LOST VEGAS: Caesars Magical Empire

A lavish kingdom of dining and magic once greeted visitors to Caesars Palace. Before the center-Strip casino resort built the Colosseum for Celine Dion, the same footprint housed what now feels like a fever dream.

The 66,000 square-foot Caesars Magical Empire required $70 million, 800 tons of steel and more than a year to construct before opening in 1996.

The experience began when guests were “lowered underground” by a fake elevator in which the walls rose while the floor was jolted by pneumatic actuators.

Torch-lit catacombs then led to a series of 10 dining chambers styled as medieval banquet halls. Here, guests were served three-course gourmet meals with unlimited wine and entertained by a wizard who performed comedy, magic and song between courses.

Check out this gloriously kitschy promo film…

After dinner, guests were ushered into two performance venues — a 75-seat theater in the round for close-up magic, and the 150-seat Sultan’s Palace for large-scale stage illusions. Inside one of two themed bars, a ghost piano player took requests for any song ever written.

If you never entered Caesars Magic Empire, yet some of this sounds familiar, that’s probably because designer Gary Goddard partnered with Milt Larsen to bring it to life. Larsen was the magic impresario who built Hollywood’s Magic Castle, a dinner theater experience for magicians that also features separate theaters for closeup magic and illusions, as well as a ghost piano player who takes requests.

It was, in hindsight, a bold attempt to graft a theme‑park attraction onto the Strip’s dining scene. And for a while, it worked. Caesars Magical Empire developed a cult following among visitors who wanted something more than a buffet or a showroom.

Where Did the Magic Go?

Caesars Magical Empire didn’t fail because it was unpopular — it closed in 2002 because the Strip’s corporate economics demanded bigger, more profitable uses of prime real estate than serving only 2,400 guests a day for only $70 each.

The crew of 200 was given notice and the attraction was demolished to make a 4,300-seat home for Celine Dion’s “A New Day” residency, which opened in 2003.

Today, few remember the whimsical, theatrical world that a Strip casino once built just to serve  you dinner with a heaping side of magical kitsch.

“Lost Vegas” is an occasional Casino.org series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history. Click here to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email corey@casino.org.