On August 13^th, Richard Davis asked the court for permission to abandon the property to avoid the high cost of maintaining security. A foreclosure sale was projected to take at least four months.¹ It did take place four months later, on December 5^th. Lloyds Bank of London purchased the Landmark for $20 million when no other bidders came forward.² Lloyds was looking to protect its previous investment and flip the property later rather than have it reduced in price for quick sale. Ralph Engelstad was again present for the sale but did not make an offer.³

Lloyds decided to let things cool down before attempting to sell the property. It remained dark each night, with only its signature “L” sign and twinkling strobe lights on the underside of the dome illuminated. In June 1991, the hotel’s contents were liquidated via an on-site public sale conducted by National Content Liquidators, Inc. Kennedy-Wilson Inc. finally conducted a sealed-bid sale on April 14, 1993; however, no serious buyers came forward.⁴

Landmark did, however, get some use during this time. In November 1992, during the annual COMDEX convention, rivals Microsoft and Lotus arranged to have the tower’s sides covered with 15-story banners advertising their latest products. On September 7th of the same year, over 300 members of the Culinary Union, on strike at the Frontier Hotel, performed a sit-in demonstration, which caused the strip to be shut down for two hours and many arrests by police. To process that many people, the police department took them to the closed Landmark.

After the failed sale attempt, Lloyds approached The Las Vegas Convention and Visitor’s Authority (LVCVA) about purchasing the property in July. The Las Vegas Convention Center wanted to expand its facilities and inadequate parking accommodations. The LVCVA had earlier approved a $55 million bond sale to fund expansion, and they planned to use part of it to purchase the Landmark.⁵ The sale was finalized in September for $16.7 million. A year-long debate followed within the LVCVA about the fate of the aged and run-down hotel. Some wanted to make the necessary repairs and re-open it to house convention attendees or use it as the main office for the LVCVA. Others wanted to demolish the buildings to add 2,000 much-needed parking spaces for the Convention Center. After much protest, it was ultimately decided that the Landmark would be demolished after only three of the fourteen LVCVA board members, Lorraine Hunt, Marilyn Gubler, and Paul Christensen, voted to save the building.⁶

When Martin Scorsese began shooting the movie Casino in 1994, the Landmark’s main entrance exterior was chosen to represent the fictional “Tangiers Hotel and Casino.” Since the interiors were being filmed at the Riviera next door, set dressers had to remodel the front doors and add lights to match the Riviera’s entrance. It was the final time the Landmark’s lights were switched on.

Plans were made for the hotel to be demolished in November 1994. The LVCVA paid $800,000 to contractor Central Environmental Inc. and consultant AB-HAZ Environmental, Inc. to remove asbestos from the facility.⁷ The plans were delayed when the Clark County Health District discovered that not all the asbestos had been removed. LVCVA had to pay an additional $200,000 to remove the remaining material. When a third inspection discovered some floors still contained 90 percent of their original asbestos, LVCVA had to spend another $1 million to clear the property of the toxic insulation material properly.⁸ The removal process had become so complicated that by August of 1995, the LVCVA had given up trying to estimate when the Landmark might be ready for demolition.⁹

Asbestos removal was finally completed in late October ¹⁰, and Controlled Demolition, Inc. (CDI), operated by the Loizeaux family, was hired to complete the demolition. CDI had previously handled the demolition of the Dunes Hotel in 1993 and 1994. No blueprints could be located for the building at the time, so they had to begin by conducting a thorough survey of the site. They claimed that Howard Hughes destroyed the plans after each floor was completed during construction ¹¹; however, we know this to be incorrect, as Hughes purchased the Landmark after construction was completed in 1968.

Once CDI discovered that the tower comprised five separate structures, they decided to take it down using an eccentric load implosion.¹² It is a process by which the load of the structure is shifted strategically from one set of bearing supports to another, causing the structure to buckle under its own weight and fail in a controlled manner. The tower’s first four floors were gutted down to the load-bearing walls with the northwest side exposed, and nearly one hundred pounds of dynamite was inserted. The plan was to cause the north, west, and central structures to fail, causing the tower to sheer in half and fall into its parking lot. The sheering of the other would pull down the remaining half.¹³

On November 7, 1995, at 5:37 a.m., the Landmark was reduced to a pile of rubble in just seventeen seconds.¹⁴ Lorraine Hunt, who had performed at the Landmark as Lauri Perry on its opening night in 1969, was one of three people who pressed the buttons that triggered the demolition.¹⁵ The tower came down as expected, with seven thousand spectators on the streets and even more observing from the surrounding hotels.¹⁶

Director Tim Burton began working on a movie for Warner Brothers in 1995 based on a 1962 trading card series called Mars Attacks!. Upon hearing of the Landmark’s demolition, Burton arranged to film the tower’s demolition for inclusion in the movie. The demolition was delayed several minutes while Burton waited for the sun to rise and provide the desired light.¹⁷ Extras ran from the scene as cameras rolled.

The Landmark (called the Galaxy Hotel) is under construction in the film. As the owner, Art Land, gives a sales pitch to investors inside the tower, spaceships shoot it down. A set of lights inside the 27^th floor was left on during the implosion to indicate this. A pyrotechnic charge was placed at the tower’s base, which went off just before it came down to simulate the alien lasers hitting it; the spaceship was added digitally in post-production. Also added digitally was a large globe crashing through the window as the tower fell over.

A giant billboard was placed in the parking lot advertising the “Galaxy Hotel.” It states features such as over 10,000 luxury suites, a professional-sized sports facility and spa, a five-star restaurant, and a rotating dining room. Landmark did not have any rotating floors ¹⁸ or any of the other amenities listed. It states it is “A Landmark Enterprise.”