Kirk Kerkorian

By Robert Romano, Your Guide to Las Vegas, NV.

The Father of the Mega-resort
Kirk Kerkorian has to be considered the man behind the mega-resort. I learned his name in 1975, when I first came to Las Vegas and began to work in his first such hotel, the Las Vegas Hilton. He built it in 1969 as the International. Until he opened the original MGM Grand on Flamingo at Las Vegas Boulevard, The Hilton stood alone 30 stories above everything else in the desert. He sold that building and the Reno MGM to Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1986. In 1993, he built and opened the current MGM Grand. Each of these buildings was the largest resort hotel in the world at the time it opened for business.

Twenty years after the opening of the International, Steve Wynn opened the Mirage, and the boom of the mega-resorts began to quickly spread along the Strip, but Kerkorian started it all.

Kerkorian could easily be the subject of a movie more interesting than 'The Aviator'. In him, we have a self-made man, born in Fresno, California in 1917, whose family lost everything during the recession of 1921-1922 then moved to Los Angeles, where he began to earn money doing odd jobs and selling newspapers. After dropping out of junior high school, he became Pacific amateur welterweight boxing champion. While working at installing furnaces, he fell in love with flying and by 1940, he got his commercial pilot's license. During WWII, he was flying Mosquito bombers from Labrador to Scotland. One in four successfully made the trip, but the pay was high to those who succeeded. He made it in 33 planes.

Kerkorian first came to Las Vegas in 1945. He was flying charter flights from Los Angeles in his privately owned Cessna. He became a Vegas 'high roller in the 40s and 50s. He no longer gambles. He married Jean Maree Hardy, who had been a dancer at the Tropicana Hotel and had two daughters, Tracy and Linda. His personal holding company Tracinda Corporation and his charitable organization, The Lincy Foundation, derive from their names.

Kerkorian's first big venture into the Las Vegas valley, was the purchase of 80 acres across the Strip from the Flamingo Hotel in 1962. He got the land at the low price of $960,000, because a thin strip of land was between it and Las Vegas Boulevard. When he was successful at acquiring that strip of land, Jay Sarno leased the land from Kerkorian and built Caesars' Palace. Strangely enough, Steve Wynn also got his big financial boost in a narrow strip of land which he bought from Howard Hughes in 1971, that prevented Caesar's palace property to reach Flamingo Road.

Would Kerkorian want to see a movie of his life made? More than likely not. He is a quiet man, though not a recluse by any means. He does not seek public attention. He prefers the company of his group of old friends. Though in his late eighties, he has others run his businesses, but he still does some hard negotiating, and during those times, he still has the glint of the boxer and Mosquito pilot in his eye, and is tough as nails.

On the other hand, ranked forty-first among the world's richest in Forbes, he is a generous man. He had a major part in building Las Vegas and putting many Las Vegans to work. His Lincy Foundation not only help to rebuild Armenia after the earthquake of 1988, with millions of dollars in housing grants, but they are helping to fund the school and road systems of that country today. It also contributes financially to several important organizations in the United States.

Thank you, Kirk Kerkorian.