The first question actually answers the second: The Holiday Inn Las Vegas, smack dab in the middle of the center Strip for nearly 20 years at the time, adopted a Mississippi riverboat theme in 1990. It was 450 feet long and had an 80-foot-diameter paddlewheel and 85-foot-tall smokestacks, along with gangways, a crow's nest, and a pilot room. The architecture earned the hotel the nickname "Ship on the Strip" -- one of several "riverboat" casinos floating in a sea of Nevada sand.
Shortly thereafter in 1992, the name of the hotel-casino was changed to Harrah's, which answers the first question.
In 1997, Harrah's undertook a $150 million renovation of the property, adding a 35-story 700-room tower, new restaurants and retail shops, and an expanded casino. At that time, the riverboat theme was relegated to the dust bins of history. So footage of the Ship on the Strip still seen on TV and in film is now well over 10 years old.
