It appears to have been a serendipitous coincidence. What opened as the Royal Inn in 1970 subsequently became the Royal Americana, the Paddlewheel, the Debbie Reynolds Hollywood Hotel (its most famous incarnation), the Greek Isles, and finally a Clarion Hotel … the only Clarion to offer gambling – a slot route was among the hotel’s amenities. It was put out of its 45 years of suffering last Feb. 10 with a middle-of-the-night implosion.
The Royal Resort (variously a.k.a. the Royal House and the Royal Hotel & Casino) differentiates itself from the herd of Las Vegas hotels by emphasizing its "non-gaming atmosphere" and lack of resort fees, and received a substantial makeover to the interior earlier on this decade. It's the starting/drop-off point for the Haunted Vegas and Vegas Mob Tours, too.
Unfortunately, we can’t tell you precisely when it was built, having been thoroughly and repeatedly stonewalled for weeks by both ownership and management, and having failed to locate the property via the Clark County Assessor's Office's online tools. Its architecture appears to be of 1970s vintage and the property apparently operated as a timeshare at one juncture ("Royal Vacation Suites"). Its revamped restaurant, The Barrymore, which debuted back in 2011, has been cited by USA Today (among many others) as one of the best in Vegas and cocktail hour there is a treat not to be missed – ditto the restaurant’s cinema-inspired décor. (We note that this venue doesn't even reference the hotel that houses it, describing its address -- on its own entirely independent website -- simply as 99 Convention Center Drive.)
The Royal Nevada, meanwhile, was subsumed into the (since demolished) Stardust some 55 years ago. It had an extremely checkered history, always operating in the shadow of some other, more famous casino. Its main claim to fame now is that it was designed by the noted African-American architect Paul Revere Williams (of La Concha and Moulin Rouge fame). Its original owner, Frank Fishman, was bought out before the hotel even opened (under the nominal ownership of Roberta May Simon).
But the Royal Nevada had the misfortune to open the same week as the Riviera, in April 1955. Since the latter was a high-rise, the Royal Nevada had the figurative and almost literal misfortune to fall in its shadow. On Jan. 1, 1956, it had to shut down, unable to pay its employees or its licensing fee. It remained closed until March, then saw an ownership change over the summer. Nothing seemed to work.
The Royal Nevada went belly-up for the last time in 1958 and subsequently was used as the studio for a CBS-TV broadcast ostensibly originating from the Sahara (which didn’t want the disruption). You can see some of the Royal Nevada’s signage in Las Vegas’ Neon Museum, just north of downtown.
