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Magnates Jay Sarno
Jay Sarno (1922-1984) was a Las Vegas business entrepreneur
who owned some important hotels there. He was the creator
of the Caesars Palace hotel and the Circus Circus, and
many credit him with being the father of today's more
familiy-oriented Las Vegas. Ironically, although Sarno
seemed to believe that Las Vegas could survive with
less gamblers and more families visiting, he was himself
a gambler. His former wife, Joyce Sarno Kerry, once
declared that, during one day of gambling, Sarno won
100,000 dollars, only to leave the same night with a
debt of exactly that same amount.
Some also believe that Sarno was a
mafioso, and the FBI published files on Sarno.
Brief Biography
Jay Sarno was born in Missouri, during
the era of the Great Depression. His father was a cabinet
maker, his mother a homemaker. The Sarnos were a very
poor family, and young Jay wanted a better way of living
in the future. Because of his parent's efforts, he and
his six siblings could attend college; Jay graduated
from the University of Missouri, with a degree in business.
It was at the University of Missouri
that he met Stanley Mallin, who would become his life
long friend and business partner. He and Malley went
to World War II and fought at the South Pacific theater.
Sarno and Mallin settled in Miami, Florida, after returning
to the United States; there, they became tile contractors.
After that initial business venture failed, they moved
north, to Atlanta, Georgia, where they became house
builders. But Sarno and Malley's lack of a truck haunted
the pair during their second business venture together,
and, eventually, they gave up on building houses.
Sarno and Malley later on would meet
Jimmy Hoffa. The union leader liked Sarno and Malley's
willingness to become successful businessmen, and he
introduced Sarno and Malley to Allen Dorfman, who loaned
Sarno and his friend some money, allowing them to open
the Atlanta Cabana Motel in 1958.
After Sarno hired interior designer
Jo Harris, the Cabana motel became a successful business,
and soon, other motel locations were opened, in Palo
Alto, California, and Dallas, Texas.
The closeness of those two cities to
the gambling capital of the time, Las Vegas, brought
a temptation that Sarno was unable to resist. So he
took a short trip to Las Vegas, and found what he thought
was a plain city, with small hotel chains and not enough
casinos for gamblers to play in. The way he saw it,
he could make a hotel there that would appeal to gamblers
and make much more money than the Hilton Hotel located
there, which did not have a casino then.
The Caesars Palace era
Serno wanted a hotel whose name would
sound European, yet at the same time appeal to Americans,
and, in 1964, he, alongside Malley and Harris, began
to build the Caesars Palace Hotel. The idea was at first
met with skepticism, because many considered an European
style hotel in the middle of an American desert to be
a business failure in the making.
Harris, however, designed the hotel
in a way that each of its amenities had to be approached
by passing the hotel's casino first; this, in turn,
would lead to people getting tempted to try their luck
at the casino area, which made the hotel a profitable
business venture. The Caesars Palace hotel was inaugurated
in 1966; by 1969, Sarno and his business partners were
able to sell the property for the amount of 60 million
dollars.
Sarno and Mallin then opened what was
one of Las Vegas' first family oriented venues, the
Circus Circus. The attraction featured a circus tent
with daily acts, and Sarno would dress up as a ringmaster
and attend to families and children personally.
The Circus Circus was not an hotel
when Sarno and Malley opened it: instead, it was a casino
with, as its name implies, a circus. Sarno's idea was
that, while children could go and use their money having
fun at the circus' their parents, likewise, would use
the money at the casino. But soon, a Gas crisis began
in the United States, affecting tourism to Las Vegas,
and the casino did not do well under Sarno and Malley's
leadership, so Bill Pennington and Bill Bennett, a Del
Webb executive, leased the Circus Circus.
Mafia connection
Sarno was always suspected of being
involved with the mob in one of or the another, as aforementioned.
In 1979, Carl Thomas testified in court that he had
skimmed profit from the Circus Circus, to increase the
teamster's riches. Malley denied this, however, when
he testified. Malley did admit, however, that the teamsters
would occasionally lend the Circus Circus operation.
Another fact is that Tony Spilotro,
a mafia boss, owned a store at the Circus Circus. He
apparently introduced himself to Sarno as "Steward
Spilotro", leading Sarno to believe he had no mafia
ties. It is said that when Sarno learned of "Steward"s
real identity, he ordered Spilotro to close the store
and get out of the Circus Circus.
After retiring from the Circus Circus,
Sarno spent the rest of his time teaching would-be hotel
owners about how to manage that type of business, and
dreaming about a new hotel venture, which would have
been called the "Grandissimo". One of his
students was Steve Wynn, who would later on become the
owner of The Mirage hotel. Sarno could not complete
his dream of opening the "Grandissimo"; death
surprised him during the planning stages of what would
have been his third business venture in Las Vegas.
Family life
Sarno was married once, but he was
well known for his womanizing skills, which implies
that he may have had several relationships with other
women outside his marriage. In 1974, he and wife Joyce
Sarno Kerry divorced, but they remained on friendly
terms, often reuniting for family events.
Jay Sarno had four children: Jay Sarno
Jr, an engineering company owner, September, a former
Miss Nevada contestant who is now a stockbroker, Heidi
Sarno Strauss, a flower store owner, and Freddie Sarno,
also a stockbroker.
Jay Sarno knew how much his son Jay
Jr. loved the NASA Space program as a young boy; he
once took Jay Jr. to a NASA collectibles show and bid
ten thousand dollars on a patch used by Jack Swigert,
of the famed Apollo 13 mission. Asked by his son why
he would bid such a relatively large amount of money
on an item like that, Sarno showed some affection, answering
that he just wanted Jay Jr. to have it.
Jay Sarno later on grew frustrated
because his dream of building the "Grandissimo"
seemed impossible, and he was never able to overcome
his gambling addiction. He died of a heart attack precisely
at the same hotel he used to own, the Caesar's Palace,
while on a gambling stay at the hotel.
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