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FRANK SINATRA ONCE OWNED THIS HOTEL AND CASINO. BUSINESS HAS BEEN ANYTHING BUT MELODIOUS SINCE.
By DAVID EISEN
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The Cal Neva Resort & Casino sits shuttered now, but in its heyday, it was a beacon for the glitterati. How could it not be? The resort and casino, which straddles the border between Nevada and California, in North Lake Tahoe, was once owned by Frank Sinatra and his rat pack pal, Dean Martin. Even before Sinatra bought the hotel in 1960, it had lore. It’ s said that the actress and Hollywood“ It Girl” of the time, Clara Bow, visited the resort in 1930 and ran up a gambling debt of $ 13,000, which in today’ s money would amount to around $ 250,000. As the tale goes, she refused to pay, claiming that she thought the $ 100 chips she was betting with on blackjack were only 50-cent
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pieces. Her declination became a national scandal.
John F. Kennedy was summered at Cal Neva and, in 1935, an agent for MGM discovered a young talent named Frances Ethel Gumm while she was singing at the resort. Gumm shortly after changed her name to Judy Garland.
Its thread to Hollywood exists still today. The 2018 film“ Bad Times at the El Royale,” starring Jeff Bridges, Jon Hamm and Dakota Johnson, was inspired by the Cal Neva, with set designs built to mimic the famed resort’ s infrastructure.
Unlike Hollywood, however, not everything at the Cal Neva has been glitz and glamor. In fact, many suspect the hotel of being cursed.
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TROUBLE AHEAD Ol’ Blue Eyes divested from the resort starting in the 1960s; from then on, it’ s had a cavalcade of owners, including, at one time, Las Vegas real estate heavyweight Kirk Kerkorian. In 2018, the resort was acquired by Oracle founder Larry Ellison for $ 35 million, before he sold it in 2023 to Denver real estate company McWhinney for an estimated $ 58 million.
Like Hollywood, the drama of the hotel came in its intervening years. In 1985, Cal Neva was acquired by real estate developer Chuck Bluth, who renovated and restored the exterior of the main building back to its original look. But as Lake Tahoe fell out of favor as a gambling mecca, the property
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70 hotelsmag. com Jan / Feb 2026 |