Q:
Have you ever had a question that you just could not find an answer? A few years ago, there was a small casino-restaurant at (and this may be why I can't find the answer) the southwest corner of Paradise and Flamingo (at least I think that was the location) that had a wreck of an airplane just outside the main entrance. The plane had a double tail. Can you tell me the name of this place? You may save what is left of my sanity. Thank you. P.S. They served big, cheap hamburgers.
A:
Yes, we've had questions we can’t answer – like this one! It must have been more than a few years ago, too, because several local experts drew a blank when we posed this question. The nearest we were able to pin it down was thanks to KVBC-TV News Director (and part-time Vegas historian) Robert Stoldal, who noted, "If you are counting on me, you will have to go insane.
"There were lots of small clubs-restaurants along that section of paradise," he recalls, "as well as running a few blocks east from Paradise on Flamingo and Tropicana: jazz clubs, small restaurants. As the strip grew, the Strip workers looked for nearby places to [relax] after work...and created a cottage industry along Paradise. There was a plane for a long time. It think it was called a guppy because of the odd shape of the plane. It would have been near the southwest corner of Paradise and Flamingo. The plan was all along to turn the plane into a restaurant but it never happened."
The Nevada State Museum's Dennis McBride thinks it might have been tied in with one of the two casinos at that corner: the then-Continental (now Terrible's) or the then-Ambassador (later the Key Largo and now just plain closed). He also notes that there's a brothel in Beatty – Angel's Ladies Brothel – which has a cracked-up Twin Beech sitting out front, having crash-landed nearby back in 1979, when the establishment was known as Fran's Star Ranch. 'I'm sure,' he adds, "they served great...meat."
That plane!
Update 26 October 2009
Lot's of feedback on today's, including photographic evidence kindly supplied by reader Adrian:
- "After reading your question of the day today, I have enclosed a picture of a Douglas C-124C Globemaster aircraft, circa 1950. I took this picture in the early '90s and I think it sat on the NW corner of Kovel and Tropicana."
- "There was a Guppy-like old airplane that was going to be turned into an eating establishment or something at the far south end of Koval and it was there until quite recently. Maybe it still is."
[Ed: No, we're pretty sure it's long gone.]
- "I'm pretty sure there was a plane crashing through the jungle in front of one of the restaurants at The Reserve (before it changed to Fiesta, of course)."
- "Back in 1995 or 1996 there was a plane that looked to be abandoned near that corner. I was told it was the plane that was going to be used in the filming of Conair. When they got around to implodiing The Sands, the plane went with it. Keep up the good work. I look forward to the QoD every day." [Ed: Thanks!]
- "The Reserve/Fiesta had/has an airplane outside its' 'island'-styled restaurant just off the casino floor. This could be his memory, twisted by time."
- "There was also a casino in Henderson, with an African type theme that had a twin-tail plane wreck inside. The plane was a Beechcraft Expediter (I know, I used to fly them) but can't remember one on Paradise, and we've being going to Vegas for more than 40 years."
- "I was born and raised here - family here sense 1850. I read your column with great interest. Maybe that "airplane" was Koval - south of Trop. There was a great eating place near there on corner (name escapes me for a minute) - or they may of been thinking of "The Trap" which was wonderful at one time..."
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