She sailed 1954–2004 and came down in 2006. This is her memorial — nothing here is for sale.

League night, every night

106 LANES

The biggest bowling house in America — seventy lanes on one side, thirty-six on the other, and not one of them ever sleeps. Open 24 hours.

A late-1970s postcard photograph of the Showboat bowling center: rows of molded seating and Brunswick ball returns in the foreground, automatic scoring consoles, overhead monitors, and dozens of lanes receding to the pin decks — The house at rest: Brunswick ball returns, scoring consoles, overhead monitors, and lanes running to the vanishing point. Late 1970s–80s postcard. Photo: Showboat postcard, via UNLV Special Collections (Dennis McBride Photograph Collection) · colour-corrected · In copyright (postcard publisher unidentified) — displayed at the site owner's direction while UNLV permission is requested; removal on request

24lanes when the pins first fell — 1959

106lanes by 1979 — the most in America

40years the PBA Tour called this house home — 1960 to 2000

The front panel of a powder-blue Showboat Lanes matchbook: a black bowling ball and white pin over rays, with Brunswick Automatic Pinsetters, DUdley 2-7575, and 2800 Fremont St. Las Vegas, Nevada — Showboat Lanes on a matchbook: Brunswick Automatic Pinsetters, DUdley 2-7575, 2800 Fremont St. (Front panel; the full matchbook — promising 24 lanes and fun for the entire family — is at the source link.) Photo: Roadsidepictures, via Flickr · CC BY-NC 2.0

Est. 1959 — dial DUdley 2-7575

It started with 24 lanes.

Brunswick automatic pinsetters, a phone number you dialed with letters, and a matchbook promise: fun for the entire family. Twenty years later those 24 lanes had grown to 106.

Banners in the rafters

The tournament house.

A 1990s postcard photograph of the Showboat bowling concourse with colorful tournament banners hanging from the ceiling above tables and chairs, lanes stretching away at right — Tournament banners down the length of the concourse — Worldwide Military Classic, Showboat PBA Invitational. 1990s postcard panel. Photo: Showboat postcard, via UNLV Special Collections (Dennis McBride Photograph Collection) · postcard graphic removed from one corner, digitally reconstructed and enhanced, 2026 · In copyright (postcard publisher unidentified) — displayed at the site owner's direction while UNLV permission is requested; removal on request

The PBA Tour stopped here every year from 1960 to 2000 — for decades the oldest stop on the tour. Weber, Salvino, Anthony: the greats bowled this house, on national television, from our lanes. The banners stayed up all year to prove it. (The telecast runs an hour behind — bowl your qualifying squad, then hurry home and watch yourself do it.)

And your league counted too: bowl it in Los Angeles or Phoenix and win the team trip to Las Vegas — championships under our roof, on us. The fire department rolls here; so do the father‑and‑son leagues and the Montgomery Wards teams. And come the Fourth of July, the High Roller takes the whole house — the richest amateur tournament anywhere: a thousand dollars in, twelve hundred bowlers deep, a small fortune out.

Fight night at the boat

The Sports Pavilion.

ARGUELLO · CHACON
BOZA‑EDWARDS · BENITEZ

Boxing under the big lights, one flight up — plus AWA wrestling and the Thunderbirds roller derby. Bleacher seats, honest prices.

And when the gloves came down for good, the Pavilion dealt a new game: bingo — 1,300 seats, sessions daily.

Shoes at the counter, coffee at the snack bar — and when the graveyard shift lets out across town, the dealers come here to bowl till dawn.