After his company, Marnell Carrao Construction built many of the great buildings on the strip, entrepreneur Anthony Marnell decided to follow in the footsteps of another great builder, Del Webb and build his own joint.

In 1990 on a piece of land purchased years earlier from a defunct lumber company, and just a few years after the completion of the Flamingo overpass, Anthony Marnell built a Caribbean themed property to be called The Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino.

In keeping with the Caribbean theme the first performers were Sergio Mendes and Brazil 66 and also Henrietta Alves from New Orleans. In 1997 along with the addition of the Ipanema Tower they added a free show called Masquerade the Show in the Sky which featured carriages that floated around the casino, suspended from the ceiling. From this show grew the tradition of tossing beads to the crowd of onlookers at every performance.

In 1996 a talented performer named Danny Gans left his showroom at the Stratosphere to move into the Rio Showroom. His ticket price was $40 and he fought every attempt by management to raise those prices.

Danny Gans was followed by At the Copa with David Cassidy. Cassidy, produced his stage show accompanied by Scottish singer Sheena Easton. Copa was a dream sequenced show representing Cassidy's imagined career as a singing, dancing stage performer, a la Ricky Ricardo.

The Copa Room was then renamed The Scinta Showroom and for the next five years the talented family from Buffalo, New York called The Scintas played six nights a week to sold out crowds. The Scintas, having recently been lured away from the Las Vegas Hilton brought a new life, and a more mature clientele to The Rio as they wove their way into the audience's hearts by doing a combination vaudeville, Rat Pack, impression based show which bough standing ovations at each and every performance.

When The Scintas left the Rio, the showroom sat vacant for some time as the Rio Management searched for just the right performer to follow. That is when the artist known again as Prince took up residence at The Rio performing Friday and Saturday nights, with special guests appearing during the week. In an effort to update the appeal of the Rio, Prince even opened his own gourmet restaurant upstairs. The show as well as the restaurant were named Club 3121, after his 2005 album.

Tucked away in the convention area of the Rio, the magical duo Penn and Teller set up shop in The Samba Theater. The beautiful 1200 seat theater became the perfect arena for the wacky and off beat antics of the self mutilating performance artists. While professing that there is NO GOD, Penn proceeds to cut into his arm and neck, squirting fake blood all over the stage.

A purpose built tent structure pitched a home at the Rio to house Argentinian alternative theater company De La Guarda, the production did not last too long and the space was latterly used for the less appropriate Tony and Tina's wedding dinner show prior to its eventual move to the Planet Hollywood casino.

The world famous Chippendales moved in to a specially built theater in 2001 and have been entertaining Bachelorette parties ever since.

If you have any information about the history of entertainment at this property please do contact us, we aim to update this section of the site as frequently as possible so that we can ensure as accurate as possible correct historic information.