Golden Nugget Las Vegas
The Golden Nugget Las Vegas is a luxury hotel and casino located in Las Vegas, Nevada on the Fremont Street Experience. The property is operated by Landry's, Inc.. It is the largest casino in the downtown area, with a total of suites; the Golden Nugget was built in 1946, making it one of the oldest casinos in the city. Jackie Gaughan at one time owned a stake in the hotel as part of his many downtown properties. Steve Wynn bought a stake in the Nugget, which he increased so that, in 1973, he became the majority shareholder, the youngest casino owner in Las Vegas. In 1977 he opened the first hotel tower and the resort earned its first four diamond rating from Mobil Travel Guide, it was the foundation for Wynn's rise to prominence in the casino industry. The second hotel tower opened in 1984 along with the showroom, the third tower was opened in 1989. In 2000, the Golden Nugget was sold to MGM Grand, Inc.. Although the Golden Nugget was profitable, it was not part of the master expansion plan of the corporation, focused on consolidating a long stretch of the Strip by acquiring Mandalay Resort Group, building City Center, beginning construction in Macau.
Gaming revenue on Fremont Street had peaked in fiscal year 1993. The Golden Nugget was sold for $215 million to Poster Financial Group, owned by Timothy Poster and Thomas Breitling in 2004; when Poster Financial assumed control of the Golden Nugget, they began to upgrade the gambling operation by installing new cashless slot machines and by increasing the maximum bet available at table games to $15,000. Their story became the basis for The Casino, a television series on Fox that premiered on June 14, 2004. On February 4, 2005, Texas-based Landry's, Inc announced its intent to purchase the property and the Golden Nugget Laughlin; the sale closed on September 27, 2005. After the purchase, the Golden Nugget embarked on a 14-month, $100 million renovation project, completed in November 2006. In December 2007, the Golden Nugget completed its $70 million Phase II project, which expanded the resort west onto First Street and introduced additional entertainment and dining venues. Phase III was the opening of a 500-room, $150 million hotel tower on November 20, 2009 along with the Chart House restaurant.
FilmsIn the Elvis Presley film Viva Las Vegas In the James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever, the casino can be continually seen in the police chase scene. The casino can be seen in the beginning of the film Smokin' Aces, in which the antagonist cuts the ribbons for the casino's grand opening. In the film Next, Nicolas Cage is seen entering the Golden Nugget through the Fremont Street entrance; the Golden Nugget features prominently in the poker mockumentary The Grand. TelevisionAlfred Hitchcock Presents 1959 episode "Man From The South", the opening shot shows the Casino and Fremont St; the Golden Nugget and Fremont Street are in the opening scene of "The Night Stalker" with reporter Carl Kolchak investigating a series of vampire murders in Las Vegas. Vega$ showed exterior shots of The Golden Nugget in the opening and closing slots and in the pilot episode The Casino, a Fox reality television series is based on the story of the Golden Nugget's acquisition by Poster Financial Group. In 2010, the casino's pool and shark aquarium were featured throughout an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.
In all Street Fighter II games, Balrog's stage is set in front of the Golden Nugget, with the sign seen in the back. In HD Remix, it has been changed to the "Crazy Buffalo" in reference to the name of Balrog's original Super Combo; the name Golden Nugget designates several casino games: Golden Nugget, Golden Nugget 64, Golden Nugget Casino, Golden Nugget Casino DS. In Fallout: New Vegas, the logo of the "Silver Rush," a gambling hall, shows a similarity to the logo of the Golden Nugget; the world's largest gold nugget on display, the Hand of Faith is still shown today in the Golden Nugget lobby. Weighing 875 troy ounces and 18 inches in length, the Hand of Faith was found near Kingower, Victoria and put on display at the casino in 1981 amid a number of other gold nuggets; the casino's large hotel sign at its entrance off Fremont and Casino Center was removed in 1984 when the casino underwent renovations. The old sign presently sits at the YESCO signage yard; the expanded resort is built around two aquariums.
