The Making of a Las Vegas Legend

After establishing themselves in the European entertainment landscape, the duo—now professionally known as “Siegfried & Roy”—arrived in Las Vegas in 1967, as a replacement for trapezist Susan Saren in the Tropicana Hotel & Casino’s production of Folies Bergere. During this period, the duo added a second cheetah to their act, Simba, accompanying Chico on stage who, by this point, was himself a seasoned performer. Both animals were used in an illusion in which they were made to seemingly vanish into thin air. After a brief departure, the duo returned to the city in 1970 to join the ensemble of the Stardust Hotel & Casino’s Lido de Paris, alongside a cast of over 100 performers more than “a dozen nations.” It was in the Lido de Paris that the duo began to experiment with their act. During this period, one of their signature illusions was revamped: instead of simply making one of their animals disappear, Siegfried & Roy developed an act in which a cheetah is not only vanished but also seemingly transformed into a man, and vice-versa. After their stint in the Lido de Paris, Siegfried & Roy briefly performed at the MGM Grand Hotel’s Hallelujah Hollywood beginning in April 1974, which they would later cite as their “most stressful situation as a team” and the closest the duo ever came to breaking up. This stress was likely driven by MGM executives reportedly wanting to separate the duo to maximize profit, with Siegfried continuing to perform in Las Vegas while Roy would perform in Reno, simultaneously. This split never occurred.

After Hallelujah Hollywood, Siegfried & Roy returned to Lido de Paris in 1978, this time as the show’s headliners, in a revamped production that saw the duo earn, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, “the largest salary ever paid for a variety act in the state of Nevada.” This multimillion-dollar deal was accompanied by a larger production – more costumes, bigger illusions, a larger cast, and an expanded ensemble of animals. This period also saw them begin relationships with some of their longtime collaborators, including manager Bernie Yuman, executives Irvin and Kenneth Feld, and performers Lynette Chappell and Toney Mitchell.

The duo’s star continued to rise and the beginning of a new decade found them eventually settling into the Frontier Hotel & Casino in 1981, where their newest show, Beyond Belief, premiered to rave reviews. With a production budget of $3 million, Beyond Belief saw Siegfried & Roy reinvent themselves again, this time experimenting with the concept of a “family friendly” show, which seemed to critics and executives to be at odds with the essence and economic history of Las Vegas. Skeptics wondered how Las Vegas could ever hope to profit off of children and families. After a period of deliberation, Siegfried & Roy successfully lobbied executives to designate a Friday evening timeslot of Beyond Belief for families and young audiences, which the duo themselves described as “the single biggest thing [they] did to break out of the mold of Las Vegas.”

By the end of their run at the Frontier Hotel & Casino in June 1988, Siegfried & Roy had fully sold out over 3,000 shows. This end to their legendary Frontier production was spurred by entrepreneur Steve Wynn the year prior. On May 28, 1987, Wynn simultaneously announced his plans to develop a new property on the Las Vegas Strip and his signing of Siegfried & Roy to a lucrative—and unprecedented—contract to perform at the property. This five-year contract was valued at $57 million, which Wynn claimed was the “largest entertainment contract in history” at the time.