The
MGM Grand Las Vegas is a
hotelA hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
casinoIn modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
located on the
Las Vegas StripThe Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...
in
Paradise, NevadaParadise is an unincorporated town in the Las Vegas metropolitan area in Clark County, Nevada, United States. The population was 223,167 at the 2010 census...
. The MGM Grand is the third largest hotel in the world and largest hotel resort complex in the United States in front of The Venetian. The MGM Grand was the largest hotel in the world when it opened in 1993.
Owned and operated by MGM Resorts International, the 30-floor main building is 293 ft (89.3 m) high. The property includes five outdoor pools, rivers, and waterfalls that cover 6.6 acres (2.7 ha), a 380000 sq ft (35,303.2 m²)
convention centerA convention center is a large building that is designed to hold a convention, where individuals and groups gather to promote and share common interests. Convention centers typically offer sufficient floor area to accommodate several thousand attendees...
, the MGM Grand Garden Arena, CBS Television City, and the Grand Spa. It also houses numerous shops and night clubs, 19 restaurants, and the largest
casinoIn modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...
in
Clark County-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 1,375,765 people, 512,253 households, and 339,693 families residing within the MSA. The racial makeup of the MSA was 71.6% White , 9.1% Black, 5.7% Asian, 0.8% American Indian and 12.8% of other or mixed race. 22.0% were Hispanic of any race...
, which occupies 171500 sq ft (15,932.9 m²).
Located on the
Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard intersectionThe Tropicana - Las Vegas Boulevard intersection on the Las Vegas Strip , is noteworthy for several reasons...
, pedestrians are not allowed to cross at street level. Instead, the MGM Grand is linked by overhead pedestrian bridges to its neighboring casinos: to the south across
Tropicana AvenueTropicana Avenue is a major east–west section line arterial in the Las Vegas area. The road is named after the Tropicana Resort & Casino which is located on the Las Vegas Boulevard where it intersects with Tropicana Avenue. Part of it is signed as Nevada State Route 593.-Route description:SR...
, the
TropicanaTropicana Las Vegas is located on the Las Vegas Strip, in the township of Paradise, Nevada. It is owned by Tropicana Las Vegas Hotel and Resort Inc. and operated by Alex Yemenidjian's Armenco Holdings. It offers 1,658 rooms and is attached to a casino...
, and to the west across the Strip, the
New York-New YorkNew York-New York Hotel & Casino is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip at 3790 Las Vegas Boulevard South, in Paradise, Nevada. It is owned and operated by MGM Resorts International.-Description:...
.
Marina Hotel
The
Marina Hotel, located at 3805 Las Vegas Boulevard, opened in 1975 as a 714-room hotel and casino. In 1989
Kirk KerkorianKerkor "Kirk" Kerkorian is an American businessman who is the president/CEO of Tracinda Corporation, his private holding company based in Beverly Hills, California. Kerkorian is known as one of the important figures in shaping Las Vegas and, with architect Martin Stern, Jr...
bought the Marina Hotel and the Tropicana Country Club to obtain the site that would become the home of the MGM Grand. During that time the Marina was known as the
MGM-Marina Hotel.
Ground was broken on October 7, 1991, for then new casino hotel complex. The Marina closed on November 30, 1991. The Marina hotel building still exists as the western end of the main hotel building.
History
On February 23, 1993, MGM celebrated a "topping off" ceremony with the placement of the last panel of emerald green glass hoisted onto one of the 30-story hotel towers. A total of 5,005 green balloons were released, each containing a gift certificate valid for one complimentary stay in one of the rooms.
When the latest MGM Grand opened on December 18, 1993, it was owned by
MGM Grand Inc.MGM Grand Inc. was formed by Kirk Kerkorian as a casino owner and operator.- History :On October 1, 1998 the company opened a temporary casino in Johannesburg, South Africa. It announced a plan to acquire Primadonna Resorts, Inc. on November 9, 1999...
