The Stardust opened in 1958 and was the first Las Vegas resort designed for the masses. The show at the Stardust was Lido de Paris, which was in the Stardust Showroom where they replicated the original Lido de Paris Showroom from France. Unlike many early hotels, the Stardust Showroom was integral to the initial construction of the casino. At 1600 rooms, The Stardust was the largest Hotel in the world at the time.

The Stardust was the first hotel to break with the star policy by debuting a stage spectacular as its main entertainment feature. The resort imported the Lido de Paris from France. It was acclaimed by critics as a more spectacular version than the Paris original.

Lido was conceived by Pierre-Louis Guerin and Rene Fraday, and staged by Donn Arden.

The Stardust showroom ( originally called the Continental Café ) was an almost identical copy of the Lido in paris and unlike many other Vegas showrooms at the time the Stardust had perhaps the most state of the art technical stage space in town with a fly tower, elevators, ice rink, rain curtain, water tank etc. Originally a 700 seat theater restaurant the Capacity grew later to just over 900 seats.

Lido opened july 2nd 1958 opened with the Lido Lido brought an air of class and sophistication to the otherwise brash Stardust The image of the French feather clad chorus girls morphed in to the Las Vegas showgirl. Many of the girls came from the UK ( via the show in Paris )

Donn Arden had choreographed shows at the Desert inn and at the Moulin Rouge nightclub in Hollywood and regularly made trips to Paris to choreograph for Lido ( and still goes strong today ) management of the in construction Stardust met with Lido director Pierre Louis-Guerin and with Donn Arden planned to bring a version of the show to Vegas. The room in Paris is to this day an almost identical twin of the now deceased room in the stardust . There where six hydraulic stages that could be lowered and raised, a 11 feet x 30 feet swimming pool a water fall, rain curtain and an ice rink that could be raised to stage level in 15 seconds, all this equipment remained intact and in full use in Headlights and Tailpipes the final production show to be mounted in the theater in 2006

The show was such a hit that some people rented rooms at the hotel and didn't bother to check in purely because being a hotel guest guaranteed first chance opportunity to buy tickets for the show.

There was a live orchestra in a raised perch to the left of the stage and 60 performers. Madame Bluebell was the matriarchal choreographer who with Arden oversaw auditions of the Blue Bell girls and would accept nothing other than girls at five feet nine inches tall. The Dancers wore pasties on their breasts until 1957 when full breasts where exposed.

There where many re invented versions of the show over the years The 3RD was the All New Lido De Paris revue in 1961. The 7th version of the show was 1967. There where 12 incarnations of the show in its run and each show changed every 18 months to 2 and a half years. The show changes where to keep the production fresh but where mostly to avoid import taxes on the scenery and costumes most of which came from Europe. Many costumes where destroyed ( burned in the desert witnessed by officials ) so that they did not have to be returned to Europe.

In the early 80's as popularity waned Siegfried and Roy where brought in and then Bobby Berosini ( Berosini had a fantastic and eventually controversial act involving performing Orangutans )

Lido closed 1991 ( after a 33 year run ) in the end the world famous image of the show girl was no loner an exotic European symbol of sophistication but a symbol of Las Vegas itself, even to this day the showgirl with her sequins, Rhine stones and feather headdress is the epitome of Las Vegas and that familiarity and the reduction of the air of mystique that had been there at the start of the Stardust was to add to the demise of the Lido show.

The Stardust was also famous for it's Lounge venue. The intention of a Lounge in Vegas was simple, the showroom would draw the crowd but a lively lounge with music playing as the audience left the showroom would likely keep them on property for many hours. The lounges went all night long from dusk till dawn and the clever use of a turntable stage allowed one band to be setting behind the curtain and revolve around to the front as the previous band finished their set.

The Kim sisters where a Korean sister act of singing glamorous multi instrumental. There was also a Polynesian show with Malani Kele and Juan Garcia Esquivel a famous Mexican band leader.

Other famous Stardust lounge acts where, Roberta Lynn, Dick Contino, Ray Eberle, Lou Styles, Big Tiny Little, The Vagabonds, The Surfers, and Billy Daniels,

1974 A BARE TOUCH OF VEGAS was a mini revue that played the lounge.

The Original Stardust lounge closed in 1975 and a new larger lounge in a different location on the casino floor opened in 1976 called the starlight theater lounge

The larger room also brought with it bigger star names Eartha Kitt, Fats Domino and Rip Taylor. Lee Greenwood was an unknown lounge singer having worked at the Desert Inn and later the Stardust, he is today famously known as the composer and singer of Americas most patriotic contemporary song God Bless the USA.

By the early 1990's Lido had become a little tired and very expensive to renew every couple of years. More than 11 million people have seen the Lido de Paris at the Stardust. The show was replaced with a more contemporary production called ENTER THE NIGHT.

Producer Ted Lorenz had pitched a show to the Stardust unlike any of the other proposals they had sat through. He had eliminated the classic production number, curtain act, production number format and created a 1990's MTV culture contemporary fast paced show. The show cost ten million dollars to mount but a hefty portion of those costs where spent on a totally new Lighting and sound package in the theater Bobby Berosini and his Orangutans remained in the new show for a while. Perhaps a more suitable star for the show was showgirl Aki. Now a Las Vegas Attorney named Akke Levin, the Dutch blonde bombshell was discovered by Company manager of Enter the night Terry Lovern. Aki became a pinup for the show with her image appearing on billboards, busses and even a jet plane. Aki was the star of the show form 1995 until 1999.

The show was a welcomed change to the show business offerings at the time but not for long. Just a few years later Cirque du Soleil opened at TI with its first permanent production, Mystere.

In the year 2000 Wayne Newton signed an exclusive deal to perform at the Stardust for 40 weeks per year. The showroom was re named The Wayne Newton theater and this was only the 3rd show in the history of the Stardust hotel. After Wayne Newton the Stardust had a brief headliner policy with Joan Rivers, Anne Margret, Don Rickles, Tim Conway and Harvey Korman, BB King, George Carlin, Bob Newhart even movie star Kevin Spacey performing as Bobby Darrin in 2004.

Havana Night Club had a short run in 2004 with a large cast of Cuban dancers

Headlights and Tailpipes, was a failed attempt by legendary Vegas producer Jeff Kutash at a Las Vegas comeback. Opening in 2004 at the Stardust . This Car / Girl themed show was the Last production show to play at the Stardust before its implosion and was an interesting concept that perhaps would have hit it big in the late 1980's The musical portions of the show where very contemporary and well produced but the format of the show with dance routines punctuated by variety acts was painfully dated. Perhaps the biggest hit of Headlights and Tailpipes where the innovative sets by British designer Andy Walmsley who garnered the few rave reviews for the show.

The very final show at the stardust was performed by Steve and Eydie who coincidentally also performed the last show in Ceasars famed Circus maximus showroom.

After the hotels implosion work began on a new mega resort Echelon which will house a 4000 seat theater and comparatively smaller 1500 seat theater

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.