Often credited as “the man who invented Las Vegas,” mobster Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel opened the Flamingo Hotel & Casino in 1946. His hotel had a cosmopolitan style that would come to redefine the city, but nearly all of that took place after his violent death in 1947. This history is commemorated in the Bugsy Siegel Memorial that resides in a garden area of the modern Flamingo Las Vegas in Las Vegas, Nevada, highlighting what it can mean for history to define an identity for a space, city and era.
Defining the Las Vegas Strip
Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel was American mobster who helped define the development of the Las Vegas Strip, although he didn’t come up with that concept. He handled and financed some of the original casinos in Las Vegas, including the original Flamingo Hotel, which he took over and managed to completion. Shot and killed in Beverly Hills by an unknown assailant in 1947, he would never see the vision for the city that he cultivated be truly realized.
The Bugsy Siegel Memorial commemorates the site where his original Flamingo Hotel stood from 1946 until 1993. Containing 77 rooms, it featured the famous “Bugsy Suite,” with windowpanels that were bulletproof and multiple possible exits. The plaque also mentions the manner and location of Siegal’s death, as well as the multiple ownership changes to the Flamingo.
Erected in 2010, the simple stone pillar sits in front of the flamingo habitat and waterfalls, across the lawn from the Garden Chapel. The memorial has helped to define this habitat which contains wildlife, various other monuments and the chapel where events and weddings take place on regular basis.
Mentioned as the only place in Las Vegas that formally acknowledges how the mob was involved in creating it, the Bugsy Siegel Memorial is connected to the past and present of the space and city in a way that cultivates the attention of audiences for various reasons.
A Legacy That Creates Engagement
By commemorating Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel and the history he represents to the site and all of Las Vegas, the Bugsy Siegel Memorial showcases what it can mean to see the legacy of a person and era define a space in a way that creates engagement in the present and future.
