Las Vegas Myth Revisited: Howard Hughes Bought Silver Slippers Just to Cover Up His Logo
Editor's Note: Vegas Mythbusters releases new entries every Monday, with a bonus Friday flashback edition. Today’s entry in our ongoing series originally appeared on May 1, 2023.
This is our second Howard Hughes myth, and there's still a lot to break. The world-famous airline and movie tycoon is said to have begun his famous casino-hotel acquisition spree in Las Vegas, in part freeing the Strip from the stranglehold of Mafia ownership and opening the door to corporate ownership. Times have paved the way, and it's all thanks to the giant shoes on the Las Vegas Strip. Las Vegas Silver Plate Slippers.
The 12-foot-tall, 17-foot-wide swivel pump was designed by former Disney animator Jack Larsen Sr., who worked at the YESCO sign company and also designed the pop art lamp for Aladdin. Larson's "silver slipper" logo was modeled after one of his wife's high heels, with 900 light bulbs on the shoe and 80 on the bow. It was installed in late 1954 or early 1955 and remained in use until the resort closed in November 1988.
It is said that Hughes had been wearing the pair of shoes located directly across from the Desert Inn since he arrived in Las Vegas the day before Thanksgiving in 1966. The color was so bright that Hughes could not sleep at night.
The Silver Shoes refused Hughes' request to darken the shoes, so the story goes, so he bought the Casino Hotel and darkened it himself. That gave the eccentric billionaire a taste of what it was like to acquire Las Vegas hotels, and he bought many others.
This myth appears in books such as The Strip: Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream (2022) and When the Gang Runs in Vegas: A Story of Money, Mayhem, and Murder (2005) , as well as such well-known publications as the Los Angeles Times.
As is often the case with urban myths, there are other variations. In the current version of the Wikipedia entry for the Silver Shoe, Hughes suggests that the tip of the shoe "may have been a photographer taking a picture of it." According to records, after multiple attempts to get the flip flops shut down, Hughes "bought the casino, turned off the lights, and removed the spin system."
Both stories are bullshit - total bullshit,' Paul Winn, Hughes' corporate records director from 1957 until his death in 1976, said: "I don't Know where they get these things from. "
Of course, as was usual with Hughes, fact is as strange as fiction. We'll discuss this later.
Four main questions about this story
According to Winn and all other accounts of Hughes' penthouse suite at the Desert Inn, he kept the curtains drawn.
1.No casino sign lights or photographer’s lenses can penetrate them. Hughes, who was undoubtedly suffering from severe mental illness at this time, required that the curtains (and windows) be closed to protect him from the contamination, sunlight and germs, nuclear radiation and prying eyes. According to Winn, Hughes tried to get President Lyndon Johnson to stop the tests, but even he wasn't strong enough. 2.The date is incorrect. Hughes's shopping spree began in March 1967. It was not until April 30, 1968 that he purchased the silver shoes. 3.Frontier's shield is bigger and brighter than Silver Shoes' shield, so it will annoy Hughes even more. 4.We know where this myth came from - Erroneous report by the Las Vegas Review-Journal that was later retracted.
Gossip and Rumors
Well, it's "sort of" withdrawn.
On April 21, 1967, R-J gossip columnist Earl Wilson wrote: "Employees told (Hughes) they asked for the silver shoes to dim the lights. They refused. His emissary said he instructed them to negotiate for the purchase of the slippers. , so it won’t disturb his sleep anymore.”
Almost exactly a year later, when Hughes' deal to purchase the Silver Shoes was finalized, Wilson issued what reporters called a "non-corrective correction," in which he refuted his previous false claims without actually admitting that he was the Founder of Message. (There was no internet to catch him back then.)
He didn’t close the door or turn off the lights,” Wilson wrote on April 17, 1968, of Hughes’ impending acquisition of the Silver Shoes. “Maybe they’ll even shine brighter than before. "
Wilson's follow-up reports proved too vague for most readers to even connect to the original reports they still remembered.
In the end what happened
The Desert Inn rented the entire top and bottom floors to Hughes and his staff for 10 days. Checkout time came and went, but Hughes didn't move. DI co-owners Moe Dalitz and Ruby Kolod were horrified. They've promised high rollers a suite on New Year's Eve.
Hughes' top aide, Robert Mathew, asked Teamsters union president Jimmy Hoffa to intervene on Hughes' behalf, but that only bought him a few weeks. Maheu then suggested to his boss that buying DI was the only solution. Thus began Hughes' famous spending spree.
"Hughes never intended to buy a hotel — he just wanted a place to sleep," Mathew told PBS in 2005.
As mentioned, the facts are often as strange as Hughes' fiction.
On March 27, 1967, Hughes and Dalitz agreed on a price: $13.2 million, far more than DI was worth. Hughes later purchased the Sands for $14.6 million, Frontier for $23 million, El Rancho Vegas for $7.5 million, The Castaways for $3 million, the unfinished Landmark for $17 million, and Silver Slipper was purchased for $5.4 million.
"He bought the Silver Shoe because it was available, no other reason," Winn told "I know. My name is on the gambling license because I'm an official." When asked if he knew why the slipper logo eventually stopped spinning, Winn responded: "My guess is that the rotating mechanism broke and probably no one wanted to fix it."
Current Story
In 1988, the Silver Shoes were sold to hotelier Margaret Elardi for $70 million. She tore it down and turned it into a parking lot for the border, which she also owned. Fortunately, the slipper and its shield were recovered and taken to the YESCO Cemetery, where they later became part of the Neon Museum's collection.
In another variation on the myth, Hughes ordered concrete poured into the rotating mechanism to clog it. According to the Neon Museum, no concrete was found in the installation when the sign was acquired.
In 2009, the museum restored the sign and installed it along the median of Las Vegas Boulevard North along with other vintage Las Vegas neon signs, where it still sparkles today.
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Source: www.casino.org
