Post #600001 by bigbrotiki on Sat, Jul 30, 2011 5:40 PM

Thanks Randy, I wasn't really serious when I called Wilbur Clark that, I was kinda assuming that my audience was aware of his name in Las Vegas history - and his mob ties. I was more aiming for a "Wow, they got them to put a bunch of casinos into a church window!" response :)

I judged the date the church was built by the date the outside mosaic has in its signature....but that could have taken a couple of years to finish!

Wilbur's wife probably made sure his name appeared, as a memorial to him:

"Toni Clark became emblematic of the glamour years of the early Las Vegas resorts with her attention to high fashion and her management of events for the wives of high rollers. In 1944, she came to Las Vegas with her husband Wilbur Clark who opened the Desert Inn Hotel and Casino in 1950. Over the years, Toni Clark became a fixture in Las Vegas society and an avid promoter of the Desert Inn specifically and Las Vegas in general."

The window seems to have been finished even later, after Wilbur's death, since the prominently featured Landmark Casino was not erected until 1969