After discovering a collateral shortage on February 5, 1983, the Securities and Exchange Commission closed Bell & Beckwith, Ted Wolfram’s brokerage house. Over five years, Wolfram used non-existent or overvalued collateral to back loans made through margin accounts in Zula’s name. He embezzled $32 million, of which $14.3 million was used to purchase and operate the Landmark. Seven thousand one hundred customers were affected by the scandal.⁶¹ Ted Wolfram was sentenced to a twenty-year prison term.⁶²

Zula Wolfram was forced to surrender her ownership of the Landmark and other assets purchased with the stolen funds to satisfy losses in the case.⁶³ “Spellcaster” was canceled on February 6^th as Zula’s money was used to produce the show. Star Roy Clayborne and twelve other cast members filed a lawsuit seeking $408,000 in lost wages due to breach of contract.⁶⁴ Toledo, Ohio lawyer Patrick McGraw was appointed trustee of the Bell & Beckwith liquidation and the Wolfram’s seized assets.⁶⁵ McGraw began searching for a potential buyer right away.

Businessman William Morris agreed to purchase the Landmark on July 20, 1983.⁶⁶ A local college sports hero, Morris was nicknamed “Wildcat” while attending the University of Nevada, Reno, for bragging about his Las Vegas High School Wildcats football team.⁶⁷ Morris borrowed $7.5 million from Nevada National Bank to finance the initial required payments on a purchase price of $18.4 million: $4.2 million to the trustee, $4.2 million to buy out Passport Travel’s interest, and $10 million to Summa Corp. for outstanding payments from the Wolfram’s purchase.⁶⁸

Gary and Sandy Yelverton sued to prevent the sale to Morris. They were concerned that the deal would leave them out of their interest in the property.⁶⁹ As it turned out, the court found that none of Zula Wolfram’s partners had legal ownership over the Landmark. Wolfram had sold each of them an interest in Mark III Corp. However, it was found that she never transferred ownership of the Landmark from herself to Mark III. Therefore, they only held ownership of an interest in Mark III, while Passport Travel held an interest in the Landmark itself. To complete the sale to Morris and prevent possible damage to the Landmark’s value due to a court struggle, McGraw agreed to pay the Yelvertons a pro-rated amount determined by the court of $69,221.87.⁷⁰

Morris took possession of the Landmark on October 30, 1983. He planned to focus on increasing the convention business since the landmark was across the street from the Las Vegas Convention Center. He said, “The Landmark’s never really been given a fair chance.” Landmark turned its first profit in a decade during Morris’ first month on the job.⁷¹

On December 3, 1983, Morris announced a major renovation for the Landmark. Work began shortly before Christmas and would continue into the spring of 1984. On the inside, the aging rooms were brought up to 1980s standards, the carpet in the casino was replaced, and the coffee shop was remodeled and expanded to accommodate a buffet, previously located in the 27th Floor Sunset Room for brunch only.⁷² The spiral staircase connecting the 27^th and 29^th floors was removed.

The most prominent change was to the building’s exterior. The porte cochère received new lighting with gold stripes containing flash bulbs fanning out from the entrance along the underside of the structure, which curved up along the outer edges. Large silver outriggers, which jutted out to a fine point, latched around the overhang’s outer edge, each with red neon tubes inside. The main entrance was also remodeled for improved access by removing the original vestibule in favor of double-revolving doors. The blue lighting scheme of the tower was changed, as the lights below each window running up the central column were removed, and red neon stripes running up along the sides of each column of windows replaced them. A series of openings running up the tower’s east side were covered. The blue starbursts running up the sides of the exterior elevator shaft were removed, and the neon running along the outer edge of the roof was changed to red. The roof was painted red to match the “L” sign on top. A new casino entrance was added to the east side of the building with large chrome outriggers mirroring the new porte cochère. The exterior windows on the south side of the west corridor were covered as the bingo parlor was expanded, and a video game arcade and a snack bar were added.⁷³ Morris invested $3.5 million of his own money on the renovation.⁷⁴ Morris planned to expand three 15-story towers with 1,500 rooms and a domed family entertainment center.⁷⁵ In 1984, the hotel launched a new advertising campaign called “The NEW Landmark” to combat its negative reputation.

On April 2, 1984, Landmark avoided involvement in a 75-day strike of local unions by agreeing to new contract terms.⁷⁶ Thirty thousand culinary workers, bartenders, stagehands, and musicians’ union members walked out of 50 hotel casinos protesting wages. The strike was estimated to cost the city over $70 million in revenue from tourist traffic and $40 million in gaming revenue. Nearly 900 union workers were jailed during the strike for harassing tourists and disrupting the traffic along Las Vegas Boulevard – a.k.a. “The Strip.” Some even went as far as to plant dynamite bombs in hotel parking lots and pools, threw stink bombs into casinos, and even planted a suitcase full of bees at the MGM Grand.⁷⁷

On December 19, 1984, Landmark hosted an auction benefiting Southern Nevada Memorial Hospital, today’s University Medical Center (UMC). The auction was for the trendy Cabbage Patch Kids dolls. Due to riots at stores for the dolls in 1983, Armored Transport of Nevada Inc., under the direction of branch manager Michael “Cowboy Mike” Gresham, delivered loads of the dolls to the Landmark.

In June 1985, an extensive expansion and renovation were planned for the aging Landmark. The plan called for a new 700-room tower, sportsbook, convention facility, administrative offices, employee facilities, expanded ground-floor restaurants, expanded casino, and conversion of the 27^th floor into suites.⁷⁸ Morris attempted to refinance the property for $59.5 million to fund the project. Local unions protested, insisting that Morris’s record of financial decisions with the hotel proved he would not be able to complete the project. The county granted him the license to build, but the plans eventually fell through.

Later that year, Landmark was issued thirteen misdemeanor citations for failing to comply with fire safety code retrofits. Attorneys challenged the citations, stating they were “too vague.”⁷⁹ Morris tried negotiating a $28 million loan to fix the issue and keep operations going.⁸⁰ He was unsuccessful in securing financing and blamed Patrick McGraw for causing the bank to lose faith in his credit by seeking payment still owed for the sale of the Landmark.⁸¹