The larger faces the swimming pool, incorporates a slide through the tank containing full grown sharks. The smaller aquarium is in the lobby of the Rush Tower. A total of five specialty restaurants were added: Vic & Anthony's steakhouse, Grotto Ristorante, Lillie's Asian Cuisine, Red Sushi and Chart House; the Chart House has a view of one of the aquariums. The pool is a $30 million unique three level adventure with an enclosed slide through a shark tank, hidden grottos, swim up bars and multi depth areas. Tom Breitling and Tim Poster were the highest profile successful entrepreneurs who profited in the downtown market during the last crisis; as recounted in Tom Breitling's book, Double or Nothing, the partners agreed to buy the Golden Nugget and had an agreement to sell the property after operating it for only one year. The partners made $113 million in profit called the highest rate of return in such a short time in the gaming industry. Amazingly enough the partners had a negative income for the year and the fortune was made while total revenue for downtown was still flat.
Golden Nugget Laughlin Golden Nugget Atlantic City Golden Nugget Lake Charles
Glass Pool Inn
Glass Pool Inn was a motel located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It opened as the Mirage Motel in 1952. An above-ground swimming pool was added in 1955, included large porthole windows that allowed outsiders to peer inside; the motel became well known for its pool, used in numerous films and television shows, as well as music videos and photo shoots. In 1988, the Mirage Motel was renamed as the Glass Pool Inn to avoid confusion with Steve Wynn's new Mirage resort located on the Las Vegas Strip; the Glass Pool Inn was closed in September 2003, demolished a year for a project that did not materialize. The 22-room Mirage Motel was opened in 1952, on the southern end of the Las Vegas Strip, known at the time as Highway 91. In 1953, Robert and Betty Rosoff purchased the motel. To compete against hotels further north on the Las Vegas Strip, the Rosoffs believed that the motel needed something to attract tourists arriving from southern California. In 1955, the Rosoff couple and one of their siblings installed an above-ground swimming pool with seven porthole windows, each one measuring four feet wide and providing people the ability to see into the pool.
The kidney-shaped pool was nine feet above ground, measured 26 feet by 55 feet, was designed by the sibling who helped install it. The pool contained either 56,000 gallons of water. Future motel owner Allen Rosoff, the son of Robert and Betty Rosoff, said that at the time, the concept of an above-ground pool with windows posed design challenges: "You had the electrolysis, you had steel windows. Brass fittings in there. Aluminum in a couple of other areas, besides your regular plaster and gunite." By 1961, Allen Rosoff was a co-owner of the motel with his parents. That year, a California resident filed a $45,000 lawsuit against the motel after his arms were paralyzed in a diving board incident a year earlier, in which he hit a swimmer while landing in the pool; the diving board and a slide were removed from the pool some time later. Allen Rosoff and his wife Susie took over operations in 1971. In 1987, Allen Rosoff filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the newly opened La Mirage hotel and casino, alleging that the resort was costing him customers who were confusing the two properties.
Rosoff won a permanent injunction against La Mirage. However, La Mirage was granted a stay of proceedings until it could appeal the case to the Nevada Supreme Court. In 1988, as La Mirage was appealing the case, businessman Steve Wynn purchased the Mirage name from both businesses to avoid confusion with his upcoming Mirage resort, which opened on the Las Vegas Strip a year later. Both businesses received $250,000 to stop using the name as of July 1, 1988. At the time, the motel had a lounge. In August 1998, the Rosoffs announced that they were considering selling the motel, which had 48 rooms at the time. By May 1999, Susie Rosoff had filed a formal complaint against police officers, alleging that they were harassing customers and employees at the motel. In August 1999, Allen and Susie Rosoff sold the motel and its 1.5-acre property for $5.5 million to developers Howard Bulloch and David Gaffin. Allen Rosoff said he had become tired of maintaining the aging property. In December 1999, a spokeswoman for the motel said that occupancy had increased to 70 percent, after a decrease in room rates.
