Baskin-Robbins no longer made the flavor. Hughes’ staff then contacted the company headquarters and was told that the minimum special order was 350 gallons. They duly ordered the 350 gallons, which were sent to the Desert Inn, and in the words of Winn, “took up a lot of freezer space”.
However, after just a few days, Hughes decided he no longer wanted peach ice cream and asked for a different flavor instead. The massive amount of ice cream had nowhere to go, so the Desert Inn spent months giving away free peach ice cream to dinner guests.
The Statue of Liberty Mix-Up
In 2010, the U.S. Postal Service released a “Forever” stamp featuring a close-up image of one of the world’s most famous statues, the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor. However, much to the Postal Service’s embarrassment, the stamp actually showed the replica Statue of Liberty that stands outside the New York-New York casino in Las Vegas.
The mistake occurred when a manager selected the image from a stock photo database without realizing it was of the Las Vegas version. Because the photo was taken from a low angle, the nearby roller coaster tracks were not visible, and no one noticed the error. By the time the mistake was discovered, more than three billion stamps had already been printed.
Adding insult to injury, the sculptor of the Las Vegas replica, Robert Davidson, sued the Postal Service for infringing on his original artwork. In 2018, a federal judge ruled in his favor and ordered the government to pay $3.5 million.
Steve Wynn Perches on Top of His Own Hotel
Advances in technology and CGI mean that we have become very used to seeing incredible special effects and stunts, and Las Vegas commercials often rely on them. However, Steve Wynn once took things much further.
In a 2005 television ad, Wynn stood atop Wynn Las Vegas, more than 600 feet above the Strip. Three years later, he filmed another commercial showing himself sitting on the edge of Encore with his legs dangling over the side. In both cases, there was no CGI involved.
To prove the stunt was real, Wynn hired director Brett Ratner to film behind-the-scenes footage documenting the safety setup and production process. Although Wynn Resorts later removed the footage from official channels, you can still find the clips online.
The Mob-Linked Casino Boss FBI Informant
Believe it or not, amid the neon and noise, you’ll find wild Las Vegas myths that are true – and one of them even inspired a whole movie. It is commonly known that Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal was the real-life inspiration behind the character Robert De Niro is playing in the film “Casino”. Rosenthal ran major Las Vegas casinos for several years while having close links to the Chicago Outfit. His job was to oversee operations while quietly allowing millions of dollars to be skimmed from casino profits and sent back to organized crime.
Amazingly, at the same time, Rosenthal had secretly been cooperating with the FBI, a fact that was kept under wraps until after his death in 2008.
According to the “Las Vegas Review-Journal”, three former law enforcement officials and more than 300 pages of FBI documents confirmed that Rosenthal was a longtime criminal informant, and he was given the codename “Achilles” as he was considered to be a weak point inside the mob’s structure.
FBI files show that Rosenthal provided information about mob murders and casino skimming schemes, and this intelligence helped build federal cases against organized crime groups operating in Las Vegas. His cooperation even predates the 1982 car bombing he survived outside Tony Roma’s restaurant.
