And its success paved the way for the Bellagio, MGM Grand, Mirage and Luxor, the 4,000-room giants that currently line the Las Vegas Strip. With 77 rooms, it was the largest and most luxurious Las Vegas resort of its day. It stood where the garden and swimming pool of the new Flamingo now sprawl. Located at 3555 Las Vegas Boulevard, on the east side of The Strip, in the outdoor garden of the Flamingo Las Vegas, at the end of an open-air fuchsia canopy, in front of the Flamingo Las Vegas' wedding chapel, just north of Flamingo Road, is a bronze plaque dedicated to Siegel. But the Bugsy Siegel Memorial or Benjamin Bugsy Siegel Plaque remains the only important landmark to the mobster who made it all happen. Today, Las Vegas offers mob museums and tours. If you've seen the movie 'Bugsy' with Warren Beatty and any of the other Luciano/Lansky/Siegel documentaries, you come away fascinated by Siegel's vision of building the original Flamingo Hotel and Casino in 1946 and turning Las Vegas from a desert hideaway into a multi-billion-dollar entertainment and gambling mecca.
I must admit that, of all the attractions in Las Vegas, the one I was most interested in seeing was the Bugsy Siegel Memorial.