In 2000, Bulloch and their partner Tom Gonzales transferred ownership of the property to their group, known as New World, with plans for a megaresort. New World purchased several other nearby motels to accumulate a 77-acre parcel located on the Las Vegas Strip and east of the Mandalay Bay. In January 2001, plans were announced for World Port Resorts, a megaresort consisting of hotel-casinos, a convention center and a fine arts facility; the project was to be built on the 77-acre property, a portion of, occupied by the Glass Pool Inn. A restaurant that used to operate on the property had been closed by 2002; the motel was closed in mid-September 2003, after Gonzales' TG Investments took control of 46 acres of the 77-acre parcel, including the Glass Pool Inn property. Gonzales did not specify his plans for the property. Allen Rosoff said he and his wife were pleased with the decision to demolish the motel: "The place was getting so deteriorated that I felt that with all the fond memories of 50 years involved in my family, I would rather remember what it was than see how rundown the motel was getting."
Rosoff said it "would be nice" if another Glass Pool were constructed some day, "but as for this place, it was built 50 years ago to the code of those days. It is time."It was reported that many Las Vegas residents were disappointed about the plans to demolish the pool, but that there was limited local interest in saving it. The administrator for the Clark County Museum said that moving the pool to preserve it would not be possible, but said that it would be further documented and photographed before its demolition; the motel was demolished in 2004. The Glass Pool Inn's sign was left intact; the sign was to be donated to the city's Neon Museum, but went missing in June 2012. The Mirage Motel's above-ground pool gained immediate attention from filmmakers. At the time of the Glass Pool Inn's closing, Trent Othiel, the owner of a local movie production company, said about the pool: "It screams Las Vegas, it's so eye-catching. You look when you pass it. That's what you want on film." At that time, Allen Rosoff spoke about all the actors who filmed at the motel: "In the beginning, all this was fascinating, but after a while, it became old hat.
We'd see them, say hello. They were there to film. It's not, but fo
Polynesia
Polynesia is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are termed Polynesians, share many similar traits including language family and beliefs, they had a strong tradition of sailing and using stars to navigate at night. The largest country in Polynesia is New Zealand; the term Polynesia was first used in 1756 by a French writer named Charles de Brosses, applied to all the islands of the Pacific. In 1831, Jules Dumont d'Urville proposed a restriction on its use during a lecture to the Geographical Society of Paris; the islands of the South Seas have been known as South Sea Islands, their inhabitants as South Sea Islanders though the Hawaiian Islands are located in the North Pacific. Another term, the Polynesian Triangle, explicitly includes the Hawaiian Islands, as they form its northern vertex. Polynesia is characterized by a small amount of land spread over a large portion of the mid and southern Pacific Ocean.
Most Polynesian islands and archipelagos, including the Hawaiian Islands and Samoa, are composed of volcanic islands built by hotspots. New Zealand, Norfolk Island, Ouvéa, the Polynesian outlier near New Caledonia, are the unsubmerged portions of the sunken continent of Zealandia. Zealandia is believed to have sunk 23 million years ago and resurfaced geologically due to a change in the movements of the Pacific Plate in relation to the Indo-Australian plate, which served to uplift the New Zealand portion. At first, the Pacific plate was subducted under the Australian plate; the Alpine Fault that traverses the South Island is a transform fault while the convergent plate boundary from the North Island northwards is called the Kermadec-Tonga Subduction Zone. The volcanism associated with this subduction zone is the origin of the Kermadec and Tongan island archipelagos. Out of 300,000 or 310,000 square kilometres of land, over 270,000 km2 are within New Zealand; the Zealandia continent has 3,600,000 km2 of continental shelf.