At that time it had an extensive
Wizard of OzThe Wizard of Oz is a 1939 American musical fantasy film produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed primarily by Victor Fleming. Noel Langley, Florence Ryerson and Edgar Allan Woolf received credit for the screenplay, but there were uncredited contributions by others. The lyrics for the songs...
theme, including the green "
Emerald CityThe Emerald City is the fictional capital city of the Land of Oz in L. Frank Baum's Oz books, first described in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz...
" color of the building and the decorative use of
Wizard of Oz memorabilia. After entering the casino's main entrance, one would find themselves in the Oz Casino and facing the "Emerald City". Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion were seen in front of the city. The "Emerald City" attraction featured an elaborate yellow brick road walk through. Complete with a cornfield, an apple orchard, the haunted forest as well as audio-animatronic figures of the Scarecrow, Dorothy, the Wicked Witch of the West, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion. It would end at the door of the city, leading inside for a performance of "The Wizard's Secrets". When the MGM Grand began its extensive refurbishment in 1996, the Oz Casino was the first to go. The Emerald City was completely demolished, and the "Emerald City Gift Shop" was moved to a new shopping section of the casino. The store remained open until early 2003.
The MGM Grand was the home of the long-running production show
EFXEFX was a Las Vegas production show residing at the MGM Grand Hotel & Casino which opened on March 23, 1995 and closed January 1, 2003. When it premiered, it was the most expensive and largest scaled theatre installation in the world. A significant entertainment landmark of the strip for nearly 8...
from 1995 until 2002.
Originally, the main entrance on the Strip was inside the mouth of a giant cartoon-like version of MGM's mascot,
Leo the LionLeo the Lion is the mascot for the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and one of its predecessors, Goldwyn Pictures, featured in the studio's production logo, which was created by the Paramount Studios art director Lionel S. Reiss....
, but this entrance feature was changed to a more traditional entrance; many Chinese gamblers avoided the casino or entered through the back entrance, due to the feng shui belief that entering the mouth of the lion was "bad luck." In 1998, a large bronze statue of Leo was added above the entrance to keep with the MGM Lion theme, while not scaring away their more superstitious guests. The statue weighs 50 tons, and at 45 feet (13.7 m) tall, on a 25-foot pedestal, is the largest bronze statue in the U.S.
When the MGM Grand opened, the intention was to create the first true
destination hotelA destination hotel is a hotel whose location and amenities make the hotel itself a destination for tourists, rather than merely a convenient place to stay while traveling through or visiting the area for other reasons. Destination hotels are also called destination lodgings and sometimes...
in the Las Vegas area by including the
MGM Grand Adventures Theme ParkMGM Grand Adventures Theme Park was a theme park adjacent to the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. Opened in 1993, it closed to the public on September 4, 2000 after it showed a bad performance....
behind the casino. The plan was to make the Las Vegas Strip more family friendly by providing activities for children who were too young to be allowed to linger inside the casino. The theme park performed poorly, and did not reopen for the 2001 season. On December 5, 2002, MGM Mirage announced that the former theme park would be developed as a luxury
condominiumA condominium, or condo, is the form of housing tenure and other real property where a specified part of a piece of real estate is individually owned while use of and access to common facilities in the piece such as hallways, heating system, elevators, exterior areas is executed under legal rights...
and hotel complex called The Signature.
A monorail was built to connect the MGM Grand to
Bally'sBally's Las Vegas, formerly the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino, is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip. The Las Vegas resort is located within the unincorporated locale of Paradise, Nevada and is owned and operated by Caesars Entertainment Corp.. The hotel features 2,814 extra-sized...
in 1995. The coming out party for the monorail on behalf of Bally's consisted of showgirls and guys from Jubilee helping the groups to the monorail. Characters from the Wizard of Oz greeted the groups on the MGM side. The track was later updated to became the southernmost section of the
Las Vegas MonorailThe Las Vegas Monorail is a monorail mass transit system located on the Las Vegas Strip, in Clark County, Nevada, United States. It connects the unincorporated communities of Paradise and Winchester, and does not actually enter the City of Las Vegas. It is owned and operated by the Las Vegas...
. The station was refurbished, the trains were replaced with
BombardierBombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm, Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail-equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. Its headquarters are in Berlin, Germany....
