The MGM Grand’s giant sign seemed right next door no matter where we were on the Strip. I remember being completely overwhelmed at the size of everything. But it struck me when the Riv announcement came just how weirdly nostalgic I got for a classic Vegas that I barely got to experience. I spent the day at the zoo with my family.

There were no roulette wheels or blaring slot machines.

There was no international beauty pageant on this milestone birthday. So, last month’s closing of one of the last classics standing, the Riviera, sort of got me thinking about that trip back in 1996 – less than two decades ago, mind you – and how MUCH has changed in the short time since. With the exception of the Dunes (which had recently been demolished to make way for Wynn’s new project, Bellagio,) most of the resorts from Vegas’ Rat-Packy hey day of the ’50s and ’60s were still intermingled with what the movie, Swingers (which, incidentally, came out later in 1996,) lovingly described as “all that Pirates Of The Caribbean horseshit.” Yes, while much of the Strip was caught up in a race to be bigger and flashier, icons like The Desert Inn, Sahara, Sands, Riviera and Tropicana – though vastly different than their original forms in most cases – were still hanging around. In May of 1996, though, much of the old guard still stood.

The “family-friendly” era of the sleaziest city in America was in full swing. New York New York was still being built and the Stratosphere had just opened. Excalibur, the Luxor, Treasure Island and the new MGM Grand (and its giant Lego-Lion) were the new kids in town. Suddenly, everyone was scrambling to built new resorts (usually heavily themed) containing upwards of 3, 4 and 5,000 rooms and millions of square feet of casino and convention space. Steve Wynn had opened the Mirage on the site of the former Castaways in 1989 and it changed everything. In May of 1996, Las Vegas was in the throes of the rise of the mega-resort. 21st birthday – Caesar’s Palace (not pictured: 80 of the most beautiful women on the planet)

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