The oldest rocks in the region are found in New Zealand and are believed to be about 510 million years old. The oldest Polynesian rocks outside of Zealandia are to be found in the Hawaiian Emperor Seamount Chain and are 80 million years old. Polynesia is defined as the islands within the Polynesian Triangle, although some islands inhabited by Polynesian people are situated outside the Polynesian Triangle. Geographically, the Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii, New Zealand, Easter Island; the other main island groups located within the Polynesian Triangle are Samoa, the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Niue and Futuna, French Polynesia. Small Polynesian settlements are in Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, the Caroline Islands, Vanuatu. An island group with strong Polynesian cultural traits outside of this great triangle is Rotuma, situated north of Fiji; the people of Rotuma speak a non-Polynesian language. Some of the Lau Islands to the southeast of Fiji have strong cultural links with Tonga.
However, in essence, Polynesia is a cultural term referring to one of the three parts of Oceania. The following are the islands and island groups, either nations or overseas territories of former colonial powers, that are of native Polynesian culture or where archaeological evidence indicates Polynesian settlement in the past; some islands of Polynesian origin are outside the general triangle that geographically defines the region. The Phoenix Islands and Line Islands, most of which are part of Kiribati, had no permanent settlements until European colonization, but are sometimes considered to be inside the Polynesian triangle. In pre-colonial times, Polynesian populations existed in the Kermadec Islands, the Auckland Islands and Norfolk Island. However, when European explorers arrived, these islands were uninhabited. Anuta Bellona Island Emae Fiji Mele Nuguria Nukumanu Ontong Java Pileni Rennell Sikaiana Takuu Tikopia The United States Minor Outlying Islands Kapingamarangi Nukuoro Auckland Islands The Polynesian people are considered to be by linguistic and human genetic ancestry a subset of the sea-migrating Austronesian people.
Tracing Polynesian languages places their prehistoric origins in the Malay Archipelago, in Taiwan. Between about 3000 and 1000 BCE speakers of Austronesian languages began spreading from Taiwan into Island Southeast Asia. There are three theories regarding the spread of humans across the Pacific to Polynesia; these are outlined well by Kayser et al. and are as follows: Express Train model: A recent expansion out of Taiwan, via the Philippines and eastern Indonesia and from the northwest of New Guinea, on to Island Melanesia by 1400 BCE, reaching western Polynesian islands around 900 BCE. This theory is supported by the majority of curren
Mortgage-backed security
A mortgage-backed security is a type of asset-backed security, secured by a mortgage or collection of mortgages. The mortgages are sold to a group of individuals that securitizes, or packages, the loans together into a security that investors can buy; the mortgages of a MBS may be residential or commercial, depending on whether it is an Agency MBS or a Non-Agency MBS. The structure of the MBS may be known as "pass-through", where the interest and principal payments from the borrower or homebuyer pass through it to the MBS holder, or it may be more complex, made up of a pool of other MBSs. Other types of MBS include collateralized mortgage obligations and collateralized debt obligations. A mortgage bond is a bond backed by a pool of mortgages on a real estate asset such as a house. More bonds which are secured by the pledge of specific assets are called mortgage bonds. Mortgage bonds can pay interest in either quarterly or semiannual periods; the prevalence of mortgage bonds is credited to Mike Vranos.
The shares of subprime MBSs issued by various structures, such as CMOs, are not identical but rather issued as tranches, each with a different level of priority in the debt repayment stream, giving them different levels of risk and reward. Tranches—especially the lower-priority, higher-interest tranches—of an MBS are/were further repackaged and resold as collaterized debt obligations; these subprime MBSs issued by investment banks were a major issue in the subprime mortgage crisis of 2006–2008. The total face value of an MBS decreases over time, because like mortgages, unlike bonds, most other fixed-income securities, the principal in an MBS is not paid back as a single payment to the bond holder at maturity but rather is paid along with the interest in each periodic payment; this decrease in face value is measured by the MBS's "factor", the percentage of the original "face" that remains to be repaid. The process of securitization is complex and depends on the jurisdiction within which the process is conducted.