M-VI's, and the track was extended beyond the southern station to provide for track switching for the trains as well as a starting point for a potential future southern extension to the monorail line.
In 2000, in an attempt to appeal to a more "mature" clientele, the hotel underwent a major renovation and almost all traces of the "Oz" theme were removed. The theme is now more of the
Art DecoArt deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
era of classic
HollywoodHollywood is a famous district in Los Angeles, California, United States situated west-northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Due to its fame and cultural identity as the historical center of movie studios and movie stars, the word Hollywood is often used as a metonym of American cinema...
and the hotel started billing itself as
The City of EntertainmentThe Entertainment Capital of the World is an advertising slogan first coined to refer to Los Angeles due to the presence of Hollywood, and the area's prominent radio, television, music, & movie production, as well as the abundance of tourist and amusement attractions in the region...
. More recently, the resort has used the phrase, "Maximum Vegas" referring to the vast amount of activities MGM Grand offers its guest.
On April 26, 2000, MGM opened a new satellite registration/hotel check-in center at the
McCarran International AirportMcCarran International Airport is the principal commercial airport serving Las Vegas and Clark County, Nevada, United States. The airport is located five miles south of the central business district of Las Vegas, in the unincorporated area of Paradise in Clark County. It covers an area of and...
. This is the first of its kind opened by a hotel company at any United States airport.
In 2005, MGM opened the "West Wing," a renovation of the original Marina Hotel rooms.
Film history
- The MGM Grand was featured prominently in the 1996 boxing comedy The Great White Hype
The Great White Hype is a 1996 film directed by Reginald Hudlin. It stars Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Berg, Damon Wayans, Jeff Goldblum, Jon Lovitz, Cheech Marin, John Rhys-Davies, Salli Richardson and Jamie Foxx....
.
- The MGM Grand was one of the casinos that Danny Ocean
Daniel "Danny" Ocean is a fictional character in the original Ocean's 11, its 2001 remake and the two films that followed the remake . The character was portrayed by Frank Sinatra in the original film, and by George Clooney in the remake trilogy...
and his crew robbed in the 2001 film Ocean's ElevenOcean's Eleven is a 2001 American comedy-crime caper and remake of the 1960 Rat Pack caper film of the same name. The 2001 film was directed by Steven Soderbergh and features an ensemble cast including George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Andy García, and Julia Roberts. The film was...
. A staged unification match between heavyweight champions Lennox LewisLennox Claudius Lewis, CM, CBE is a retired boxer and the most recent British undisputed world heavyweight champion. He holds dual British and Canadian citizenship...
and Wladimir KlitschkoWladimir Klitschko is a Ukrainian heavyweight boxer. Klitschko is the WBA , IBF, WBO Super, IBO & Ring Magazine Champion. His older brother Vitali Klitschko is the current WBC champion...
was prominently featured in the film.
- Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase
Cornelius Crane "Chevy" Chase is an American comedian, writer, and television and film actor, born into a prominent entertainment industry family. Chase worked a plethora of odd jobs before moving into comedy acting with National Lampoon...
) and his family play a game of KenoKeno is a lottery or bingo gambling game often played at modern casinos, and is also offered as a game in some state lotteries. A traditional live casino keno game uses a circular glass enclosure called a "bubble" containing 80 balls which determine the ball draw result. Each ball is imprinted...
in the final scenes of Vegas VacationVegas Vacation is a 1997 comedy film. It is the fourth film in the original Vacation film series centering around the fictitious Griswold family, following Vacation, European Vacation, and Christmas Vacation. Chevy Chase reprises his starring role as Clark W. Griswold, the patriarch of the family...
alongside a character played by Sid CaesarIsaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
. Keno is no longer offered at the casino.
- The MGM Grand's Wizard of Oz theme is referenced in the 1996 film Swingers
Swingers is a 1996 comedy-drama film about the lives of single, unemployed actors living on the 'eastside' of Hollywood, California during the 1990s swing revival...
as the friend of the waitress that Trent picks up works as "a Dorothy."
Media
A parody of the MGM Grand was featured in the BMX video game
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2Mat Hoffman Pro BMX 2 is the sequel to Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX. It was made available for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox.-Gameplay:...
