Kenny Epstein sits in the Executive Boardroom of the El Cortez Hotel & Casino and is 80 years old. This place is a hamish place. ”History and energy in one word – and it fits. “There’s a Jewish term that describes a feeling,” says Epstein, the owner of the Downtown Institution. “It’s called
Kenny Epstein
The Yiddish term combines several concepts: warm, cozy, homely, unpretentious. Here, on the corner of Fremont and Sixth, it’s found in the clang clang clang of the payout hitting the shells of the coin slots, some of the only ones left in Las Vegas. It’s in the 24-hour prime rib special, the carpet with a tropical print, the unmistakable Spanish colonial architecture, Frank Sinatra’s Croon (“You Make Me Feel So Young”, natch) wafts through the loudspeakers.
“You just feel good to be here,” says Epstein. “That’s what we want to do with the El Cortez.”
The more times the times change, the more remains more or less the same in El Cortez. The plumbing and electrics have been upgraded, of course. Additions have increased the number of rooms sixfold, and these rooms have been renovated more than once to reflect modern tastes.
But on a larger scale, the playhouse has only changed hands four times, never in a corporate grip. And Epstein – 80 years old himself – has no plans to change the local character. It’s for locals, by locals.
The Cortez, 1947
He praises his colleagues in Vegas’ current era of sleek and stylish mega-resorts. He knows his predecessor and mentor, Vegas hospitality icon Jackie Gaughan, would be impressed with the renaissance of the Fremont Street resort, led by the likes of the Stevens brothers.
But the El Cortez, which is 80.
“We wouldn’t be special if all of Las Vegas stayed the same,” said Alex Epstein, Kenny’s daughter and executive vice president of El Cortez.
Alex says that consistent local ownership is reflected in the loyalty of employees. The civil engineer, for example, who knows the complex down to the smallest detail, has been with the company since 1979. And that means an emotional bond that, according to Epstein, would not develop under company ownership.
Gaughan’s penthouse apartment, where he lived until his death in 2014, could have been gutted and turned into an exclusive restaurant or hollowed out into a trendy rooftop bar. Instead, the owners kept it in its original 1980s state, awash with Mrs. Bertie Gaughan’s favorite shades of blush and gold. It can be booked on special request.
“When you have the sentimentality and appreciation for the story, it’s almost even more special to leave it as it was,” says Alex.
THE VETERAN
Alex Epstein has worked at the El Cortez all of her adult life. At 36, that’s still way below Liz Butler’s tenure.
Liz Butler
Butler remembers her first day at El Cortez – December 8, 1970. She was a girl exchanging money and carrying coin rolls in pouches around her waist. She later became a cashier and in 1974 a cocktail waitress. She is still serving drinks – eight hours a day, five days a week – at the age of 77.
At the end of a new shift, her tray, rubbed smooth and pale by countless cups and bottles, was strewn with margarita salt, a $ 1 slot machine tip, and a security badge. The security represented Butler, who has a keen eye for who should be ricocheted – like the free rider who sat at a machine but didn’t play, just sipped supplementary Southern Comfort.
Butler says she loves Gaughan. She likes to explain the man with the friendly smile that can be seen in so many black and white photos in the hallways. He was generous and nice, she says, and she asked him directly if she could become a waiter.
While she’s the casino’s longest-serving employee, Butler isn’t a supervisor – voluntarily. “I’m just a cocktail waitress like everyone else, only I know my way around better than most of the others,” she says.
THE REGULAR
Butler loved Gaughan. Lana Goedert loves butlers. She’s been around for almost as long.
Lana Goedert
Goedert, 67, moved her first slot arm here around 1977. She was a fresh college graduate who followed and stayed with her mother, who worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, on a temporary assignment in Las Vegas.
The women tried to go to two casinos every Friday evening. They started on the strip before drifting downtown. “And I liked this place,” says Goedert about El Cortez. “I liked it then and I like it now.”
Gaughan strolled across the casino floor with galvanized buckets of silver dollars to give customers a few bets on the house, she recalls during a break while playing a U1 multi-game console that once was, according to the stained-glass ceiling panel above her a poker room.
Goedert, a former school helper who now works on the shop windows of pawnbrokers, brings visitors here. She also visits other local pubs and enjoys the perks of loyalty clubs – lots of free small appliances, she notes – but the El Cortez is her favorite.
She enjoys the company of the casino residents. Goedert and managing director Adam Wiesberg talk about life. Kenny calls her “doll”. The page greets you with “Welcome home, Lana”.
Once, many summers ago, her air conditioner went off and she learned it would take days to fix. El Cortez gave her a room. When the citywide pandemic lockdown was lifted in June, she was there when she reopened her doors.
Goedert is here two or three days a week, playing money that she knows she can afford to lose and enjoys what she wins as a bonus. “I just come to chill,” she explains.
THE LONG DISTANCE
The El Cortez was pretty ostentatious from the start. The $ 245,000 that the founding partners spent building it is now nearly $ 5 million. It opened with 59 rooms; Today there are 364.