Among other things, securitization distributes risk and permits investors to choose different levels of investment and risk. The basics are: Mortgage loans are purchased from banks and other lenders, assigned to a special purpose vehicle; the purchaser or assignee assembles these loans into collections, or "pools". The purchaser or assignee securitizes the pools by issuing mortgage-backed securities. While a residential mortgage-backed security is secured by single-family or two- to four-family real estate, a commercial mortgage-backed security is secured by commercial and multi-family properties, such as apartment buildings, retail or office properties, schools, industrial properties, other commercial sites. A CMBS is structured as a different type of security than an RMBS; these securitization trusts may be structured by government-sponsored enterprises as well as by private entities that may offer credit enhancement features to mitigate the risk of prepayment and default associated with these mortgages.
Since residential mortgage holders in the United States have the option to pay more than the required monthly payment or to pay off the loan in its entirety, the monthly cash flow of an MBS is not known in advance, an MBS therefore presents a risk to investors. In the United States, the most common securitization trusts are sponsored by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, US government-sponsored enterprises. Ginnie Mae, a US government-sponsored enterprise backed by the full faith and credit of the US government, guarantees that its investors receive timely payments but buys limited numbers of mortgage notes; some private institutions securitize mortgages, known as "private-label" mortgage securities. Issuances of private-label mortgage-backed securities increased from 2001 to 2007 and ended abruptly in 2008, when real estate markets began to falter. An example of a private-label issuer is the real estate mortgage investment conduit, a tax-structure entity used for CMOs; the securitization of mortgages in the 1970s had the advantage of providing more capital for housing at a time when the demographic bulge of baby boomers created a housing shortage and inflation was undermining a traditional source of housing funding, the savings and loan associations, which were limited to providing uncompetitive 5.75% interest rates on savings accounts and losing savers' money to money market funds.
Unlike the traditional localized, inefficient mortgage market where there might be a shortage or surplus of funds at any one time, MBSs were national in scope and regionally diversified. Mortgage backed securities helped move interest rate out of the banking sector and facilitated greater specialization among financial institutions. However, mortgage-backed securities may have "led inexorably to the rise of the subprime industry" and "created hidden, systemic risks", they "undid the connection between borrowers and lenders". "less than 2% of people lost their homes to foreclosure", but with securitization, "once a lender sold a mortgage, it no longer had a stake in whether the borrower could make his or her payments." Among the early examples of mortgage-backed securities in the United States were the farm r
Terry Fator
Terry Wayne Fator is a ventriloquist, impressionist and singer from Dallas, Texas. Fator does ventriloquial impersonations, uses 15 different puppets in his act, he was the winner of season two of America's Got Talent, received the million dollar prize. The following year, he was signed on as the headliner at The Mirage hotel and casino in Las Vegas, Nevada with a five-year, $100 million contract. Terry Wayne Fator was born June 10, 1965, in Dallas, the son of Jephtha Wesley and Edith Marie Clifton known as Marie Sligh, he has Jephtha Jr. and a younger sister, Deborah. Fator's second cousin is an American Idol season six finalist. Terry Fator says in his audio commentary of Terry Fator: Live from Las Vegas that he went to college at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia; the beginning of Fator's ventriloquism career dates back to. While searching for a book for an assignment on Valentine's Day, he came across a book about ventriloquism titled, Ventriloquism for Fun and Profit, by Paul Winchell.
Fator started learning about ventriloquism. A few weeks Fator purchased a Willie Talk dummy from Sears and soon won a $25 prize for a performance at a church picnic. Fator got his first ventriloquism dummy. Throughout his childhood, Fator entertained family and friends with his ventriloquism and did impersonations of singers and actors. Fator's mother saved up her money for three years and bought him his first puppet when he was 18 years old. Fator says he found he had the ability to impersonate singers by practicing ventriloquism while driving his car. "One of the reasons I learned how to sing as a ventriloquist was because I like singing in the car," Fator says. "I’d see other people singing in the car, they looked goofy, so I’d do it without moving my lips." Fator got his start touring as the lead singer of a band called "Freedom Jam" in 1987-88, produced by Young American Showcase. They performed at over 200 high schools and middle schools across the United States and Canada, averaging three performances per school day.
