Siegfried and Roy by Siegfried Fischbacher

It’s less obvious what will happen to the Secret Garden or its inhabitants, which include a few dolphins as well as the cats. The Mirage-the hotel that changed Las Vegas-will vanish from the Strip around the time it turns 35 years old. But Las Vegas is the least sentimental city on Earth, and Hard Rock has already announced plans to reimagine the property, including by building a guitar-shaped hotel like the one it opened in Hollywood, Florida, in 2019.

For a little while longer, the hotel will continue to be marketed as a desert oasis, and its iconic volcano will still erupt. In December 2021, Hard Rock International agreed to pay MGM a little over $1 billion for the right to operate the Mirage, including a three-year license to the name. Now it’s about to reach its sad, instructive conclusion, the way so many modern fables end: with a corporate takeover. It can serve as a testament to the power of lies, including the ones we tell ourselves, or a cautionary tale about fiction’s limits, especially when fact takes the form of a fed-up tiger. Depending on when you enter and exit their story, it’s either triumphant or tragic, surprising or inevitable. They were without question the most famous German magicians performing with a large collection of apex predators. Siegfried & Roy photographed at their residence in Las Vegas, Nevada, 1991 (Mark Seliger / AUGUST)Īt the peak of their particular and possibly extinct brand of celebrity, Siegfried & Roy were arguably the most famous magicians since Houdini.

Siegfried and Roy by Siegfried Fischbacher