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Why does the Wynn logo include a period?
One explanation comes from VitalVegas.com blogger Scott Roeben, who takes us back in time. “Steve Wynn was still stinging from having lost his baby, Bellagio, to MGM at the time,” Roeben recalls. “He added the period to sort of say, ‘If you thought Bellagio was great, just watch me. This is my master class in resort creation and this is the only place awesome enough to have my name on it. There’s never been anything like it and never will. Period.’ Except for Encore, of course. That didn’t get a period, because Wynn had already made his point. Literally.”
Longtime Vegas resident, reporter, and historian Steve Friess says he doesn't have a definitive answer, but as for "the best available version of the truth," he confirms Roeben’s account, writing, “Wynn once told me as much, explaining it was a subtle way of saying that this is the definition of his embodiment as a resort, the ultimate. As subtle, that is, as you can be on top of a 42-story building and so many bottles of water.”
Friess went on to comment about the diverse uses of punctuation in Strip history, whether proclamatory (Donn Arden’s Jubilee!), clarifying (Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular), as a signifier of inseparability (Siegfried & Roy), and/or as a indicator of inclusivity (Caesars Palace -- without the possessive apostrophe).
“Also meaningless — and a lot more irksome — was the ellipsis that followed the name of a certain Canadian songstress’ old production at the Colosseum, A New Day … . What was the point of those three dots, other than to confound those of us in the media who felt we had to write them every time we mentioned the show?”
Considering that Steve Wynn went on to build the punctuation-less Encore (not Encore!), Wynn Palace in Macao and Wynn Boston Harbor in Everett, Massachusetts, his definitive statement in resort-building always seemed just out of his grasp. If Wynn had ever built the perfect hotel, he would probably have had to blow it up, just so he could start over. And as for Encore Boston Harbor, how can there be an Encore to something to which Boston has seen no predecessors? It was, it seems, the most graceful way out of a mess.
Speaking of which, Wynn Resorts was the one party that wouldn’t go on the record for LVA. Given the light years they've been trying to put between themselves and their founder, we're neither surprised nor unsympathetic.