In mid-1988, he was the lead singer of a show band called'Texas the Band' when he was 23, incorporated his puppet Walter T. Airedale into his shows. Fator's band at one point was about to sign with a major record label and one of the label's representatives came to hear the band. Fator sang the songs impersonating the original vocalists. "He told me'you gotta stop doing those impressions,' and wanted me to sing in my own voice," Fator says. "I tried it for a few weeks, hated it. We told the record company'no thanks.'" Fator left the band and did a solo act combining comedy and ventriloquism but for many years had little success. "Fairs would stick me on a little stage in the back of fair and have me do three shows in the hottest part of the afternoon," related Fator. "I had heat stroke a couple of times passed out."The low point of his career, Fator said, was when he appeared at a 1,000 seat theater and had only one person in the audience. Discouraged, Fator contemplated pursuing another career.
Terry entered the America's Got Talent competition with the hope that the exposure if he made it to the Top 20 might help his career and cause people to want to attend his shows. Fator's success stems from combining singing and comedy. Fator was the lead singer in bands and did impersonations of singers Garth Brooks, Etta James, James Taylor and Dean Martin, while ventriloquism had been just a comic side gig for him. In 2005, Fator decided to combine his talents, ventriloquism and impersonations. "I had one of my characters sing Garth Brooks' "Friends in Low Places" and the audience went crazy," Fator said. "Boy, when my life changed." After his initial success Fator revamped his act. "It took me six months and I rewrote the show," says Fator. "It was that people noticed and I started getting standing ovations at the end of every show,"Prior to winning America's Got Talent, Fator opened for Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks, Neal McCoy, Styx. Fator performed for corporate giants General Motors and AT&T.
Before appearing on America's Got Talent, Fator had given up on achieving success in show business as a ventriloquist. "It wasn't easy trying to keep going all these years, by the time I was in my late 30s, I wasn't sure it was going to happen," says Fator. On June 19, 2007, Fator made his first national appearance on America's Got Talent. Speaking on the experience, he said, "Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine I would win that show... I auditioned because the guy, the ventriloquist the first season got on Late Show with David Letterman... So I figured I'd do three episodes like he did and end up on'David Letterman'." After winning the show, Fator had to turn the Letterman gig down fourteen times before his schedule was clear so he could appear. "My schedule got so packed, it broke my heart every time I had to turn him down," Fator says. When Fator first came onstage, judge David Hasselhoff said, "Oh, no, a ventriloquist." "I was thinking, there's no way I would win," Fator says. "I gave myself zero percent."
The judges, Piers Morgan, Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff loved Fator and he won the competition. Judge Piers Morgan told Fator "You’re a great impersonator, a great singer and a great comedian." "You put a twist on the whole being a ventriloquist thing," added Judge Sharon Osbourne. Simon Cowell approved. "Simon Cowell said I was one of the top two entertainers on the planet," says Fator. "And getting a compliment from Simon Cowell, not many people get a compliment like that
MGM Resorts International
MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Detroit, Las Vegas, Mississippi and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, The Mirage. The company most opened MGM National Harbor in Maryland and MGM Springfield in Massachusetts, it has a majority interest in MGM China Holdings Limited, which owns the MGM Macau resort and casino, is developing a gaming resort in Cotai. MGM Resorts owns 50 percent of CityCenter in Las Vegas, which features Aria Casino, it has a majority controlling interest in a real estate investment trust. The company began operations in 1987 as MGM Grand, Inc. and became MGM Mirage in 2000, after acquiring Mirage Resorts. In the mid-2000s, growth of its non-gaming revenue began to outpace gaming receipts and demand for high-rise condominiums was surging, with median property prices in Las Vegas twice the national average; the company shifted its focus from owning and operating resorts and casinos, to developing and building real estate in the leisure and gaming industry—launching the massive CityCenter mixed-use project, at the time of its construction the world's largest construction site and ranks as one of the most expensive real estate projects in history.
