Look back: How Steve Wynn bought The Mirage name from 2 local businesses

The Mirage casino-hotel will soon be a distant memory, swept away by the very same desert winds that swirled around the iconic Strip property for more than three decades. But as Las Vegas says goodbye to The Mirage — and prepares to welcome Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Las Vegas and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas in 2027 — there are those who wish to revel a little while longer about the “Oasis in the Desert” before it completely fades away.

One such person is Elayne Rosoff, whose family owned a modest roadside motel for several decades that will forever be linked to the now-shuttered megaresort.

A Las Vegas native who graduated from Las Vegas High School in 1958, Rosoff has fond memories of what the city used to be before multibillion-dollar corporations changed its identity.

“Las Vegas was really a small town, and you were likely to run into someone you knew when you went anywhere in town,” she said. In the late-1950s and early-’60s, locals would cruise Las Vegas Boulevard for fun and, as Rosoff put it, part of “the excitement was over who you would see cruising on the other side.”

Among the things people may see along The Strip in those days was the Rosoff family business, the Mirage Motel.

So how is a small desert lodge linked to a legendary Las Vegas casino? The Rosoff family received a quarter-million dollars from casino mogul Steve Wynn in the late-’80s as part of his master plan in creating The Mirage. The Mirage Motel is not to be confused with the La Mirage Hotel & Casino, another former Las Vegas property that also plays a part in this story.

‘A lot of nostalgia’

Rosoff, an 83-year-old Los Angeles-based psychologist, said the motel played a small — but significant — role in one of the city’s most intriguing tales.

“It’s a lot of nostalgia from having grown up there,” Rosoff said.

Her parents, Betty and Robert Rosoff, bought the 46-room Mirage Motel, which was on the south side of Las Vegas Boulevard just north of what is now Russell Road, in 1953, according to news archives.

In 1955, her uncle designed and built the Mirage Motel’s famous above-ground swimming pool.

“It was pretty outstanding,” Rosoff said of the pool. “It had windows in it (and) people could see it from the highway.”

The seven port holes in the pool were, indeed, a unique addition, especially for that time period. It became part of the Mirage Motel’s appeal and attracted plenty of business.

The Mirage Motel and its pool eventually became part of popular culture, appearing in movies, television shows, music videos and photo shoots for international magazines. Among its cameos, the Mirage Motel (and its later iteration, the Glass Pool Inn) appeared on screen in “Leaving Las Vegas,” “Casino” and “Indecent Proposal,” in addition to serving as a background in shows such as “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” and “Vega$.” Rock and Roll Hall of Famers ZZ Top shot scenes for the music video to “Viva Las Vegas” inside the pool.

But it’s the name that will live on.

In 1988, Wynn paid the owners of the Mirage Motel and the La Mirage Hotel & Casino a reported $250,000 each for the rights to the names of their businesses.

The two existing properties had been engaged in a bitter legal dispute over the name, with the Rosoffs contending the newer La Mirage was costing the Mirage Motel business.

The La Mirage was owned by businessman Robert Mayer who purchased the 335-room Ambassador Inn Casino (not to be confused with the Ambassador East Motel on Fremont Street) out of bankruptcy in the early-’80s. Mayer left day-to-day hotel operations of the resort to the Robones, a local family who managed several commercial properties in Las Vegas, such as The Continental casino-hotel, which was directly across the street. Mayer leased the casino to the Robones.

Tony Robone, 68, was a minority owner of the casino and its general manager. He recalls conversations his family, including his father Nicholas and mother Mary, had with Mayer about changing the name since the Ambassador had a somewhat “negative connotation.”

“We suggested changing the name, and (Mayer) didn’t really care since he had other things going on in California,” Robone said. “So, my mother came up with the name ‘La Mirage’ thinking it sounded good.”

In 1985, Mayer filed the name with the state and the property officially opened as the La Mirage in January 1986.

In 1987, the Rosoffs filed a lawsuit against Mayer and the La Mirage.

‘My father didn’t believe it was really him’

The legal process did not move quickly, and both the Mirage Motel and the La Mirage Hotel & Casino continued using their respective names during the proceedings. That was until Wynn came calling around 1988.

“My father got a call from a guy who said he was Steve Wynn and wanted to come talk to him. (My father) didn’t believe it was really him,” Robone said.

Sure enough, it was Wynn who showed up at the La Mirage and made the casino-hotel operation an offer. As Robone tells it, Wynn was dead set on a number that the Mirage Motel and the La Mirage would either have to accept or fight him in court.

“He said ‘I’m putting $600,000 into the pot. However you guys split it up is up to you because that’s all I’m putting in,’” Robone said. “He goes ‘Otherwise, you can sue me.’”

According to news articles at the time, the two properties were offered $250,000 each for the name and another $100,000 each to change signage and other marketing materials with the ‘Mirage’ name.

Mayer, generally unconcerned with what was happening in Las Vegas at the time, told the Robones to accept Wynn’s proposal.

Not long after, Robone said he and his wife were having dinner with a cousin and his wife at the Golden Nugget when they spotted Wynn across the dining room. Robone’s cousin convinced him to greet Wynn since the two were generally acquainted.

Robone approached Wynn’s table, introduced himself and received nothing more than a blank stare before the casino mogul finally said, “When are you guys taking down that (expletive) sign?”

The La Mirage casino became Anthony’s Club and Casino while the hotel portion was changed to a Quality Inn.

Created one of Las Vegas’ most-recognizable casino brands

Wynn’s offer solved the legal problem for the two local businesses and made him a fortune in the process. The $500,000 naming-rights investment allowed Wynn to create one of Las Vegas’ most-recognizable casino brands, one that began on Nov. 22, 1989, and lasted until July 17, when The Mirage closed for good.

Members of the Rosoff family owned the property on Las Vegas Boulevard and the physical structure until 1999, when the Glass Pool Inn was sold to developers. The motel was demolished in 2004.

“There’s nothing there (today), and I’m very happy about that,” Rosoff said.

Anthony’s Casino and the Quality Inn eventually became the Key Largo resort, which burned almost entirely in 2013 before it was demolished later that year.

Reflecting on the closure of The Mirage and his family’s connection to it, Robone is not sentimental.

“It’s all pretty interesting,” he said about the current retrospective around the Mirage name. “(But) we all move on and go on to do other things.”