03/27/2018
Online bidding will start April 4, 2018. This date is Toni Clark's birthday (deceased), wife of Wilbur Clark. gaming and builder of the Desert Inn Hotel. There are some one of a kind items.
http://munariauctions.hibid.com/lot/39265089/-nue-dans-une-chambre--bridgman
Wilbur Clark was born on December 27, 1908 in Keyesport, Illinois.
He moved to San Diego, California at the age of nineteen, where he worked in a hotel. He also working on gambling ships, where gambling could take place in international waters.
He purchased El Rancho Vegas in 1944. A year later, in 1945, he purchased Monte Carlo Club. In 1946, he sold El Rancho Vegas. With that money, he built the Desert Inn casino in 1947. However, he quickly sold most of his interest to businessman Moe Dalitz, owning only 17.5%.
Moe Dalitz investments in Las Vegas began in the late 1940s with the Desert Inn. When the original builder of the resort, Wilbur Clark, ran out of money, Dalitz and the Cleveland Mayfield Road Gang bailed him out. The casino opened in 1950. Clark remained the public face and frontman of the resort; Dalitz quietly remained in the background as the real owner. He also ran the Stardust Resort & Casino for a time after the death of Tony Cornero. Dalitz owned the Desert Inn until 1967, when he sold it to businessman Howard Hughes. The last casino that Dalitz owned was the Sundance Hotel Casino, later renamed Fitzgerald's, and most recently, The D Las Vegas.
With Allard Roen, Irwin Molasky and Merv Adelson, he founded Paradise Development, a real estate development company in the 1950s Together, they founded the Sunrise Hospital, The Boulevard Mall and the Las Vegas Country Club. Later, they co-founded the La Costa Resort and Spa in Carlsbad, California.
Another business partner was Hank Greenspun, the publisher of the Las Vegas Sun newspaper. He remained the public face of the Desert Inn. In the 1950s, he organized the Tournament of Champions, an annual golf tournament at the Desert Inn Golf Course shown on televised by NBC. He sold his share in 1964.
Later, he developed Wilbur Clark’s Paradise Gardens, located at 4505 South Maryland Parkway, south of the Thomas & Mack Center. He also donated the land on which Guardian Angel Cathedral was built.
He married Toni Clark, born Lena Gaglionese, in 1944. She became a philanthropist and fashion icon, supporting the Las Vegas Philharmonic Orchestra and Nevada Ballet Theatre and being named on the 10 Best Dressed Women in America list by the Fashion Foundation of America in 1958. She died in 2006.
The Wilbur Clark D.I. Road in Las Vegas, Nevada is named in his honor. It was previously known as the Desert Inn Road.