The Cortez, 2015
The pioneering gaming investor John Kell Houssels built the El Cortez together with the Californians John Grayson and Marion Hicks and debuted it on November 7, 1941 as the first major resort in downtown. After about four years they were selling to a gang of gangsters for a tidy profit. Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel wasn’t the sole owner, but as Siegel’s restaurant next to the arcade shows in 1941, he was the most photogenic.
After the El Cortez showed the proof of concept to make big bucks in the desert, the gangsters moved to the Strip and sold the El Cortez back to Houssels. In 1963 Houssels was sold to Jackie Gaughan.
Epstein met Gaughan when Epstein was only 15 years old on a 1956 family road trip from Chicago to the north shore of Lake Tahoe. Gaughan took him on a behind-the-scenes tour of one of his estates, the Tahoe Biltmore.
Kenny Epstein, a teenager, was impressed. His father Ike was wise. The elder Epstein told his son that Gaughan “was a daredevil, he’s smart and he’s on the pitch,” recalls Kenny, a straight shooter. He says Gaughan became like a second father to him.
In 1975 Gaughan Epstein – at that time a Baccarat dealer at Caesars Palace – sold a 5% stake in El Cortez. Epstein also worked with Gaughan and others at the Coast casinos, and when Boyd Gaming acquired the Coasts in 2004, Gaughan suggested Epstein use his stake to purchase the El Cortez.
The era of Ike Gaming – Epstein’s company named after his father – began in 2008, but the Jackie Gaughan era could never really end. Epstein says Gaughan had the enduring influence the Epsteins have built on to this day.
Next up: a freshening up of the original rooms – only accessible by stairs, the same creaky one that Bugsy once climbed.
The Dunes, Stardust, Riviera, Sands, Desert Inn. Everyone ascended to El Cortez. All are long gone.
“Fortunately,” says Kenny Epsteins, “not the El Cortez.”
El Cortez: A timeline
1941: The El Cortez opens
John Kell Houssels, John Grayson, and Marion Hicks are building the El Cortez Hotel-Casino for $ 245,000 ($ 4.8 million in today’s dollars). With 59 rooms, the El Cortez is the first major resort in Downtown Las Vegas.
Benjamin “Bugsy” seal
[1945:[1945:Bought from Bugsy
Houssels and his partners are selling the El Cortez on behalf of Meyer Lansky for $ 600,000 to a group of mob stars including Gus Greenbaum, Moe Sedway, David Berman and Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel.
1946: Bought back from Houssels
Houssels is acquiring back El Cortez and announcing expansion including a barber shop, nightclub, swimming pool, and four-story grand piano. Siegel and his crew move on to the flamingo. Siegel was murdered in 1947, probably due to mismanagement and skimming in the Flamingo.
1952: The new” The Cortez
The “new” Hotel El Cortez opens with a pirate theme … which only lasts until 1957. The distinctive turquoise and pink neon signs – the “gambling” arrow, the tent and the large roof signs – that still illuminate the old building have been installed.
Jackie Gaughan
1963:Bought from Gaughan
Jackie Gaughan buys El Cortez from Houssels for $ 4 million. That’s roughly $ 36 million in $ 2021.
1980: Tower built
Guest Tower II is built, increasing the number of rooms at El Cortez to 297.
2008: Bought from Epstein
Jackie Gaughan sells the property to his protégé and longtime friend Kenny Epstein, while continuing to live on-site in a penthouse suite until his death in 2014 at the age of 93. Epstein and his family and partners still own and manage the resort.
2009: Debut in cabana suites
The El Cortez Cabana Suites open in the former Ogden Hotel north of the original property and bring the number of rooms to 364.
2013: Officially historical
The El Cortez is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
A life is a beautiful mural
2013: Beautiful music
The Life Is Beautiful music and arts festival debuts on Fremont Street and is wrapping the El Cortez in its first year (subsequent editions work around the hotel).
2015: Siegel’s 1941 opens
Siegel’s 1941 replaces the classic El Cortez steakhouse and serves prime rib, stone crab, matzo ball soup and other fine dishes in a dining room full of pictures of the most notorious hotel owner. Ike’s Bar, named after Epstein’s father, also opens.
2015: Ellie is riding
British pop star Ellie Goulding is shooting the video for her song “On My Mind” in and around El Cortez. It shows a horse strolling past the valet onto the casino floor and hanging out in the beauty parlor.
Carpet remnants
2021: Renovations and high rollin ‘
El Cortez is continuing a two-year $ 25 million renovation that includes updated guest rooms and a lighter lobby, fresh carpeting on the gaming area, and a new high-limit room. Remnants of the old rose-printed carpet are for sale in the souvenir shop and sell out almost immediately.
2021: 80. turn
The El Cortez 80th Anniversary Celebration includes a speech by Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman, fireworks and complimentary champagne. The party starts at 9 p.m.
Click HERE to subscribe to the Weekly Fix, the digital edition of Las Vegas Weekly, for free! Stay up to date with the latest Las Vegas concerts, shows, restaurants, bars and more delivered straight to your inbox!
