While he was in prison, his brothers, Louis and Frank, opened the Meadows Club, an ahead-of-its-time hotel-casino – with a band stage and elegant furnishings - far from the hustle and bustle of the lowbrow gambling joints on downtown’s Fremont Street. Cornero had done well for himself in the rum-running business in Southern California during Prohibition, but ran afoul of Uncle Sam on bootlegging charges.
He was fresh out of federal prison when Nevada legalized commercial gambling in 1931. Cornero, whose family moved to the United States from northern Italy when he was a child, had a long history in Las Vegas. It would be the crowning achievement he sought following a checkered past in the casino business. Tony Cornero first conceived of the Stardust in the early 1950s. The Stardust was renowned for its neon signage and topless showgirls – and notorious for its underworld connections. One of the Las Vegas Strip’s most iconic casino resorts opened 60 years ago today. It was operated by men associated with Chicago and Cleveland crime syndicates. When it opened in 1958, the Stardust was the largest casino resort in Las Vegas.
