Dictionary Thesaurus Word Dynamo Quotes Reference Translator Spanish

Circus Circus Las Vegas

This article is about the Circus Circus hotel and casino in Las Vegas. There is also a Circus Circus in Reno, Nevada.

Circus Circus Las Vegas is a circus-themed 3,774 room hotel and casino located on the famed Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It is owned and operated by MGM Mirage. Circus Circus features free circus acts on a regular basis throughout the day. Circus Circus has the only RV park on the Strip providing additional accommodations in the 399 space park operated by Kampgrounds of America (KOA).

Circus Circus Las Vegas is the largest permanent big top in the world. The clown marquee at the entrance was provided by Young Electric Sign Company.

History

Circus Circus opened on October 18 1968 by Jay Sarno, becoming the flagship casino for Circus Circus Enterprises.

Major renovations in 1997 changed the hotel's theme from the standard American circus to a Québec's Cirque du Soleil-style circus, and added a new 35-story tower.

The hotel may be demolished and rebuilt. According to an MGM Mirage report, the Circus Circus site "does not make economic use of the 44 acres that it sits on, therefore, we feel that demolishing the current property and rebuilding it in a different fashion (while still keeping the Circus Circus name) will be in our best interest."

Film history

The hotel's famous midway was featured in the 1971 James Bond film Diamonds Are Forever.

In his journalistic novel of the early '70s, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Hunter S. Thompson wrote, "The Circus-Circus is what the whole hep world would be doing Saturday night if the Nazis had won the war. This is the sixth Reich. The ground floor is full of gambling tables, like all the other casinos . . . but the place is about four stories high, in the style of a circus tent, and all manner of strange County-Fair/Polish Carnival madness is going on up in this space." When the Thompson work was adapted to film in 1998, the fictional "Bazooko Circus" was a thinly-veiled stand-in for the world-famed resort, which had refused permission for the filmmakers to shoot on their property.

The Adventuredome (see below) and the Canyon Blaster roller coaster were featured in the 1999 movie Baby Geniuses. The theme park was known as Joyworld in the movie.

In Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery, Austin and Vanessa sneak into the Circus Circus.