We aren't old enough to remember the beginning of Las Vegas, but we sure can recollect a time when the City of Lights was emerging as the Entertainment Capital of the World.

During our first trip to Las Vegas we attended (read crashed) the grand opening of Caesars Palace in August 1966. We were greeted at the casino entrance by a blond Cleopatra that resembled a blown up Barbie Doll with short hair.

It was a splendid affair with free champagne and lovely hosts in pointed hats and flowing gauzy costumes. The new 14 story Caesars Palace was the most elegant casino on the Strip, – by far.

Back then, it was mythic LV - Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr., Joey Bishop, and Peter Lawford were playing the Sands. Tickets to the famous Rat Pack performances were all but impossible to find unless you knew someone. We didn’t.

On the opening night at Caesars, we played roulette next to Bill Talman, who starred as Hamilton Burger, the laconic D.A. on the long running TV series Perry Mason. Did you know that the very clever Erle Stanley Gardner was having some fun when he picked the name for his famous D.A.? Think about it.. Hamilton Burger.. “Ham”-“Burger.” Oh, well.

We took the heading picture of the famous Silver Slipper the morning before the Caesars opening. You can't read the sign, but it says, “Breakfast 55 cents.”

A few years after that first visit, Howard Hughes, who owned the Frontier next door, purchased the Silver Slipper Casino for $5+million and stopped the famous revolving slipper by filling it with cement.

Legend has it that billionaire Hughes purchased the casino because the light reflecting from the rotating slipper bothered him in his penthouse at the Desert Inn which was just down the block.

Most of the names above are long gone, but not forgotten. Caesars lives on, but has been eclipsed by bigger and grander edifices. “Mob-land” has morphed into “Disneyland 2.”

Now, when we fly over Vegas and look down, we just smile because we can remember a far different city, long, long ago.

Viva Las Vegas!