I’ve got an excerpt from At the Sands that you can read at On The Strip:
From the start, the Sands involved several personalities: Jake Freedman, who had arrived in America destitute but by dint of his personality had become a beloved gambling operator and racehorse owner, was its president and public face. Jack Entratter, who had been a part-owner and general manager of New York’s Copacabana nightclub, was in charge of entertainment at the Sands. He was the visionary behind the Copa room, which quickly became the hottest showroom on the Strip—or in the country.
In this excerpt, Schwartz discusses the (to that point) brief history of casino openings on the Las Vegas Strip, the delicate balance between the Sands’s principals, and preparations for the Sands’ own grand opening on December 15, 1952.
Read it all: How the Sands Seduced Guests, Gamblers and the Media – On The Strip