VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Fire Just Claimed a Rat Pack, Marilyn & Elvis Hangout

Posted on: September 16, 2024, 08:02h. 

Last updated on: September 16, 2024, 09:39h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.

When the remnants of the old Paradise Spa Apartments burned to the ground in a noninjury fire on September 1, the complex was described as a hangout for the most famous celebrities of the past 100 years. And this is the first time we’ve ever gotten to nip a Vegas myth in the bud only a week after the public became aware of it.

Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, and Sammy Davis Jr. perform at the Copa Room at the Sands in February 1963. (Image: UNLV Special Collections)

“Marilyn Monroe did photo shoots here,” Paradise Spa HOA president Dennis Sapp told KLAS-TV/Las Vegas after the fire. “Elvis Presley used to run through here, the Rat Pack used to run here. It was the place to be.”

Opened at 9457 South Las Vegas Blvd. in May 1965, Paradise Spa was a community of 384 moderately priced townhomes on the southernmost edge of Las Vegas. It was built on 40 acres by brothers Carol and Chuck Heers, who later developed the Vacation Village casino hotel.

The Paradise Spa, left, and the community and amenities surrounding it are pictured in its initial marketing materials. Before it was built, the area was undeveloped desert dotted with mineral springs. (Image: historiclasvegasproject.com)

Paradise Spa’s centerpiece was the health spa from which the community took its name. Open to the paying public as well as to residents, it served as a magnet for health-minded Vegas visitors. It used a natural hot-water well to fill two spas (indoor and outdoor), an Olympic-size swimming pool, two Jacuzzis, and a man-made lake with fountains.

The first mention of Paradise Spa in the national media was this Sept. 26, 1965, LA Times ad targeting homebuyers, which called it “the only adult community to be built around a healthful hot springs bath and spa.” (Image: Newspapers.com)

Come Lie With Me

For celebrities as famous as the Rat Pack — a category, which by the way, consisted of none at the time — there was no need to venture nearly seven miles south of the heart of the Strip for an amenity that was provided free to them at the hotels where they played and stayed.

The Sands had its own world-class wellness spa, as did the Desert Inn, Flamingo, and Tropicana.

And when they just needed a break from the Strip, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Sammy Davis Jr. all owned their own Las Vegas homes.

As for Elvis, the Paradise Spa opened two years too late to coincide with his 1963 visit to film “Viva Las Vegas” with Ann-Margret. And, with all due respect for his immense talent and kindness, accusing the King of Rock n’ Roll of health-mindedness during his subsequent visits is bonkers.

This was Elvis a couple of months after his final Las Vegas performance. (Image: elvispresleyphotos.com)

While performing his 1969-1976 residency at the International/Las Vegas Hilton, Presley rarely left his 30th-floor penthouse, to which he regularly ordered Dilaudid, a dangerous pain reliever usually reserved for end-stage cancer patients. It had first been prescribed to him for back pain in 1967.

The pharmacy at the Landmark Hotel walked it across the street to his suite, along with ridiculous quantities of Valium, according to accounts from multiple Memphis Mafia members.

Also, in case Elvis ever did want to soak his bad back, the International had its own health spa, too, which could easily have been closed to the public to accommodate him with privacy for an hour or two.

Indeed, a search of all the issues of the 27K newspapers archived by Newspapers.com turned up not a single sighting of Presley, or a Rat Pack member, at Paradise Spa.

And if a celebrity connection that big were to have been namedropped anywhere, this thoroughly researched story about the community — published by the Las Vegas Sun in 1996 — would certainly have been the place.

Couldn’t it Have Been Kept a Secret?

Sure, it’s possible. Celebrities don’t like when their favorite spots exploit their patronage for publicity. And, this indeed may explain why no photos are known to exist of the Rat Pack, Elvis, or Marilyn Monroe ever dining in the booths that now bear their names at the Golden Steer Steakhouse.

Over the years, the indoor and outdoor spas at Paradise Spa closed, the Olympic-sized pool vanished, the man-made lake was drained, and the spa’s lounge had been leased out to a Jackpot Jackson’s video poker joint. This is how the spa building appeared shortly before its 2006 demolition. (Image: Flickr/Roadside Pictures)

But unfortunately, claiming a Rat Pack, Elvis, and/or Marilyn connection has become the Las Vegas equivalent of “George Washington slept here.” Most of the time, it’s a false claim that got inserted into information passed down through the decades like in a game of telephone.

By the mid-2000s, many of the original Paradise Spa townhomes were demolished and most of the remaining ones were consolidated into a 24-unit apartment complex off West Richmar Avenue near its intersection with South Las Vegas Boulevard. This photo shows that complex burning to the ground on Sept. 1, 2024, eight years after most of the former townhomes were abandoned following another fire. (Image: Facebook/@LasVegasParentZone)

Sometimes, it was an honest mistake or it just made a tired old story more intriguing. Too frequently, however, it was a lie manufactured to increase a business’ bottom line with no perceived downside.

We already busted the Golden Steer for embellishing its Rat Pack cred by claiming to have opened in 1958. (The steakhouse didn’t exist until 1962.)

So what’s more likely? The most famous celebrities of the 20th century hung out someplace without a word being written about it until two weeks ago or that real estate agents were willing to be less than honest in hopes of jacking their sales commissions on Paradise Spa townhomes?

And speaking of poor Marilyn, the reason she couldn’t have posed for multiple photo shoots, or even one, at Paradise Spa is quite a grim but solid one.

She died three years before it opened.

Look for “Vegas Myths Busted” every Monday on Casino.org. To read previously busted Vegas myths, visit VegasMythsBusted.com. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.