From:

http://www.scripophily.net/starhotoflas.html

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION

Beautifully engraved certificate from the Stardust. Inc. Trustees Participation Certificate issued in 1958. This historic document has an ornate border around it. This item has the printed signatures of the Trustee for Stardust, Inc.

Tony Cornero organized the Stardust Company in 1954. His strategy was to get away from the elegance of the Desert Inn and Sands. He wanted to attract visitors in masses, not just the sophisticated and high rollers. He decided that by charging $5.00 a day for rooms and giving guests $5.00 for gambling, he could turn a profit. Hundreds of shares were sold in the company. The new resort was to be called "Tony Cornero's Starlight" and have its own train stop on the Union Pacific track bordering its rear property line but the train station never materialized.

Cornero envisioned a casino resort that would be the largest in the world with over 1,000 rooms. The plans called for separate bungalow-type sections with each section being named after the planets and a super-motor scooter was to be used to carry guests and tourists around the 40 acre resort.

In July of 1955, Cornero suffered a massive heart attack and died while gambling at the Desert Inn. The unfinished shell sat empty almost two years while the asking price came down.

Moe Dalitz, Allard Roen and their Desert Inn associates took over the Stardust operation for financial backer Jack "The Barber" Factor, with the owner listed as Rella Factor (Jack's wife), for $4.3 million on January 10, 1958. The architecture of the partially completed hotel was chaotic. No one was in clear command.

The design was a collection of individual functions without an overall concept or image. The main building was tilt-up concrete walls, covered with wood roofs, a favored method for warehouse and industrial buildings, buildings designed without architects. The two-story motel wings were post-tensioned concrete slab structures. The already built casino ceiling did not allow for an attic story for surveillance of the gaming tables.

Stockholders/creditors squabbled over funds in Federal Bankruptcy Court. A creditor's committee moved in, throwing the corporation into reorganization proceedings under the National Bankruptcy Act. U.S. District Judge John R. Ross approved the sale of the Stardust to Rella Factor, wife of Jack Factor.