The hotel is located next to the Las Vegas Convention Center and with its own 150,000 square foot convention center.
The hotel also houses Star Trek: The Experience and is a stop on the Las Vegas Monorail.
History
The land that the hotel sits upon, according to local Las Vegans, was owned by a woman descended from a family only known as Ashworth, though not much else is known other than the family moved to Texas in the 1970s.
The hotel, designed by architect Martin Stern, Jr.,[2] was built in 1969 by Kirk Kerkorian and opened as the International Hotel. When it opened, the International was the largest hotel in the world. Barbra Streisand was the opening-night performer, along with Peggy Lee performing afterwards in the hotel's lounge.
In 1969, right after Streisand's engagement, Elvis Presley performed for 58 consecutive sold out shows, breaking all Vegas attendance records, (130,157 paying, and ostensibly gambling customers in the period of one month), with stellar reviews coming from both critics, and the public. He broke his own attendance record in February 1970, and again in August of 1970, and August 1972. When playing Las Vegas, he lived in the penthouse suite, until his last performance there in December 1976.
Liberace headlined in the showroom during the 1970's drawing sold-out crowds twice per night. When he signed his contract at the Hilton in 1972 he earned $300,000 per week, a record amount for individual entertainers in Las Vegas.
The International Hotel was sold to Hilton Hotels Corporation in 1970 and renamed the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971. This hotel was sold by Hilton with the other Hilton casinos to form Park Place Entertainment.
The east tower was added in 1975 and the north tower was added in 1978.
On the night of February 11, 1981, just 90 days after the devastating MGM Grand fire, an arson fire started at the Las Vegas Hilton while it was ironically being retrofitted with modern fire safety equipment. Firefighters, using the knowledge they had learned from the MGM fire, used local television networks to notify people to stay in their rooms and not go out to the halls and stairwells. Because of the lessons learned, only eight people died in this fire compared with the 85 people who died in the MGM Grand fire. In 1982, Philip Cline was sentenced to 8 life sentences for his role in starting the fire[3].
The race and sports book was added in 1986 and at the time was the largest in Las Vegas.
In September 1991, the casino hosted the U.S. Navy's Tailhook Association annual meeting. During this gathering, widespread acts of sexual assault by Naval officers took place in the hotel. The Navy attempted a cover-up of the event, however the initial accusations stood up and fueled a large scandal receiving wide media attention. Responsibility included the entire chain of command, ultimately affecting the careers of over 300 pilots and 14 admirals, including Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Frank Kelso.
The hotel had what was the largest free standing sign made mostly of steel in front of the hotel on Paradise Road. The old sign was semi-circular in shape, and had three large steel posts close to each other forming a small circle, while three more posts on each side of the three main ones, this time more spaced out, formed the semi-circle, also holding up a concrete sign. The old sign, which had been built at a cost of $5 million, was blown down during a severe wind storm on July 18, 1994. A new, $9 million, free standing concrete Hilton sign was built in 1997 at the same location and is the largest free standing sign in the world.[4] The sign is narrow, and gets wider as it gets higher, forming a fan-type design at the top.
On September 18, 1995, the Vegas version of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express show opened. This involved a massive conversion of the theater, including pouring concrete ramps into the seating area. When the show closed, the theater was used to film The Oak Ridge Boys Live series for one of the county cable Networks before it was gutted and renovated.
In January 1998, Star Trek: The Experience opened. The casino added a space-themed casino, Space Quest, that serves as the gateway to the attraction.
In 1998, 2002 and 2005 Wheel of Fortune was taped on location at the Las Vegas Hilton Theater.
A Hilton Grand Vacations Company timeshare opened on the 59 acre site in 1999.
On March 18, 2004 a new "Borg Invasion 4-D" ride was added.
On June 18, 2004 the property was sold by Caesars Entertainment to Colony Capital for $280 million.
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