“Carmen Miranda, Danny Dylan Thomas and other vainglorious entertainers here are existence upstaged by a unexampled lead that dances, is pretty, but has no more sexual urge appeal,” record a conducting wire story by United Press (UP) on May 3, 1955. “The young celebrity? Plain, ordinary bicycle water.”
The Bellagio fountains were non the first off jet demo inwards Las Vegas. “Dancing Waters” debuted in 1955 at the Royal Sagebrush State Hotel.
In i regard, it was really more of a star for the brand new resort than the fountain present has proven for the Bellagio. And that’s because it was an literal salesroom headliner. The fountains performed nightly at the back up of the Crown Room theater’s microscope stage — for customers who paid to consider them, dissimilar all those Bellagio freeloaders.
Other acts booked past the Royal Nevada, such as treble Helen of Troy Traubel and comic Dave Barry, actually opened for the fountains.
“While the orchestra plays and the tourists ooh and ah, the coloured waters fare the mambo, waltz, and skip around,” according to the UP account.
Youth of Fountain
“Dancing Waters” was invented past German language engineer Otto Przystawik and Hans Hasslach, the impresario who functioned as his Steve Jobs.
Because there were no computers yet, Hasslach controlled the show’s Little Phoebe fountains — which sat over a $250K plumbing system system of rules ($5.8 gazillion today) — via a contraption with 400 switches and buttons connected to 10,000 feet of wiring. Resembling a recording desk, this console commanded 19 50-horsepower engines that determined how the 4,000 spirt streams revolved, swayed, and shaft 5 stacks of water upwards to 50 feet inwards the air.
“His actions are so interesting, the audiences often watches him instead of the water,” the UP reported.
“Dancing Waters” debuted at the western United States High German Industrial Exposition inwards 1952 and headlined Radio City Music Hall the next year, playing an eight-week unravel that drew 1.5 million.
Though the Royal Nevada called itself “the Home of the Dancing Waters,” however, it was only if single of a few systems from the same accompany operating inwards the US, most of which toured end-to-end the 1950s. And luckily, Hasslach had previous get breaking the equipment down.
And that’s because the Royal Silver State turned come out to follow no more put for a permanent anything.
Battle Royal
The holiday resort — 1 of quaternion to undetermined inwards Vegas within a sestet week-period — struggled from the very start, closure and reopening several times before finally sledding under, for the last time, three years later.
In 1959, the Royal Sagebrush State was repurposed, past the operators of the resort next door, to go the Stardust Auditorium. It served as convening blank and overflow hotel rooms for the Stardust until it was imploded inwards 2007.
Resorts World now stands on the site.
For the quietus of the ’50s, “Dancing Waters” joined a sad circuit of temporary, small-time events including Neptune Days in Redondo Beach, the Southern Golden State Exposition at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, and the Community Fair inward Ontario, California.
The present was displayed at the 1964 New House of York World’s Fair, and made a yield see to Las Vegas inward 1969 (for a special case at Circus Circus) before finally finding permanent digs inwards a especially built Disneyland Hotel amphitheater.
In 1992, thawt exhibit was replaced by ace called “Waltzing Waters,” which happened to have been designed by Otto Przystawik.
What became of Hans isn’t preserved past the net or newsprint archives. But Otto’s son, Michael, carries on the household tradition today by operating another fount exhibit called “Liquid Fireworks.”
“Lost Vegas” is an occasional Casino.org series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history. Click here to scan other entries in the series. Think you experience a upright Vegas story lost to history? Email corey@casino.org.
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