3120 Las Vegas
Boulevard South: Pair-O-Dice, Ninety One Club, Hotel Last Frontier, New Frontier, Frontier
Pair-O-Dice (1) (Switzer) 7-4-1931 through 1-5-1933
Pair-O-Dice (2) (Jones, mgr) 4-21-1933 through 1934
Pair-O-Dice (3) (Houssels) 3-5-1934 through 12-5-1935
Ninety One Club 3-15-1939 through 11-10-1941
Hotel Last Frontier (1) (Moore, et al.) 10-30-1942 through 10-4-1951
Hotel Last Frontier (2) (Jacob Kozloff and Beldon Katleman) 10-4-1951 though 1955
1942 Ninety One Club incorporated into Last Frontier structure
Renamed New Frontier Hotel 4-4-1955 through 11-26-1956
1965 Razed, Replaced By Frontier
Frontier Hotel (1) (30 investors) 6-27-1967 through 11-1-28-1967
1967 Bought by Howard Hughes for $14 million
Frontier Hotel (2) Summa-Hughes) 11-28-1967 through 1988
Frontier Hotel (3) (Lordi) 1988 through ----
May 2007 Phil Ruffin sold the 34.5-acre property for $1.2 billion to New York-based El-Ad Group.
2007 Closed to make room for a new El-Ad Group project.
Articles from the Las Vegas ReviewJournal and Las Vegas Sun open in new windows.
July 29, 2007:
JOHN L. SMITH: Frontier helped Robert Goulet make a name for himself on the Strip
History: The property started as a nightclub called Pair O’Dice (1930-1936)and
renamed 91 Club (1939-1940). It was subsequently rebuilt and renamed the "Hotel Last
Frontier" in 1942.
Griffith's
Hotel Last Frontier opened with William J Moore as Manager. Where El Rancho
rambled like a motor court, the Last Frontier was a single sprawling
building with a reported 3,700 trees, plants, and shrubs planted on the
property. Several distinct but connected segments gave the appearance of
a main street from an Old Western town. The Carrillo Room named for
actor Leo Carrillo, the Cisco Kid's sidekick, was the octagonal tower
that had been part of the 91 Club.
In this room hung a large picture of
Carrillo astride his horse. Griffith and Moore purchased many items from
existing downtown casinos, such as an antique 40 foot mahogany bar with
French beveled glass from the Arizona Club on Fremont Street which once
housed Las Vegas' most fashionable house of prostitution. On April 4, 1955, it was renamed the "New Frontier," following
a modernization of the resort.
On September 22, 1967, the resort was purchased for about $14 million by the billionaire
Howard Hughes, who then shortened its name to "The Frontier". Mr. Hughes purchased the
resort from the previous owners, which had also included Steve Wynn in one of his early
ventures when he first moved to Las Vegas. In 1999, the name was changed back to The New Frontier.
The resort has the distinction of hosting Elvis Presley's first Vegas appearance in 1956,
and the final performance of Diana Ross & The Supremes on January 14, 1970.
Culinary Workers Union Strike:
From September 21, 1991 until February 1, 1998 members of the Culinary Workers Union Local
226 in Las Vegas staged a strike against the New Frontier and the Elardis. A settlement
was reached on October 28, 1997 when Ruffin announced he would purchase the New Frontier
from the Elardis for $165 million dollars. The strike ended when Ruffin officially took possession.
Redevelopment Plans: Billionaire developer Phil Ruffin bought the resort in 1998
from embattled owner Margaret Elardi and her two sons. In 2000, Ruffin announced plans
to raze the current facility and replace it with a
mega resort with a San Francisco theme, but high interest rates and the attacks of
September 11, 2001 scuttled those plans. In March 2005, with Las Vegas' fortunes on
the rise, Ruffin announced new plans to demolish the current facility and replace
it with a new resort with 3,000 rooms. With massive new development taking place
on the Strip adjacent to the hotel, the not-so-New Frontier's days are almost certainly numbered.
History:
In this room hung a large picture of
Carrillo astride his horse. Griffith and Moore purchased many items from
existing downtown casinos, such as an antique 40 foot mahogany bar with
French beveled glass from the Arizona Club on Fremont Street which once
housed Las Vegas' most fashionable house of prostitution. On April 4, 1955, it was renamed the "New Frontier," following
a modernization of the resort.