.
Leo the Lion was replaced with dragons.
The MGM Grand was among many casinos the
MIT Blackjack TeamThe MIT Blackjack Team was a group of students and ex-students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, and other leading colleges who used card-counting techniques and more sophisticated strategies to beat casinos at blackjack worldwide...
gambled at in the book
Bringing Down The HouseBringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions is a book by Ben Mezrich about a group of MIT card counters commonly known as the MIT Blackjack Team. While represented as non-fiction by Mezrich and Free Press, the book contains significant fictional elements...
.
Signature attractions
- MGM Grand features a glass-sided lion habitat inside the casino area, in which up to six lions are shown every day. A see-through tunnel runs through the habitat for close-up viewing. The lions are owned by Keith Evans, a trainer of exotic animals, and do not live at the habitat, but at his ranch
A ranch is an area of landscape, including various structures, given primarily to the practice of ranching, the practice of raising grazing livestock such as cattle or sheep for meat or wool. The word most often applies to livestock-raising operations in the western United States and Canada, though...
12 miles (19.3 km) outside Las Vegas.
Shows
- The resort is home to Cirque du Soleil's
Cirque du Soleil , is a Canadian entertainment company, self-described as a "dramatic mix of circus arts and street entertainment." Based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul in 1984 by two former street performers, Guy...
production Kà-Language:* Ka * Ka * Georgian language, ISO 639-1 code ka* A glyph in the Brahmic family of scripts-Media and entertainment:* Ka * Kà, a Cirque du Soleil show* Mister Mosquito, a video game, known in Japan as Ka...
.
- Crazy Horse Paris, renamed from La Femme in 2007, a production which "celebrates the artistry of the nude" from the Crazy Horse
Le Crazy Horse Saloon or Le Crazy Horse de Paris is a Parisian cabaret known for its stage shows performed by nude female dancers and for the diverse range of magic and variety 'turns' between each nude show...
in ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, has its own theater at MGM Grand. All 13 balletBallet is a type of performance dance, that originated in the Italian Renaissance courts of the 15th century, and which was further developed in France and Russia as a concert dance form. The early portions preceded the invention of the proscenium stage and were presented in large chambers with...
-trained dancers in the show are members of the original Paris troupe.
- The Hollywood Theatre, home to America's first showing of Jerry Springer the Opera in 2007. It currently serves at the studio for Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza
Drew Carey's Improv-A-Ganza is an improvisational comedy television program that aired in the United States on the Game Show Network. The program was hosted by Drew Carey from CBS's The Price Is Right and former host of ABC's Whose Line Is It Anyway? and was produced at the Hollywood Theatre at the...
, which airs on GSN.
- From 1996 to 2000, professional wrestling event WCW Halloween Havoc was held at the Garden Arena.
- MGM Grand Garden Arena
Nightclubs and Pool Parties
- Studio 54 (Las Vegas)
Studio 54 opened in Las Vegas in December 1997 at the MGM Grand. Designed to be a replica of the original club, it has most of the original elements and equipment, including the "Man in the Moon" and the spoon - however the two are never displayed together....
, a re-creation of New York's Studio 54Studio 54 was a highly popular discotheque from 1977 until 1991, located at 254 West 54th Street in Manhattan, New York, USA. It was originally the Gallo Opera House, opening in 1927, after which it changed names several times, eventually becoming a CBS radio and television studio. In 1977 it...
nightclub.
- Tabu Ultra Lounge
- Vida!, a Latin-themed night club
- Wet Republic Pool Party, featuring eight pools and spa areas with the only salt water pools in Vegas, eight underwater speakers, six VIP bungalows, ten party cabanas, 18 day beds, 80 chaise lounges and a custom elevated DJ booth.
Restaurants
- Joël Robuchon
Joël Robuchon is a French chef and restaurateur. He was titled "Chef of the Century" by the guide Gault Millau in 1989 and also awarded the Meilleur Ouvrier de France in cuisine in 1976...
