Las Vegas Casinos Debunked: Busted Myths and the Legend of the Flying Pink Elephants at Circus Circus

If you are looking to dive deep into the high-stakes world of gaming, Corey Levitan offers an unparalleled perspective. If you are looking to dive deep into the high-stakes world of gaming, Corey Levitan offers an unparalleled perspective that captures the true essence of Las Vegas casinos. Through his expert insights, readers can explore the complex strategies and thrilling atmospheres that define the industrys most iconic destinations.

Welcome to the one Vegas myth we actually helped spread instead of bust.

AI imagines what many claim actually took place at Circus Circus when it opened in 1968. (Image: GROK2)

We Could Point Out…

We could point out that we relied on a very legit source — none other than a daughter of Circus Circus founder Jay Sarno — who swore that, yes, elephants once flew there. We could also point to our unblemished and unprecedented record of busting 130 Las Vegas myths that never had a basis in reality. And we could point out that our story ran for only three days before we corrected it.

But we won’t. Instead, we come to you with our elephant tail between our legs. We apologize not only to those of you we misinformed directly, but also to the 100K people who viewed either the “Miles to Memories” or “Turn It Up World” Las Vegas YouTube vlogs, which talked up our initial story.

When Elephants Fly

“According to some accounts, a short-lived publicity stunt involved baby elephants that were transported around the casino via an overhead tram, giving the illusion that they were flying,” the Wikipedia entry for Circus Circus states about the casino’s earliest days in 1968.

We’ve become pretty good at spotting myths, and this sounded like the surest candidate ever to fly into our crosshairs via an overhead tram.

Wikipedia’s Three Citations

Of Wikipedia’s three citations for its claim, only one asserted that the stunt was a thing that actually happened. (The other two doubted it.) On Feb. 7, 1999, theLas Vegas Review-Journal ran this story about Circus Circus founder Jay Sarno, a modern-day P.T. Barnum, in which reporter Kevin J. Evans casually tossed off the following sentence 25 paragraphs in…

“A live pink elephant ‘flew’ around the casino on sort of an overhead tram.”

This was all he wrote. No elaboration. No kidding.

The Logic Behind the Lie

First of all, even baby elephants seem very heavy to us. So why would any casino owner want to dangle one 80 feet over people they were trying to convert into return customers? Even if Babar didn’t crush any of them to death, being beaned in the head with his plummeting poop doesn’t sound like a fun night out, either.

More importantly, not a single photo is known to exist of this alleged publicity stunt. And there is no such thing as a publicity stunt where photos are not taken — at least not since the dawn of photography. No photos makes this a fraternity prank, not a publicity stunt.

Swing and a Myth

We weren’t the first to try busting this story as a myth. One of Wikipedia’s other two citations was a column by our late friend Robin Leach, the former host of TV’s “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” who spent his final decades as a Las Vegas entertainment reporter.

“Were there flying elephants at Circus Circus back in the day?” Leach headlined this 2011 Las Vegas Sun column. (By the way, if you didn’t read that in a half-screaming British accent, please do yourself a favor and read it again like that. We’ll wait…)

Attention animal rights activists: We are not celebrating how many times this poor wild creature had to be whipped in order to learn to call Keno. We are merely recounting a very different time in entertainment history. (Image: UNLV Special Collections)

The Investigation Continues

Leach had heard Las Vegas author Jack Sheehan tell the story once and, like us, called bullshit on it.

So he checked with Elaine Wynn, who clearly remembered the early days of Circus Circus but no airborne pachyderms, pink or otherwise.

The Search for Truth

Leach then asked his friend at the Las Vegas News Bureau to scour the archives for proof. Darrin Bush found plenty of snapshots of Tanya, the very Earthbound 4,000 lb. Asian elephant who pulled slot handles, shot dice with her trunk, and “called” Keno to the delight of crowds. (Her slot trick was even featured in the 1971 James Bond flick, “Diamonds are Forever.”)

Alas, there were no photos of flying baby elephants, not a one.

The Verdict

“Jack must have heard it as a golf story,” Bush told Leach, who ended his column by asking his readers if any knew the truth.

Leach never followed up, so we assume he didn’t crack the case and moved onto less important matters. (Because all matters are less important than this!) In honor of our old friend, we picked up the ball 13 years later.

Myth Information

We managed to track down the email addresses of all four of Sarno’s children and queried each one about the flying pink elephants.

Unfortunately, none replied, but that didn’t diminish our resolve. We uncovered a 1971 program describing all the acts at Circus Circus. It was the blurb for “The Cage Girls” that caught our attention. It mentioned four go-go dancers who shimmied “while dangling from an aerial tram.”

Hmm. So that establishes the mechanism by which the alleged pink baby elephants allegedly flew. Were we getting closer to the truth, or just piecing together the origin for yet another myth?

The Cage Girls Dangle

Then we found a pre-opening interview with Sarno in which he promised “two little pink elephants you can ride … or pet” at the grand opening on Oct. 18, 1968.

And we learned that month-old baby elephants only weigh about 300-450 lbs. That’s less than the combined weight of The Cage Girls and the clown they shimmied beneath in the photo at left.

The Elephant Truth

Hmm. So the elements were now seemingly in place. Still, without photographic proof of one of the most irresistibly photogenic events ever to have supposedly occurred on this planet, we were solidly on the fence, just like Leach was.

“It sounds too good to be true,” he wrote in 2011, “but in the good ol’ days of Vegas, anything was possible.”

The Truth Revealed

Couldn’t someone have confused The Cage Girls with Sarno’s pink baby elephants while trying to remember what flew above them after they spent too much time at the cocktail bar?

Pink elephants are literally what people see when they hallucinate.

The Final Answer

Heidi Straus, the youngest of Sarno’s children, emailed back.

“It’s real, Corey!” she wrote. “Not sure if the flying elephant was pink, yet quite sure it required a diaper while flying.”

The Verdict is In

But this is where things get interesting.

The Real Story Behind the Flying Pink Elephants of Circus Circus

We had our answer from Mike Hartzell, who worked at Circus Circus for 28 years and knows a thing or two about what went on behind the scenes. “The Flying Elephant didn’t fly,” he said.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we learned that the flying pink elephants of Circus Circus were just a myth. The truth is, there was no flying elephant stunt ever performed at the casino. But what we did learn is that even without photographic proof, it’s often the stories behind the myths that are the most interesting.

Fun Facts

Here are some fun facts about Circus Circus:

• The casino opened in 1968 and has been a staple on the Las Vegas Strip ever since.
• The famous hotel and casino was founded by Jay Sarno, who also built the Riviera Hotel and Casino.
• Circus Circus features an amusement park called Adventureland, which is one of the oldest in the country.

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About the Author

This article was written by Corey Levitan, who is a seasoned writer and researcher.

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