1950s Las Vegas Promotion

Small museum in McCarran about the history of aviation in Las Vegas. One feature was on the Hacienda from 1957 to 61 offering a flight from LA, night in a room, bottle of champagne, tote bag, and $5.00 in chips, all for $27.50. The chips can be cashed out at the cage immediately, so actual cost was really only $22.50 for flight, hotel, alcohol, and tchotchke. If I was in hotel management I would consider giving away cheap t-shirts with the property name and logo to every booked room. People always like getting something for "free" (even when they spend a lot of money on it) and it would be advertising.

First thought is that this was a truly awesome deal. The promotion ended because of a dispute with Civil Aeronautics Board because it created too much air traffic. Looking further into it, maybe not. Inflation calculator shows the cost as just under $200 in 2019 dollars. Round trip LA to Vegas flights are easy to find for as low as $85. Low end on The Strip (Luxor, Linq, et cetera) are also about $85 even after taxes as fees. Can get a bottle of wine anywhere for $10.

Anyone know of any other long-ago Las Vegas promotions?

Most interesting exhibit was the record for longest flight ever, 64 days: https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2008/march/pilot/endurance-test-circa-1958

In general, I've always wondered why businesses are so stingy about T-shirts. Even say some bar or restaurant.

You'd think they'd want as many walking billboards as possible. But you often see them selling shirts for $20+.

Cool subject though. I bet there was some crazy value to be had back then.

Not the 50’s but many of us remember Stupak and his offers like it was yesterday. As a much younger person growing up in PA, reading Parade in the Sunday paper, these seemed to good to be true.

https://swiped.co/file/vegasworld-offer/