- L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon
- Emeril's New Orleans Fish House
- Nobhill by Michael Mina
- Craftsteak
- Wolfgang Puck
- Fiamma Trattoria
- Farmers Market Food Court
- Seablue
- Diego
- Grand Wok and Sushi Bar
- Stage Deli
- Shibuya
- Rainforest Cafe
Rainforest Cafe is a themed restaurant chain owned by Landry's Restaurants, Inc. of Houston, Texas. It was founded by entrepreneur Steven Schussler. The first location opened in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota on February 3, 1994. In 1997, the chain consisted of only six restaurants,...
- Studio Cafe
- Pearl
- Cabana Grill
- 'Wichcraft
Shopping
- Studio Walk
- Star Lane Shops
- Bernini
- Marshall Rousso
- The Watch Boutique
- Xclusiv
Hotel
The hotel rooms are located in several buildings including:
- The main hotel building, with 5,044 rooms (4,293 rooms and 751 suites) including the SKYLOFTS at MGM Grand with 51 loft
A loft can be an upper story or attic in a building, directly under the roof. Alternatively, a loft apartment refers to large adaptable open space, often converted for residential use from some other use, often light industrial...
s located on the top two floors of the hotel building.
- The three The Signature at MGM Grand towers each with 576 suites
A suite in a hotel or other public accommodation, denotes a class of luxury accommodations, the key feature of which is multiple rooms. Many properties have one or more "honeymoon suites", and sometimes the best accommodation is called the "presidential suite".Suites offer multiple rooms, with more...
(designed by Bergman Walls AssociatesJoel Bergman is an architect who has designed several landmark casinos.Bergman was born in Los Angeles. He graduated from the University of Southern California in 1965.-Stern and Associates:In 1968 he joined Martin Stern, Jr....
)
- The Mansion at MGM Grand with 29 villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
s
It is one of the three large hotels in Las Vegas that has a 13th floor.
SKYLOFTS at the MGM Grand
SKYLOFTS occupies the top two floors of the MGM Grand's main building. While it operates semi-independently of the main hotel, it effectively serves as the Grand's ultra-luxury penthouses. It is independent enough of the main hotel that the AAA
Five Diamond AwardThe AAA Five Diamond Award is the highest level of the AAA Diamond Ratings System for restaurants and lodgings administered by AAA ....
was bestowed exclusively on SKYLOFTS rather than on the MGM Grand as a whole. In 2009 the SKYLOFTS also received the coveted Forbes 5 Star Award which made it one of 44 hotels in North America to achieve such rating. SKYLOFTS also received the Forbes 5 star award again for the year 2010 which makes it one of 3 5 Star 5 Diamond resorts on the Las Vegas Strip. SKYLOFTS is also independently a member of
The Leading Small Hotels of the World. Amenities include a private elevator, a personal concierge and butler, a large entertainment system that extends throughout the loft, and a luxurious bathroom including a spa-like bathtub and a steam shower.
The Signature at MGM Grand
The Signature at MGM GrandThe Signature at MGM Grand is a condo-hotel built by a partnership between MGM Mirage and Turnberry Associates on the location of MGM Grand's closed theme park. It features three identical 38-story towers consisting of 576 fully furnished units each. Most of the condo units will be privately owned....
is a condo hotel project, at the MGM Grand, by MGM Mirage and
Turnberry AssociatesTurnberry Associates is an American real estate developer in residential, retail, hospitality and office. The company has developed more than $7 billion in commercial and residential property, including approximately of retail space, more than 7,000 condominium and condo-hotel residences, of...
teamed up to build the first three Signature at the MGM Grand towers which are now open. A maximum of five towers will be constructed on the site. The 38 story 475 feet (144.8 m) tall structures have 576 units each and were priced from $450,000 to more than $1.5 million. Signature is located on the property where the
MGM Grand Adventures Theme ParkMGM Grand Adventures Theme Park was a theme park adjacent to the MGM Grand hotel and casino in Paradise, Nevada, United States. Opened in 1993, it closed to the public on September 4, 2000 after it showed a bad performance....
once stood. Each tower will have access to MGM Grand pools included.
Show venues
- Crazy Horse Paris Theatre
- Hollywood Theatre
- Kà Theatre
- MGM Grand Garden Arena
External links