City Center's development coincided with the global financial crisis, causing writedowns in its valuation. In June 2010, the company changed to its present name to reflect its latest strategy of expanding worldwide, including licensing its brand and expertise to develop non-gaming hotels and residences. Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda Corporation were, until 2009, the majority shareholders of MGM Mirage. Following a one-billion-dollar stock offering by MGM Mirage amidst the global credit crunch, Tracinda's shares were diluted from 53.8 percent to 39 percent. On June 15, 2010, shareholders voted for MGM Mirage to change its name to "MGM Resorts International", which emphasizes the brand's global scope and increased non-gaming strategy. In 2013, MGM won state licenses to build a $1-billion resort in National Harbor, Maryland and a $950-million resort in downtown Springfield, Massachusetts. In May 2014, MGM broke ground on a $375-million arena on the Las Vegas Strip with sports and entertainment company AEG.
MGM Resorts is the majority owner of MGM Growth Properties, a real estate investment trust that owns twelve casino properties and leases them to MGM Resorts. It became a separate, publicly traded company in April 2016. Among the company's management ranks, more than 38 percent are minorities and nearly 43 percent are women; the company's background can be traced to 1969, when airline and casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian bought a controlling stake in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer film studio. In 1970 and 1971, Kerkorian struggled with debt from his acquisitions of MGM and Western Airlines, was forced to sell a majority of his casino company, International Leisure, to Hilton Hotels at a steep discount; when the Las Vegas Hilton, the casino he had built, subsequently became the most successful hotel in Las Vegas, Kerkorian was inspired to lead the studio into the gambling industry. It opened the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in 1973; the MGM Grand Reno followed in 1978. By 1979, the two hotel-casinos accounted for most of MGM's income, the company announced a plan to split itself in two.
The next year, the film studio was spun off as a new company, while the original company, renamed as MGM Grand Hotels Inc. retained the two hotel-casinos. Kerkorian held a 47 percent stake in both companies. In 1985, Kerkorian began seeking a buyer for MGM Grand Hotels, to allow him to concentrate on running United Artists and on developing new properties under the MGM Grand name. A deal was reached for Bally Manufacturing to buy the company; the terms of the sale allowed Kerkorian to retain rights to the MGM Grand name, plans were announced to offer the stockholders of MGM Grand Hotels shares in a new company that would hold the naming rights. The company now known as MGM Resorts International was formed in 1986 as Grand Name Co. as a subsidiary of Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation. It was renamed the following year as Inc.. The company's first venture was MGM Grand Air, a luxury airline offering service between New York and Los Angeles, which launched in September 1987; the company made an offer to take over financially struggling Pan American World Airways, but it was rejected by Pan Am's board in November 1987 for being too conditional.
In August 1987, MGM Grand bid $152 million for the bankrupt Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, but was beat out by Japanese billionaire Masao Nangaku. Instead, the company acquired the Desert Inn and Sands casinos in February 1988 from Summa Corporation for $167 million; the Sands was promptly sold to Sheldon Adelson's Interface Group for $110 million in April 1989. In September 1989, the company announced plans for a $700-million Hollywood-themed complex, including a 4,000-room hotel and a theme park; the Desert Inn site was considered as a location for the project, but within weeks the location was finalized as the Marina Hotel and Casino and the Tropicana Country Club, which MGM Grand acquired for $93 million plus $30 million in stock. The company put the Desert Inn up for sale to focus efforts on the new project, but found no outside bidders, agreed to sell it to Tracinda for $130 million. Construction on the MGM Grand Las Vegas and the MGM Grand Adventures theme park began in October 1991, the property opened in December 1993 at a final cos
Magic (illusion)
Magic, along with its subgenres of, sometimes referred to as illusion, stage magic or close up magic is a performing art in which audiences are entertained by staged tricks or illusions of impossible feats using natural means. It is to be distinguished from paranormal magic which are effects claimed to be created through supernatural means, it is one of the oldest performing arts in the world. Modern entertainment magic, as pioneered by 19th-century magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, has become a popular theatrical art form. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, magicians such as Maskelyne and Devant, Howard Thurston, Harry Kellar, Harry Houdini achieved widespread commercial success during what has become known as "The Golden Age of Magic". During this period, performance magic became a staple of Broadway theatre and music halls. Magic retained its popularity in the television age, with magicians such as David Copperfield, Doug Henning, Penn & Teller, David Blaine modernizing the art form.
