next door, he built another hotel and brought cirque du soleil to las vegas for the first time. strip wasn't just about gambling anymore, and steve wynn was hailed as a visionary. >> i've been given too much credit for that, really. if you look at las vegas in the 1980s, there hadn't been anything built since 1973 new. and so the city was in a time warp. and, as has so often been the case, in the valley of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. >> so you had an idea, and you were king. >> yeah, all of a sudden, i looked like i was a rocket scientist. >> not a rocket scientist but a showman. >> captain of the britannia! ready, aim, fire! [explosions booming] >> when he imploded the old dunes hotel in 1993, the event became a steve wynn extravaganza live on television. [cheers and applause] out of the ashes, he built the bellagio--at the time, the most expensive hotel in the world. he sold the bellagio and mirage resorts in 2000 and pocketed more than $600 million. by then, las vegas was calling itself the entertainment capital of the world. steve wynn is known for his charm, but he