The Silver Slipper opened on September 1, 1950, just north of the Frontier, and its calling card was the giant neon slipper on top. The slipper rotated above the main sign, and the casino wasn’t shy about trouble. In 1964, it was shut down for cheating, accused of using “flat dice” that made a key craps number harder to roll.
Then came Howard Hughes. He took over the casino in 1968, and a legend followed: that he bought the place because the spinning slipper kept him awake in his Desert Inn penthouse. It’s a great story, but the Neon Museum says that part isn’t accurate, and one account calls the Silver Slipper just another stop in Hughes’s casino-buying spree. Whatever the real reason, in 1970 the Silver Slipper became the first casino on the Strip to hire female table dealers.
The end came in the late 1980s. The casino closed on November 28, 1988, and was demolished to make room for a New Frontier parking lot. The slipper itself survived. It was donated to the Neon Museum’s “Boneyard” of defunct Vegas signs and restored to its original silver, gold, and blue. The shoe is back, and so is this chip.
The Silver Slipper opened on September 1, 1950, just north of the Frontier, and its calling card was the giant neon slipper on top. The slipper rotated above the main sign, and the casino wasn’t shy about trouble. In 1964, it was shut down for cheating, accused of using “flat dice” that made a key craps number harder to roll.
Then came Howard Hughes. He took over the casino in 1968, and a legend followed: that he bought the place because the spinning slipper kept him awake in his Desert Inn penthouse. It’s a great story, but the Neon Museum says that part isn’t accurate, and one account calls the Silver Slipper just another stop in Hughes’s casino-buying spree. Whatever the real reason, in 1970 the Silver Slipper became the first casino on the Strip to hire female table dealers.
The end came in the late 1980s. The casino closed on November 28, 1988, and was demolished to make room for a New Frontier parking lot. The slipper itself survived. It was donated to the Neon Museum’s “Boneyard” of defunct Vegas signs and restored to its original silver, gold, and blue. The shoe is back, and so is this chip.
