LAS VEGAS, March 13 (UPI) -- The Stardust Hotel, once considered eye-catching and later an eyesore, crumbled in Las Vegas Tuesday to make way for a $4 billion, mixed-use complex.
The 2:30 a.m. implosion ended a yearlong farewell to the 48-year-old resort that was, in its heyday, considered the ultimate in style, The New York Times said.
Frank Sinatra and his Rat Pack frequented the hotel and illusionists Siegfried and Roy broke onto the Vegas scene there. Reputed organized crime activity inspiring the book and film "Casino" was based on the hotel.
Echelon, the new 5,300-room complex, is scheduled to be built by 2010 by Boyd Gaming Inc. Four grandsons of Boyd's chief executive, William Boyd, pushed the lever that began the series of dynamite explosions which leveled the structure.
"The Stardust was ... the most dazzling casino out there," said Nicholas Pileggi, who researched the exploits of Frank Rosenthal, the mobster who ran the Stardust, for his best-selling nonfiction book "Casino" and the fictionalized screenplay for the Robert DeNiro film of the same name. "But time moves on."
The oldest casino structure on the Strip now is part of a coffee shop at the Sahara that is 55 years old.