The term "magic" etymologically derives from the Greek word mageia. In ancient times and Persians had been at war for centuries, the Persian priests, called magosh in Persian, came to be known as magoi in Greek. Ritual acts of Persian priests came to be known as mageia, magika—which came to mean any foreign, unorthodox, or illegitimate ritual practice. During the 17th century, many books were published; until the 18th century, magic shows were a common source of entertainment at fairs. A founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin, who had a magic theatre in Paris in 1845. John Henry Anderson was pioneering the same transition in London in the 1840s. Towards the end of the 19th century, large magic shows permanently staged at big theatre venues became the norm; as a form of entertainment, magic moved from theatrical venues to television magic specials. Performances that modern observers would recognize as conjuring have been practiced throughout history. For many recorded centuries, magicians were associated with the occult.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, many stage magicians capitalized on this notion in their advertisements. The same level of ingenuity, used to produce famous ancient deceptions such as the Trojan Horse would have been used for entertainment, or at least for cheating in money games, they were used by the practitioners of various religions and cults from ancient times onwards to frighten uneducated people into obedience or turn them into adherents. However, the profession of the illusionist gained strength only in the 18th century, has enjoyed several popular vogues since. Opinions vary among magicians on how to categorize a given effect, but a number of categories have been developed. Magicians may pull a rabbit from an empty hat, make something seem to disappear, or transform a red silk handkerchief into a green silk handkerchief. Magicians may destroy something, like cutting a head off, "restore" it, make something appear to move from one place to another, or they may escape from a restraining device.
Other illusions include making something appear to defy gravity, making a solid object appear to pass through another object, or appearing to predict the choice of a spectator. Many magic routines use combinations of effects. One of the earliest books on the subject is Gantziony's work of 1489, Natural and Unnatural Magic, which describes and explains old-time tricks. In 1584, Englishman Reginald Scot published The Discoverie of Witchcraft, part of, devoted to debunking the claims that magicians used supernatural methods, showing how their "magic tricks" were in reality accomplished. Among the tricks discussed were sleight-of-hand manipulations with rope and coins. At the time and belief in witchcraft was widespread and the book tried to demonstrate that these fears were misplaced. Popular belief held that all obtainable copies were burned on the accession of James I in 1603. During the 17th century, many similar books were published that described in detail the methods of a number of magic tricks, including The Art of Conjuring and The Anatomy of Legerdemain: The Art of Juggling.
Until the 18th century, magic shows were a common source of entertainment at fairs, where itinerant performers would entertain the public with magic tricks, as well as the more traditional spectacles of sword swallowing and fire breathing. In the early 18th century, as belief in witchcraft was waning, the art became respectable and shows would be put on for rich private patrons. A notable figure in this transition was the English showman, Isaac Fawkes, who began to promote his act in advertisements from the 1720s – he claimed to have performed for King George II. One of Fawkes' advertisements described his routine in some detail: He takes an empty bag, lays it on the Table and turns it several times inside out commands 100 Eggs out of it and several showers of real Gold and silver the Bag beginning to swell several sorts of wild fowl run out of it upon the Table, he throws up a Pack of Cards, causes them to be living birds flying about the room. He causes living Beasts and other Creatures to appear upon the Table.
He blows the spots of the Cards off and on, changes them to any pictures. From 1756 to 1781, Jacob Philadelphia performed feats of magic, sometimes under the guise of scientific exhibitions, throughout Europe and in Russia. A founding figure of modern entertainment magic was Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin a clockmaker, who opened a magic theatre in Paris in 1845, he transformed his art from one performed at fairs to a performance that the public paid to see at the theatre. His
.jpg)
