Caesars Palace: Where the Wolf Pack Woke Up

Sixty years of toga-clad showmanship, one jumped fountain, and the most famous hotel check-in in comedy history.

Caesars Palace opened in 1966 as developer Jay Sarno's fever dream of Roman luxury, and its founding grammatical decision tells you everything about the pitch: there is no apostrophe in Caesars, because the palace does not belong to one Caesar. Every guest is one. Sixty years of marble, fountains and centurion doormen later, it remains the Strip's most theatrical veteran.

The Hangover's headquarters

The resort is now permanently twinned with the Hangover trilogy. The 2009 original shot in the real lobby, entrance and corridors, and staged its morning-after breakfast at the Garden of the Gods pool complex. The trashed villa was a Warner Bros set, which disappoints a steady stream of guests who ask for it at the front desk, and the front desk has been answering variations of Alan's question about whether Caesar lived there ever since. The 2013 finale checked the Wolf Pack back in.

Before the movies

Caesars earned its legend long before 2009. Evel Knievel jumped its fountains in 1967 and crashed into a month-long coma, creating both his own myth and the template for Vegas spectacle. The resort's boxing ring hosted eras of title fights, its sportsbook pioneered the giant-screen race and sports palace, and its Colosseum re-invented the Vegas residency. As a piece of gambling history it sits mid-way between downtown's sawdust roots and the Bellagio's marble era: the place that proved theme and theatre could sell a casino as hard as odds ever did.